The other review seems to have flipped ZX and Omega, so I’m instead going to call them by Richter and Maria because that’ll be easier to reference ingame as the character portraits are unchanged from Richter mode.

I finished the game close to 100%, apart from the map, I’ve killed at least 1 of everything. I’ve also played the Extreme (Old Axe Armor) mode a bit.

First, there’s no sliding or dive kick of any kind and ducking is very limited. Second, characters primarily attack with their swords, with 3 variations, one for attacking regularly, one for attacking while ducking and one for attacking while mid-air. The regular attack’s range is basically punching range. The duck attack has more range and on Maria it hits further than a greatsword. The jump attack doesn’t have much range, but does cover a bigger area. Third, the backdash has been replaced with a really fast forward dash.

On the consideration of game balance: First, it’s all stacked on top of Maria and Richter gets barely anything. Maria has the ability to go through 1 tile gaps and the high jump. (Why the heck Richter has nothing on this regard is really strange) Maria also has a really powerful life-steal per hit, I did a bit of a grind to finish the game, so level 43, I was getting 14 hp back per hit. Managed to heal back to full many times during the more challenging fights, especially through Dracula. Maria being the spell caster, gets a really good mp regen. Richter has crap mp regen there. Movement wise, Maria is nimbler, making for easier dodging of everything and movement through the map.

Second, characters start really strong for the beginning, like, you can go beat Behemoth at level 1 and it’ll be a short fight. And then the characters proceed to barely grow in power with level ups. To give an example here at level 1, Maria’s regular attack hits skeletons for about 25 damage, at level 43 that damage increases to 33. This made it so nothing I had on the Dracula fight hit for more than 60 damage per hit. It took a long time to beat that, if it wasn’t for Maria’s healing I’d be dead halfway through it. And would’ve probably just abandoned the hack then and there. Also, Maria’s regular attack only did 1 point of damage to either form of Dracula and Death

The only problem with the map has been the shortcut bells that can’t be activated. They have some restriction on what can hit them so you can’t snipe them with a skill. That means the regular attacks are actually counting as skills by the game. It’s weird.

So my suggestion to fix it: A better power curve, idk if they keep the same stat growth as Richter mode, but it needs to scale with level more noticeably. This is also true on the Old Axe Armor mode. Increase the attack range of the regular attacks by about 20 to 30%, only Maria’s down attack really had a decent range on it. Give Richter a high jump.