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.
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.
Likable characters, exciting battle mechanics, and interesting colorful locales kept me engaged throughout my roughly 25 hours with the game. It doesn't set a new bar in any of its many disciplines but it's clear a lot of care and love has gone into Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom and the team at Enigami should be proud of what they've accomplished. They've built a solid little budget RPG.
While not perfect, Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is fairly impressive to look at. It has a beautiful and intriguing world, so it's a bit of a shame that you don't get to learn more of the history behind it. Still, there's a tough but fun battle system to get to grips with and plenty of puzzles to solve. If you prefer your RPGs to be more relaxed and serene then you may struggle with this one, as the fast-paced combat system means that button mashing your way through it will quickly lead to the game over screen. But for as much as we enjoyed our time on Mahera, a poor combat camera and plethora of bugs let it down – here's hoping for a quick patch.
The term so close, yet so far away fits perfectly here. I adore so much of what this game does, but the combat becomes its Achilles Heel. With some tweaking this could easily be a franchise action RPG I would gladly play every few years. As it sits now, the frustration kept me from enjoying the best parts of Shiness and its world.
