So here it is. This is a game called Earth Wars for the Nintendo Switch, that I got rather early in the lifecycle of they system back in 2018. I found nothing online whatsoever about the game when it came out, and almost nothing to this day. It is a very obscure game, especially by today's standards. It was developed by One or Eight Software, a quietly great company in Japan that is thorough with their approach to game content and context.
This game follows the story of earth's warriors in the future- the year 2020- lol. Earth has been dominated by alien creatures known as EBE, that have set up hives across North America from the North East to Alaska, and are growing in numbers and power. Earth has countered by developing super soldiers known as ANTI troops, that have been enhanced by fusing the EBE DNA with metallic implants and giving them enhanced strength and abilities. It only barely mitigates the onslaught of the alien forces, who have high level monsters divided into classes such as Baron and Elite, that continue to mutate.
At the start there are a few dialogue cutscenes with extensive voice acting that explains the emotions and narrative behind the plot. You even begin to see scenes as the game progresses, where one of your fellow soldiers begins to be overcome by the influence of the EBE implants in his body, that make him slowly lose his mind. The game doesn't cover any events in that regards, as far as what becomes of him, but it is interesting to note. There are various abilities and weapons in the game. It is a 2D, anime style, combat action game, akin to a beat-em-up. It is classified as a survival action game, but I don't think that really fits. There are, however, survival levels and missions rarely. You dash with the right shoulder button, and attack with either hand/weapon using X and Y. You have a jump with the B button, and as your meter builds, you can activate an extension weapon in the form of a super-form with the A button. These can all be customized and empowered. You can wield dual swords, a large great sword, a large bow, a sword and gun combo, Axes, or hammers. Each setup combos and maneuvers very differently. At a point in the game, you can have 2 setups equipped, and switch back and forth. I had a sword-gun combo, with a backup great sword that ended up becoming my main weapon. Guns can be upgraded, and also built from scratch with items collected during levels and from defeated EBE. The effects are nicely lableled in the fusion factory, so you have a decent idea of the kind of weapon you want to make. You can also purchase weapons in the shop and armor, along with accessories that can boost stats and grant abilities.
The leveling system is separated into different categories. You have defensive, offensive, balanced. and a custom weighted chart. They are very generous with bonuses and upgrades as you gain levels and abilities. You can spend points on the chart to add combos, abilities such as extra dash gauges and moves, and damage or tech boosts to attacks. Tech damage affects your opponents shield to get to a stun state, and raw damage affects health. You need both, but raw damage takes precedence, as stun is very hard to achieve or sustain with many of the enemies. I found that the defensive chart was the only one that made any sense. If you try any other mode, the loss in health and defense is nowhere near worth the slight buffs you gain. The game has a movement and physical mechanic system that suck tremendously.
In games like this, you need what is known in the fighting game world, as Ukemi- or break fall. It allows you to recover and roll to a neutral position in the heat of intense combat from a hit, or an onslaught. There is nothing like that. Also, there is a huge amount of input lag. Many times, when I would hit the dash button, nothing would happen at all until I hit the dash again, and then there would be a super late double dash. There were some idiotically designed enemies in this game that accentuated this issue. There is a lizard like species of EBE that I believe the developers were either trolling in creating, or extremely high. That particular enemy never attacks alone, unless in boss form, which is even worse. They are always in a gang of about 5 or 6. They are extremely fast, and have no recovery frames or punish windows at all. They also hit for eternal combos and do massive damage. It is infuriating to face an enemy when trying to make it to a boss, who can either kill you outright, or take almost all of you lives based a wild lung combo that triggers into an infinite. It is a controller smasher for sure, but I never got to that point thankfully.
I began enjoying the game as I developed my character and I enjoyed the story developing as well. Before I knew it, I was 70 hours into the game. That in itself was a marvel. I have never played a side scroller action game that I can recall that took that kind of time to work through. It was a very welcome surprise. It was a lot like a side-scroller version of Monster Hunter. But at a point, I was ready for the game to end. And finally, the end did approach. LOL
I must say, the final level, even after level grinding, and getting powered up extensively, was inane and made no sense. I've seen difficulty spikes before, but nothing like this ever in my life. The game prides itself on being of the tough class of games, which is fine- it's why I bought it. But it goes from that to something out of this world just for the last level. I've never had to lower the difficulty like this in a game before. When I played Mass Effect Andromeda, I remember reducing the difficulty from the hardest setting to normal for a brief time near the end of the game. With Earth Wars, I ended up having to push it down to easy, and only then did I barely complete the last boss. I thought something was wrong with the game, and I may be right. For the last level, you locate the home base of the EBE on a distant moon. You land on the planet, and there isn't much explanation. A boss attacks you, and at first I assume it is a henchman. After about 10 minutes of nail-biter combat, I assume he must be the last boss. I even remember squinting at the screen due to the game's stupidly small text, to see what his name was. After he finally went down, the ground broke, and we fell down to another floor with a brute boss that looked like one from earlier in the game. I figured he would be manageable due to the animal we must fought, but he was super hard. Then, after making it past him, I was thinking that the last boss must be just walking up to some kind of gem and crushing it with ease for dramatics. But absolutely not!
After him, is another boss that is missing its upper body, and can kick you for 50% damage. He killed me, and I buckled down defensively and planned for making it to him with as much health as possible. After several tries, I got past him. I was greeted by another, harder version of the brute boss. There is no way of making it to him, or past him with any kind of health left. That's 4 bosses, back to back, that are all Last-Boss difficult. I went at it for hours. Then I realized it was humanly impossible. I lowered the difficulty to Normal, which essentially just gives you another life. I made it the same distance. It was simply asking too much of the player. I began to feel as if it was designed to be an unbeatable level that would make people talk about the game. I failed for hours again. Then, embarassingly, I lowered the difficulty to EASY. I figured I just wanted to finish the plot and be done with the game. It was still an extreme struggle. When I got past the 4 horsemen, I met the last boss.....
This was on easy mode... He had 3 forms, and you had to jump across platforms to the top of a room with lava to get to him. He had an array of guns, and the ability to juggle you for kill combos, or into the lava which does about 70% damage. I could not believe how hard he was. In his final form, he was a second away from giving me a kill combo, when I tricked the AI and got the last hit on the orb that he held, which took stupidly scaled damage to defeat. Half of a second, and it would have been a Game Over screen. I couldn't really enjoy the victory with that kind of nonsense, but the ending was very great, and left a cliff-hanger, after earth is restored and your team is thought dead. You stumble on a factory where soldiers like you are being manufactured for unknown means, and then it ends. The music and credits for the whole experience was solid, but I can't get over that difficulty jump and the poor mechanics. It feels like you can be kill-comboed at any moment when fighting certain enemies.
All in all though, the game cut to the heart of the matter, and cleaved its way to a must buy, based on price and overall content. A sharp 8.5/10
