Two review from Chinese player on Baidu, one is a streamer
- Cleared the game on normal difficulty; it's extremely hard to even reach the first boss on the hardest difficulty.
- Tried out all the weapons: there's the Black Wound, Long Black Wound, Longsword, Greatsword, Twin Rings, White Python and Red Chain, Soft Sword.
- Shadow Armaments include a large axe (used to break the door to the first boss, the fat guy), a bow, the spinning sword from the previous PV, a fire-breathing lion head, and a giant hammer (given after beating the fat guy, needed to progress the story).
- All the weapons look awesome, animations and combat flow are top-notch, with tons of execution moves, each with unique features. The Greatsword execution decapitates (though the head doesn't actually fall off), Twin Rings allow ranged executions and dodging turns into teleporting, Soft Sword can block ranged attacks and "Senior Brother's" silk threads with R2 + □, Long Black Wound has crazy reach and can hit from far away.
- The spinning sword Shadow Armament has powerful AOE; the axe has high stagger damage; the lion head also has good AOE but needs continuous casting.
- On normal difficulty, blocking is very rewarding; perfect blocks are great too. On hardest difficulty, perfect blocking effectively breaks enemy posture. Compared to normal, attacking to break enemy posture is noticeably harder on hard mode. Defensive play in rhythm with enemy attacks is very rewarding. Perfect blocks are best, but even regular blocks don't cause excessive posture (stamina) loss if you're not spamming it.
- Feels like the game could give more mechanical incentive for attacking—right now the rewards for precise red/blue light reactions might be a bit too high? (Just nitpicking though—it's already really well done.)
- In terms of difficulty, hardest is just right for me; normal is too easy. Map exploration isn't super clear, but the enemy combinations (ranged/melee) are pretty well-designed.
- Trash mobs include weaker versions of junior brothers, dual-wielders, mounted enemies, archers, heavy crossbowmen, war hawks, spearmen. There's even a small elite with wooden arm transformation. Seems like there might be enemy factions among the mobs—not sure if that's just me. The variety of mobs is decent, though I might have missed some.
- There's a passage that can only be opened with the giant hammer, but it's too far away once you get it, so I didn't go back to break it—no idea what's behind it.
- No sign of a character growth/progression system yet, which is important. Hope the devs handle it well.
- There's a miniboss, a red-clad female swordswoman, on the way. You can skip her. If you don't fight her, during Senior Brother's second phase, they'll tag-team you and she heals him. If she's dead, Senior Brother goes berserk and changes moves. I think most players know this by now.
- Personally feel the weapon hit sound effects are a bit quiet. The difference in sound between weapons is well-done, but overall the sounds could be crisper and louder—it'd feel even better.
- Compared to normal, enemy health doesn't seem different on hardest difficulty, but posture bars are much harder to break. In normal mode, posture can be broken easily with attacks; in hard mode, it takes a long time and needs more perfect blocks and dodges. Perfect block's effect on posture seems unchanged on hardest difficulty.
- Boss patterns change on hardest difficulty. The fat guy's first move is always a hammer strike followed by a sand throw and red light in normal mode. On hardest, he might follow the sand with other moves. Also, he rarely uses blue light attacks in normal mode but uses them a lot more in hardest. Haven't reached the Seven Star Formation boss yet on hardest.
- Can't invert Y-axis on-site, which is super frustrating.
- In terms of combat presentation, the game uses a lot of execution and defensive animations (arguably the best defense mechanics in gaming—360° blocking), making the combat some of the best in the world (feels like an undisputed No.1 right now). It's super satisfying and rewarding.
- Edge protection is great—you won't fall to your death during dodges in combat.
- Some hopes/expectations:
- First, really hope the character growth system is well-developed—it's still unclear right now.
- Second, hope the bosses are more mechanically differentiated. Concerned they might all just rely on red/blue light reaction timing. So far, although Seven Star Formation and Fat Paul's predecessor "Wasteland Walker" seem quite different, the playstyle is still mostly timing defense and dodges. Hoping future bosses vary more in their mechanics.
- Rounding it out—voice acting is great.
Streamer
The streamer played on PC with a controller, chose medium difficulty, and still couldn't beat Senior Brother and Senior Sister despite giving it their all. The game does have a bit of a learning curve. The right shoulder button for dodging felt really unintuitive, and the streamer got killed by basic mobs twice early on. But once they got used to the combat mechanics, it started to feel much smoother and more enjoyable.
First, the cons:
- The streamer experienced one crash. Upon logging back in, they respawned at the bonfire, but all the items they'd picked up were gone. This left them with no boosts for the final boss fight.
- Often you get ganged up on by two or three mobs at once. While attacking one, it's easy to get hit in the back with a red attack, and there's no time to react and block. Feels pretty punishing.
- There are some low ledges that you still can't jump over because of invisible walls, which really breaks immersion.
- Aside from the art design of Senior Brother, nothing else really wowed me visually. The level design is also quite plain—you can reach the boss without much thought or exploration.
- There are thread indicators near bonfires, but they're not very clear. Could be improved for better guidance.
- While the map is unique, the "A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains" style background doesn't match well with the UI—it feels a bit jarring. Needs better visual integration.
- □ (Square), △ (Triangle), and blocking are overly rewarding, which makes weapon skills and secondary weapons feel underused. Their importance could be raised.
- This is the biggest issue: when comboing with △ and □, the transitions between moves are very unclear. Even after the demo session, the streamer couldn't tell much difference between the combo stages—it's hard to grasp the rhythm or logic of the chains.
Now for the pleasant surprises that exceeded expectations
- The protagonist isn't mute! They're fully voiced during story dialogues—and sound super cool! In some moments, the character also gives internal monologue cues to guide the player on what to do next. For example, the protagonist told me to skip fighting Senior Sister—I listened, and in the final boss fight it became a dual boss battle... and I couldn't win.
- Amazing combat feel! The sound design is incredibly satisfying—those metal clanging sounds are rich and immersive. Even the basic enemies can block your attacks, which makes the combat feel much more dynamic and different from any other game I've played. It's hands-down the best combat feedback I've experienced.
- Moving up and down stairs is super smooth. You can even interact with ladders from the back, triggering a slick vaulting animation.0
- The music is phenomenal.
- The demo is extremely well optimized. I didn't experience any serious frame drops—aside from that one crash.
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Con này mà lại thằng Sony phát hành thì kểu gì cũng ban đông lào 
