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Odds are Ignition Entertainment hasn't really shown up on your radar yet, but if you're a fan of action platformers, they might just be your new best friend.
After publishing outside titles like Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Blacklight: Tango Down, they've stepped up with an original, in-house project that deserves your attention: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, and it's a big bag of Japanese craziness and combo-heavy combat. It also sports the most stunningly beautiful visuals I've seen since Okami.
Voyeur World 1.4
Small wonder, since director Sawaki Takeyasu served as a character designer on Okami. El Shaddai lets him play with gods again, this time of the Judeo-Christian variety, in a game that also shows influence from his stint on Devil May Cry.
And the plot? You're on a mission from God to beat the holy crap out of angels. If you know your Bible, you're going to recognize a lot of names…right before you go Old Testament on their asses.
Very, very loosely based on the Book of Enoch found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (generally not recognized as biblical canon), El Shaddai kicks off with God not at all happy about seven archangels going native on Earth. But before He unleashes the great flood to fix the situation, right-hand angel Lucifel — yeah, that's exactly who you think it is — convinces Him to try a more subtle approach. Namely, they send the most pure, most devout human alive to bring those fallen angels to justice and imprison them in the fingers of God's hand. That's Enoch, great-grandfather of Noah, and he's completely outgunned from the very start.
Good thing he can steal angelic weaponry from Martyrs, the angels' troublesome followers.
The game breaks down as platforming sections leading into combat arenas, similar to 2008's Prince of Persia reboot. Unlike PoP, however, you don't get a safety net. Expect much death by falling. Lucifel — portrayed as a darkly suave gent reporting to the man upstairs on his cell phone — provides guidance and save points along the way.
One sequence sent Enoch leaping across a 2D landscape (roughly a third of the game is 2D) before leaving platforms behind to jump between beautifully rendered gusts of wind. A lot of El Shaddai looks like a moving painting, but that spectacular art direction doesn't just sit there; it's an active part of the gameplay.
I'm the wind!
The combat matches you up against two or three Martyrs (a number that increases later on) who come at you with multiple weapon types from multiple directions. That forces players to change tactics on the fly and dial into the game's 78 combos and special moves. It's a fluid little dance that feels very good, very tight, and nicely challenging. Damage registers as armor breaking off your body and a sharply increased heartbeat. If you want a HUD, you've got to unlock it by finishing the game.
And as a fun little nod to Punch-Out!!, when the opposition finally takes Enoch down (shown as a closing eye effect — whose eye, nobody quite knows), you get a button-mashing chance to revive him. Like Punch-Out!!, the first time's easy. The fifth time, you'd better be Superman.
El Shaddai only features three weapons: the Arch, a spiky, curved sword; the Gail, projectile darts that hover around you until fired; and the Veil, dual-shield gauntlets. You (and the Martyrs) can dash with the Gail, the Arch gives you air time, and the Veil offers heavy-duty attack and defense at the cost of your speed, but Enoch can only carry one of them at a time. Repeated use weakens their effectiveness, and Enoch must spend a few precious seconds "re-purifying" his chosen pain-bringer while enemies home in.
Yep…you've basically got to reload a melee weapon. But rather than annoyance, these limitations bring a nice tactical edge to the combat. If you want to change your strategy, just nab new gear off your opponents. Disarmed enemies change their attacks to compensate. Put it all together with gonzo anachronisms and general weirdness — my playthrough ended on a boss battle against Foola and Woola, Ezekiel's two giant armored pigs of doom — and this one starts adding up to a wholly unique experience.
Hello, boys…God sent me.
Is El Shaddai perfect? No. Camera control sometimes becomes a bit confusing when you're surrounded, and the jump/fight game flow could get old over El Shaddai's 12-hour length. But Ignition promises a major twist — both in plot and gameplay — midway through to keep things fresh, and the sheer imagination on display in the opening hour leaves plenty of room to hope more surprises lie ahead.
El Shaddai has a late-April release date in Japan for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with a summer target window in the U.S.