Review: Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade (Nintendo Switch)
I’ve developed a stronger appreciation for roguelites over the past few years. That’s why I appreciate Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade, a top-down, isometric action RPG from Game Source Entertainment. I just wish I liked it a bit more, too. That’s not to say Yasha isn’t a good game. It is. But it leans a bit too heavily towards the grind.
This is partly because of the way the game handles its three available protagonists from which you choose at the start. There’s Shigure, a human ninja armed with a sword. There’s Sara, a smaller, demon-like lady who specializes in dual daggers. Finally, there’s Taketora, a big tiger-guy who uses a bow and his fists for equal effect. This range of characters does a good job of changing your strategies as you play, but you can’t just swap them in and out at will. Rather, they all must be played separately from the start. This forces you to fight the same battles multiple times if you want to play as everyone.
The redundancy is alleviated somewhat by the characters getting their own storylines. They meet the same people and visit the same locations, but the interactions differ. Playing through as someone else isn’t necessary, though; no bits of missing information are revealed with character. You just get a different take on the proceedings.
And what are those proceedings? In the Edo period of Japan, humans and demons live amongst each other somewhat peacefully until the ruler of the demons—the Nine-Tailed Fox—decides he’s had just about enough of that. Evil spirits are now popping up everywhere, and it’s up to Shigure, Sara, or Taketora to clear them out.
They’ll do so by engaging in some pretty slick combat. No matter which hero you choose, you’ll get your basic and heavy attacks (and various combos thereof), you’ll get a dash attack, and you’ll get your parry. The latter is the big one, allowing you to unleash heavy damage if you’re able to time it correctly. Pulling that off is tough, though. A visual indicator will flash on the screen when you can do so, but it’s gone very quickly, making it hard to react. You can also load up your parry so you just have to release the button at the right time, but you can take hits while waiting. Of course, you can’t expect to progress far without mastering this, as evidenced by the first boss battle.
Each run is split into three levels that end with a boss fight. You then reach a village where you get some story progression and can level up your items and abilities. If you die, you’re reincarnated at that level’s starting village to see what you can do and forge to be better.
As you’d expect, leveling up and learning the boss’ attack patterns are key to progression, but you’ll be sent back quite often even if you are pretty good at the parry. And any progression you make as one character doesn’t carry over to the others, furthering the repetition of the game loop.
A couple of features do help to alleviate the repetition. First, there are hidden levels and yokai festivals that you can use to gain items and level up your character. Second, all of the levels are gorgeously designed. Perhaps I’m just a sucker for Edo era visuals and audio, but I was really taken in by Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade’s graphics and soundtrack. I found them to be peaceful and calming despite the gameplay’s general chaos.
It’s also worth reinforcing that the gameplay is tight. The animation is very smooth, and the game’s controls are easy to master. Timing those parries is difficult throughout, but it’s easy to push through the early portions of each section when you don’t need to rely on them as much.
Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade ends up being a fun entry for those who enjoy action RPGs and/or the challenge of roguelites, but not so fun that you’ll want to play through it as all three characters. I recommend taking on a few levels with each, determining your favorite, then pushing through with just that person. One trip to the end will likely be enough.
