0
0
I rarely do indie game reviews. Not because I dislike indie games, but because there are so many that come out daily that it’s impossible to decide which to review. At The Technovore, we get tons of review offers, but it’s sadly only a lucky few that we can review. One of those is Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade.
Prior to getting the review offer, I had no idea about the game. I believe I saw it in passing during one of Steam’s events that showcased upcoming titles, but I didn’t really pay much attention to it.
Perhaps that was a mistake, as Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade might be from humble roots, but its production quality isn’t one you’d have expected from most indie studios.
Does that make it a good game though?
What is Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade?
Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is a 3D isometric roguelite action title. It is developed by 7QUARK with joint publishing duties alongside Game Source Entertainment. The game is available from May 15 2025 on the PC, Playstation and Xbox consoles and the Nintendo Switch.
Our review copies were provided by the awesome folks at 7QUARK! Thanks so much!
Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is set in a fictional version of Edo Japan, during a time when humans and demons lived together. Not in harmony per se (as the humans fear and hate the demons) but in a wary peace. Some demons (such as Taketora) even live among humans.
That is until the Nine Tailed Demon came along and stirred everything up.
The story branches off at this point, depending on which of the three playable characters you choose.
Shigure’s plotline initially deals with finding out the whereabouts of her missing master. Saya wants to reclaim her position with the Yomi so she sets out to capture the Okami. Taketora’s plot has him going up against the demon invasion to restore peace to the kingdom.
You’d think that this means the three stories are intertwined. I thought so too. All of them feature the same settings and certain characters.
However, each of them is subtly different in each.
For example, in Saya’s story, Shigure calls her master her father. In Taketora’s, she calls him grandfather. In her own story, she addresses him as master. There are other minor differences too – some bosses have different names (such as the Komainu bosses) and different backstories. All this adds to the head scratching nature of it all.
To be honest, I’m supremely confused by all of this.
I don’t know whether it’s intentional (I have to assume it is), but with all the similarities, yet minute differences, it feels like we have a multiverse thing going on here.
Confusing storylines aside, the game plays a lot like Hades. While you have three different characters with somewhat different playstyles, the core gameplay (dashing around and hitting stuff) feels remarkably familiar.
Each run is broken up into different sections; regular stages and boss fights. The regular stages have you killing everything in the stages to progress to the next one, with a boss at the end of an area. Once you beat the boss, you get a breather in the form of a rest area where you can heal, attempt optional challenges, buy items and buffs.
At the end of each stage (whether it’s a regular or boss one), you get a Soul Orb, souls (which are used for permanent character and weapon upgrades), a weapon part (needed along with souls to upgrade weapons) some money (which can be spent to buy items) and sometimes, health replenishing items.
When you die, you get sent back to the beginning, with the ability to improve your core skills and weapons before you try to run the gauntlet again. Unfortunately, the stages aren’t randomized or have different layouts. You’ll be running through the same stages, fighting the same enemy placements for the whole game.
Regular stages also have a cat shrine hidden somewhere in them.
These shrines have random gifts and potentially, a Cat god. These square felines are super cute and I wished they played a bigger role in the game. They just appear for a few seconds on the load screen or when you activate a cat shrine. As a cat lover, this makes me sad. More cats is always a good thing.
The Soul Orbs are your skill modifiers. Like any good roguelite, skills can make or break your runs. Here the skills increase your weapon attacks or add modifiers (such as a damaging dash or a healing skill). You’re given three choices with every Soul Orb you get.
However, unlike most games of the genre, you’re unable to reroll the choices, which can result in some unfair runs where the only skills you can choose from don’t synergize with your weapons or playstyle at all.
Speaking of playstyles, each of the three playable characters has different styles. Shigure is average in all aspects, Saya is fast but her attacks lack bite and Taketora is your bruiser, who also doubles as your ranged attacker.
Taketora feels unique but personally, I feel that Shigure and Saya play too similarly because their core gameplay loop is just dashing in, slashing around and then dashing out of danger. Meanwhile, Taketora can do the same or utilize his ranged attacks for a keep-away gameplay experience.
I do feel however, that Taketora being the sole ranged character puts him in the overpowered category.
A good player can basically kite everything in the game and barely get hit. During the fight with the Nine Tailed Demon (the final boss), I just ran around the arena shooting at the boss instead of engaging him in close combat. I barely got tagged as a result.
No matter who you play as though, the core gameplay techniques remain the same. You get a light and heavy attack, a dash and a parry. When you parry certain attacks (denoted by an orange circle), the parried enemy is stunned and open to attack.
However, you also get access to another new situational attack called a Mystic Arte, which can only be used immediately after a parry by hitting the same button. Mystic Artes (there are two variations for each character – a regular version and a more powerful charged one) are incredibly powerful and can hit multiple enemies at once.
They’re super cool to look at, and can turn the tide of a battle if done right…but they leave your characters exposed. I honestly don’t agree with this design choice at all.
You go through the trouble of parrying (which already is a risky proposition, as the timing to pull one off is very tight) and then using the skill and you can still get damaged?
I assume it’s to implement a risk/ reward system, but all it does is punishes good players. Some Mystic Artes (like Taketora’s charged version) leaves your characters immobile as you attack, which means that any enemy not stunned when you trigger it can get free hits in and interrupt your attack.
It’s infuriating because on the harder difficulties enemies swarm you relentlessly and have a ton of HP…which makes the Mystic Artes one of the best ways to beat them. It’s a step forward and three steps back.
Honestly, it’s a blemish on an otherwise fun (though basic) combat system.
The moves feel weighty and have impact to them, so everything feels nice and crunchy when you connect. If you have a good sound system, Taketora’s melee attacks (which have a really satisfying ‘whomp’ sound to them) sound as impactful as they look…which is super cool.
Weirdly enough, you can’t play as the characters interchangeably. You need to start a separate save file for each.
I played the game on the desktop gaming rig (on 4K), on the ROG Ally X (1080p) and on the Nintendo Switch (docked and undocked). I had a superb experience on every platform. There’s not a lot visually going on with the game, so it’s not like it’s hardware intensive, but it’s still nice to have a smooth framerate on everything I tried the game on.
It’s a bit of a letdown visually on the PC as there’s no visual settings to tweak (other than the presets) and I was hoping that PC gamers would’ve access to some extra eye candy like Ray Tracing or DLSS. Nope, nothing.
The art design is rather good so it’s not too big of a deal. I guess visual parity is what the developers are going for in this case. I mean, apart from the sharper visuals on my 4K display, the game looks similar in action on the ROG Ally X and the Nintendo Switch.
The Bottom Line.
Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade is a decent experience if you’re looking for a roguelite to fill the void that Hades and Hades 2 left behind. It has a decent story, three different characters to play as, an enjoyable battle system and decent visuals.
The game does have its issues unfortunately.
The plot is confusing, the three characters are pretty similar and the battle system can be punishing on latter difficulties.
Does that mean you should skip it? Perhaps. If you’ve got something more engaging calling for your attention, then by all means, shelve Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade for the moment. If you’re in the midst of a lull between games (or you need something to fill that Hades shaped void in you), then give the game a spin.
It’s certainly a more than worthy diversion.
TLDR:
A decent roguelite with neat visuals, but a confusing plot and iffy gameplay design choices hold it back from being a must play.
The Good:
- Satisfying combat.
- Three characters to choose from.
- Great sound effects.
- Nice art design.
- Stable performance on every platform tried.
The Bad:
- No way to reroll Soul Orb skills.
- Characters play too similarly.
- Confusing plot.
- Questionable gameplay mechanics.
- Stages and enemy placement are static.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
You must be logged in to post a comment.