Severed Reviews
A beautiful throwback that's just a touch too shallow.
Severed is at its best when it features short, tactical fights in its eerily beautiful dungeons, but those battles largely lose their appeal by the second half. Combat becomes tedious due to boring buffs instead of introducing new ideas in order to make battles more challenging. That blow to the combat’s longevity wouldn’t have felt so bad if exploring the bizarre world weren’t so tedious.
Drinkbox Studios' Severed is a touch-based action RPG with an interesting premise, incredible visuals, and fun gameplay that simply overstays its welcome a little.
Even after I completed the final challenge of the story, I couldn’t wait to dive back in
Severed's terrific mechanics are as universal as its moving story
Severed's distinct look and touchscreen controls make it more than your average dungeon crawler.
Despite the fact that the PlayStation Vita’s low install base could potentially hinder Severed‘s success, DrinkBox’s gamble on Sony’s struggling handheld will likely pay off.
Drinkbox Studios has another masterpiece to add to its portfolio. With a fantastic atmosphere, a unique combat system that never gets tedious and a perfect difficulty curve, SEVERED is a must-play for Wii U owners. Unlike so many titles where touch controls are shoehorned in, this game makes using the stylus feel perfectly natural. A few frustrating elements are only slight scratches on this feverishly enjoyable experience. This should be fun for anyone, unless you dislike Metroidvania games, corridor action-adventure, and excellent combat.
Severed takes a gimmick in touch-based combat and actually manages to successfully wrap an entertaining game around it. The eerie, ambiguous, yet beautiful, world helps but I found that enough new aspects were added to the combat to keep it interesting until the very end. If this is the Vita’s swansong then it’s going out on a wonderful note.
A fantastically strange and unique first person adventure that manages to make touchscreen controls seem fresh and interesting again.
When that's the worst I can come up with, it's clear to me that DrinkBox Studios knocked it out of the park. I'm glad the team took its time.
Across Severed’s seven or so hours, you get to experience some of the best touch screen gaming around. DrinkBox Studios have created a great game here with an engaging battle system and art style. It can feel a bit too minimalist in its design, and there’s much repetition in the environments, but DrinkBox Studios have created a great game with an engaging battle system and art style. If you own a Vita, Severed is worth getting.
Overall, Severed does a lot of good with its excellent and challenging combat, intricate dungeon maps full of collectibles, unique and visceral upgrade system, and a fantastic presentation. Its biggest shortcoming is its lack of opportunities to engage with its world and Sasha’s history, but with everything that works so well about the game, I can mostly forgive this slight. My roughly nine-hour experience was a great joy, filled with memorable sights, sounds, and (physical) touches. Maybe, like Okami for Playstation 2, it will be the console’s swan song, but it is hard to discredit a unique experience like this one purely for coming to the party so late.
Severed is an interesting mix between the exploration of classic dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master and a combat system inspired by recent mobile games like Fruit Ninja and Infinity Blade. A good way to add more value to your PS Vita. The game is maybe just a bit too hard.
Review in Italian | Read full review
It’s a shame that Severed came so late in the Vita’s life cycle, because it had me wondering whether or not more games like it could have saved the system. That’s just wishful thinking, of course, so it’ll just have to remain what it is: an incredible eleventh-hour treat for fans who have invested their time and money into the handheld. If you enjoyed Guacamelee!, you’ll find a lot of what you loved in that game has returned. Vibrant colors with a unique “diorama” artstyle really pop off the screen, and its inventive gameplay successfully combines touch-twitch antics and old-fashioned role playing. There may not be enough reasons to shell out for a Vita now, but if there had been more content like this arriving alongside the system back in 2012, we might have seen a very different fate for Sony’s second portable.
DrinkBox has succeeded in not only making a fantastic game, but also making the PlayStation Vita relevant again in a time where most have left it for dead. Severed is the call to all gamers to dig out their dusty Vitas once more, as the neglected handheld has quietly acquired one of the must-have games of 2016.
[D]espite all odds, [Drinkbox Studios has] managed to craft a title featuring a fantastic world that begs to be explored, and a combat engine that’s intuitive and the finest use of touch controls since Tearaway. It’s simply the best title to come out for the Vita in some time, and one worth adding to the library of every Vita owner.
There are few titles more deserving of being called one of the truly essential experiences for the Vita than Severed. If you own the latest PlayStation handheld, do yourself a favor and pick this up: you won't regret it.
It’s a beautiful game that needs to be seen, and every single aspect has been designed with care.
A grim and foreboding fairytale liberally swathed in colourful style, Severed masterfully combines touch screen combat, metroidvania game design and hugely satisfying character progression to make the most essential PS Vita title to date. Severed is quite simply a handheld tour de force without equal.