Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
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Critic Reviews for Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
All told, Shiness is an uneven adventure, but one I'm glad I undertook. While it's too ambitious for its own good, deep down, and despite some hard-to-overlook faults, you can just sense that this was a passion project. I'm not sure if Enigami will get to make a sequel, but if it does, I'd be up for it.
Enigami's attempt to craft a full Action-RPG experience as an indie developer deserves praise, and, visually at least, it comes close to aping its peers. However, a meaningless story, awful dialogue, irritating combat and an utter lack of pace sees it come up short in every other area that matters.
A great RPG and a remarkable beat'em up that sometimes is too ugly for being excellent due its indie (and low cost) roots.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Shiness doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, and its style and execution are designed to evoke memories of your gaming past. Come for the pretty world, stay for the fast, if slightly messy combat.
While creativity should be appreciated and rewarded in the gaming industry, and a very interesting world has been put on display here, the rest of the game is just not up to snuff. Shiness may be worth checking out for those who are yearning for more fantastical worlds to explore and the return of PS2-era style RPGs, as it certainly scratched that itch for me. but others should carefully consider their purchase before joining Chado on his grand adventure.
I can certainly do without these bugs, but they're not enough of a deterrent to keep me from finishing this fun-filled action adventure. I'm just glad that I discovered the game at all because Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom has managed to fly its virtual airship under the radar until now.
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is the product of a small team trying to do too much and, ultimately, falling flat. It pains me to say it, because I saw the potential in Shiness way back when it was a fledgling Kickstarter upstart, but this is one of the worst gaming experiences I've had in a long time and I cannot recommend it to anyone that likes fun.
An indie adventure with far Eastern inspirations that does a great job of masquerading as a big budget spectacular, Shiness will delight those looking for a fix of action RPG goodness with one eye on the classics of yore.