As I whip my means throughLysfanga : The Time Shift Warrior , creating copies of myself to take down bowl full of foeman , I realize that the indie title might just be the ultimate power phantasy . Who has n’t wished that they could clone themselves just to get more done in a day ?
That question transforms into an clever gameplay loop topology in the debut form of address from Sand Door Studio . The mythical adventure fuses hack - and - trounce scrap with a unparalleled cloning hooking that plough an otherwise canonical top - down action mechanism secret plan into a tactical puzzler . Though that million - dollar sign estimate is stretched thin over a long and thudding story , Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warrioris the form of innovative title that ’s certain to cue you why the independent gaming scene is so exciting .
Army of me
Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warriorhas players controlling the titular Lysfanga , who sets out on an adventure to save the realm of Antala from a vaguely villainous villain . Storytelling is n’t exactly a strong suit here ; it ’s a traditional knowledge - laborious story full of proper nouns that all blur together over a mythology - heavy , eight hours . I can feel the deoxyribonucleic acid offranchises like Prince of Persiahere , but Sand Door spends a scrap too much time meticulously establishing every detail of its time - bending fantasy macrocosm without say much about it .
It ’s the form of system that ’s sure to wow first - time player .
Its more satisfying attracter lies in its one - of - a - kind combat winding . Every time Lysfanga enters an arena , she only has a short amount of fourth dimension where she can endeavor to belt down every enemy ( Raxes , as they ’re called ) in the way . It ’s virtually impossible , but that ’s where fourth dimension shenanigans ingeniously derive into fun . Lysfanga can produce clones of herself , dub Remnants . Every time the clock run out , players hold in a new Remnant who moves through the room in tandem with all old dead ringer . With heedful planning and executing , I can clear out a room full of 20 Raxes in a single grommet .
Similar tojaw - drop indies likeViewfinder , it ’s the variety of system that ’s sure to wow first - time players . received action encounters flex into full - on puzzles as I attempt to plan out the perfect route so I can kill every enemy as fast as potential . Perhaps I ’ll utilise one spirit take in out every Raxes on the right wing , while using my next one to bump off a buirdly enemy in the middle with a indictable ultimate attack . Each arena is its own small logical system problem as I only have a modified amount of clones I can use in each .
Sand Door has a wad of fun intellection about how that idea can castrate combat . One rough-cut opposition carry a gargantuan shield that ’s strong to get around . To shoot down it , I demand to distract it from the front on one run and then employ a second Remnant to thrash about it from behind while it ’s focussed on my clone . To take down another enemy type , I need to kill two link Raxes at the same mo . That ask careful planning as I work in tandem bicycle with my previous run . Ideas like that giveLysfangathe form of wildly creative action hook that ’s deserving checking out .
What I especially have sex about it is how it functions within an otherwise bland storey . Lysfanga is a lone hero have the weight of a kingdom on her back . It ’s another impossible task that one person plainly ca n’t do alone . The Remnant system modishly reinforces that thought by turning her into a temporally gifted army of one . It ’s only when I see a twelve Remnants running around the projection screen , expeditiously wiping out a host of monsters with dance - like synchronization , that I really realise how much games require of their heroes . How cansomeone like Zagreuspossibly be expected to take out hundreds of devil in one go?Lysfangaalmost bit as a clever deconstruction of that idea .
Stretched thin
Though the armed combat come-on is exceptional , it is stretched thin over a astonishingly robust adventure . Lysfangatakes players through three deed over its eight - hour run , while explore several collectable - replete biome . Sand Door hit the right balance of action and exploration here , pepper in just enough hidden treasure without ever distract too long from the scrap arenas . Each fighting area also has a specific time to beat , which offers some great motivator to strain battles again and concoct the perfect ravel . Every bit of extra content here is as carefully see as Lysfanga herself when plotting out an sphere secret plan plan .
Arena twists are fw and far between …
The indie contend more in trying to keep the win time loop-the-loop idea fresh throughout . The core fighting is a little one - note , as I ’m largely spamming two buttons to belt out out repetitive combos . Lysfanga gets three weapons by the end of the journey , but none of them feel awfully trenchant from one another . They all approximately find equal in ability and orbit , even a slightly weaker chakram that is meant to help thin out dense enemy herd .
Arena braid are few and far between too , which is a ignominy because there are some strong ideas here . Some arenas feature two set of colored doors . Moving through one locks that color and opens up the other set . That require some thrifty planning on my part , as each Remnant I post out will flip that door and potentially mess up my path . A twain of impregnable ideas , like infix enemies that need to be killed with a specific weapon , come in the very final field . There ’s not much time for Sand Door to compound its twirl like a big puzzle game unremarkably would .
I chalk up a lot ofLysfanga ’s quirks to a very hopeful first - time studio getting a trivial overeager . There ’s another world out there where this releases as a brusk military action secret plan that strike the same odoriferous spot that publisherDevolver Digital ’s catalogoften nail . I ca n’t blame a studio for drive for the sky and delivering something more than a great substantiation of concept , though perhaps a small team this raw would have to clone itself to nab such an challenging introduction .
Those review article feel small in the grand scheme of an impressive indie though , like one thread Remnant moving out of stride among a twelve skilled warriors . Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warrioris the sort of fresh idea that unfeignedly shakes up a cold musical genre . I do n’t look something as new as this to be stark on its first outing ; I want to see developers learn from these ideas and put their own twirl on them . first-class game come from reiterative cooperation . I saluteLysfangafor being the first soldier on the personal line of credit , leading the charge .
Lysfanga : The Time Shift Warriorwas reviewed on PC and Steam Deck .
