Severed Reviews
Severed on Nintendo Switch is not the best way to play the game.
A valiant attempt at creating a touch screen-based action experience with real depth, Severed struts confidently for four or five hours – before ultimately devolving into the same old swipe-fest that it seems to detest. Still, this is a wonderfully presented experience, with a mystifying world and some intelligent level design. If you're the kind of person who appreciates tailored Vita titles, then you'll more than get your money's worth here. It's just a shame that the studio fails to cut the foray off before it gets stale.
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.
Severed is a game that benefits from hindsight, when all of the longueurs are forgotten and only the highlights remain. Those willing to put up with a bit of tedium and a high price point will find Severed to be a unique and memorable experience. Whether or not it's worth putting up with its shortcomings for the sake of the experience will differ from person to person, but with its vibrant presentation and interesting mechanics, this comes with a hearty recommendation for those looking for something a bit different.
Severed is a story about love. A girl’s love of her family and Drinkbox’s love for Vita. Repetitive combat and a tough difficulty spike limit the enjoyment, but there’s no reason every Vita owner shouldn’t at least give it a go.
Severed is a simple and quick-to-learn game that puts the players at the centre of a rather harsh story that is further advanced by its visuals and navigation. While there certainly is room for improvement in the way the story is presented and on the level of interaction with the Wii U's potential, fans of dungeon-crawler types will find plenty of assets in Sasha's adventure to be reunited with her family.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
You have to commend Severed for using the Vita's touchscreen heavily for its gameplay. And while that use of the system works and is mostly enjoyable, it's not always entertaining.
Vita owners thirsty for new titles will rightly give an arm and a leg for this one, but they should know ahead of time that it can be hard on the ol' swipin' appendages.
Severed is well worth the cost of admission and provides a unique experience that’s hard to find. If you’re a Wii U only video gamer, I strongly urge you to pick this title up. Just know that Severed also has flaws that made the experience less enjoyable for me. Most notably the repetitive combat and tedious exploration that wears on you after the first half of game. If the story was deeper, if the world had more life to it, I think these issues wouldn’t have been as memorable.
Severed is a worthwhile dungeon exploration experience.
Although not perfect, Severed is an enchanting title, an amazing, merge between a Metroidvania and a good old traditional Dungeon-RPG. Behind its minimalist aspect hides an original title, with a great soundtrack that makes you forget the game’s flaws.
It’s a fun, simple, good looking game with a surprisingly deep combat system. That said, there isn’t much more to the game besides the occasional dungeon puzzles so if you’re hungry for more, this game might not be for you. If you have the patience for repeated battles while dungeon crawling, then it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to find yourself burning hours just swiping at your screen.
It seems somewhat amazing that Severed exists at all, given the lack of support for the Vita in the west outside of cross platform indie games. It stumbles in a few places, like lack of variety in its enemies, yet the combat system itself is a refreshing take on first person dungeon crawler combat and one of the few fantastic uses of the Vita’s touch screen. It’s a pretty great game and definitely worth dusting off your Vita for.
Severed is a viciously fun action game, with clever dungeons and awesome combat.
Given its brevity, you may dismiss Severed as a game for a rainy, bored day, but don’t. This is one of only a handful of must-plays in the Nintendo Switch library.
Drenched in a fluorescent colour scheme, Severed, with its intricately designed dungeons, will linger in your memory for a long time to come. There is a chance that, like me, you may tire from the relentless battles, but see it through to its conclusion and you will soon realise that it was all worth it.
No mistakes about it, Severed is the first must own PS Vita title that’s come out in quite some time and if you’re a fan of Drinkbox or simply a fan of fun at all, Severed absolutely deserves a place in your library.
Severed is a dark and surreal game that, while somewhat repetitive in its gameplay, delivers an overall enjoyable experience, thanks to its fantastic visuals.
While I still feel the late-game battles are drawn out with palette swaps and needless complexity, Severed is such a fantastic game otherwise that even with a few warts, Severed is absolutely worth checking out, especially if you missed any of its other releases on Wii U, 3DS, and more.
Severed takes one of the oldest and inaccessible genres in video games and reinvigorates it, giving it much wider appeal than its contemporaries