Recent reviews by CaliforniaKarl

I've played this game for almost 50 hours now, and I have to say, you shouldn't buy it. There are enough small problems that—as much as I want to play—make the experience bad.

The first sign of things going wrong was when I finally managed to complete my first run as Cadence. It was an _awesome_ run, and as soon as I finished (and watched the credits) I wanted to replay it. Problem is, for some reason, my moves weren't saved properly. In the middle of level 1-3 of the replay, Cadence suddenly started acting all wrong, and got stuck. It seems that this has been reported before, and from what I can tell there is no fix.

And, since it doesn't seem possible to name individual playthroughs, it's probably been lost forever.

I eventually got to playing as Aria, and I've found it has become almost impossible for me. I've gotten as far as 4-3, but so much of it appears to be because of the RNG: Because of the level's layout, and the enemies that get put down.

At that point, when (for me) it becomes more about the RNG than about skill (because I don't think practicing is gonna help), it no longer becomes fun.

So now, the only thing which brings me back is All-Zones Mode, and the Daily Challenge. And All-Zones Mode in particular exposes two big issues.

First, in All-Zones Mode, when you die, you have to start back at the beginning. That's understood, but you start at the beginning of a _new layout_. The old layout is gone forever, because there is no way (that I know of) to find out what seed was used for a particular All-Zones Mode run, or (for that matter) for the day's challenge dungeon.

I would be willing to give up my leaderboard opportunity, in exchange for being able to re-start the run at the start of level, so that I could try again. But that opportunity doesn't exist. There is a way for you to face off against an individual, single enemy or boss, but that's not what I want. I want to be able to go back to where I failed, to see if I could do it better. But I can't do that.

To add insult to injury, the loading screen has recently started reminding me that there's a DLC available. I _know_ that there's a DLC available, and I do _not_ want to buy it, so it would be awesome if you could please stop reminding me about it!

So, no. Just no. I've given it what I think is my best try, but I don't see any way to get better, so now it's become like a gambling addition, and I need to stop.

All that said, you should definitely buy the soundtrack. It's totally awesome.