There’s always room for another solid hack-and-slash game, especially when it tosses in a unique combat mechanic like Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior does. The first project by French developer Sand Door Studio, published by Spotlight by Quantic Dream, Lysfanga also brings a few other mechanics to the table, most of which unfortunately feel unfinished or seem to serve no real purpose.
The story serves as the foundation, giving players a reason to do more of what Lysfanga does best: beat up enemies. Centuries ago, an event called the Calamity unleashed hordes of otherworldly monsters called Raxes upon the land of Antala. To save the kingdom of Mayura and its neighboring Balara, Queen Qhomera became a god and used her powers to place Time Locks on the kingdoms, halting the invasion by putting them in a sort of stasis.
The survivors who escaped the Calamity eventually formed a new kingdom, and a powerful warrior, the Lysfanga, is born every generation to protect the people. Of course, things never go according to plan, and an inevitable bad guy breaks the Time Locks and threatens to unleash the Raxes on the new kingdom and continue the destruction of the Calamity.
The player is the Lysfanga, Ime, who immediately sets out to stop said bad guy. The Goddess Qhomera grants her the ability to control time and make Remnants. In other words, Ime can create echoes of herself, then rewind time and fight alongside her echoes. As the game progresses, the player will unlock more and more Remnants, until there’s a whole battalion of shadow Imes wreaking havoc on the Raxes.
Simply put, this game mechanic is both unique and incredibly fun. Players get thrown into the fray right away, and the controls are intuitive enough that there is almost no learning curve. Throughout the game, Ime gathers a growing arsenal of spells, runes, and ultimate attacks that add variety to the tactics players can try when fighting the Raxes. And these abilities are diverse enough that gamers can adopt a play style suited to their taste, be it defensive, damage dealing, or time-ability focused. There are also three weapons — short but fast chakrams, a standard sword, or a long-reaching trident — to complement that.
Combat in Lysfanga Is Its Sole Strength
Before each brawl, it’s possible to survey the battlefield and make a vague plan of attack, swapping out spells or abilities if deemed necessary. But once started, it’s literally a fight against the clock. To come out victorious in a battle, the task seems simple enough: defeat all the Raxes. However, the enemy arrives through a portal, and for reasons never fully explained, this portal collapses after a set period of time and kills Ime. But because she can control time, dying only means having to start over… unless she runs out of Remnants, at which point it really is game over. This becomes less of a hindrance as the player unlocks more Remnants, but hand in hand with that, the arenas become increasingly complex and defended by tougher enemies.
The boss fights in Lysfanga are similarly well designed, varied, and satisfyingly tough. Most of them introduce new mechanics or tweak old ones to make them feel like a logical progression. Some of the boss encounters are downright fun, requiring a bit of strategizing and maybe multiple attempts to come out on top. Like the combat in general, the boss fights are a definite strong point that will leave many players with a sense of accomplishment.
Luckily, the combat in Lysfanga is exciting because, without it, the other elements would not suffice to make the game stand out in any way. Yes, the story is interesting, the graphics are nice, and the three somewhat generic game zones are adequately dissimilar to keep players from getting bored. However, none of these things surpass what one would expect from any standard, well-supported indie game. The combat truly is what makes Lysfanga shine, and everything else becomes set decoration for it.
In fact, it’s so engaging that some players will want to fight battle after battle without bothering with any of the other stuff. And Sand Door Studio seems to have recognized this because, shortly after reaching Act 2, players will unlock the Figments of Battle mode. This lets players redo any of the fights completed thus far, this time with a range of modifiers like no deaths, kill requirements, or increased enemy health. Completing Figments of Battle also results in a score for speed, efficiency, and the number of Remnants used, which adds even more challenge.
But even before Act 2, each battle has a predetermined time objective that will have some gamers replaying them multiple times. After each encounter, a Portal Relic appears that allows players to try the fight again. Some of the time objectives are incredibly tough to beat and will require some strategizing and perhaps trying different spell and rune combos. However, unlike the Figments of Battle, beating the time objective offers no incentive or reward other than a feeling of completion and a pat on the back for getting it done.
Both the Figments of Battle and Portal Relics seem to be a missed opportunity to flesh out other elements of Lysfanga. As she ventures through the ruins of the ancient kingdoms, Ime gradually finds and revives various Golems. They install themselves in the Academy of Mayura, which becomes a central hub in the game. One of the Golems serves as the entrance to the Figments of Battle, two others provide new skins for Ime’s outfit, and another lets the player choose from a selection of unlocked paintings to decorate the Academy walls.
Missed Opportunities in Lysfanga
It almost seems like Sand Door Studio had bigger plans for the Academy that never came to fruition because, as it is, it’s unclear why it exists at all. It’s a fairly large facility, and even while it slowly populates with Golems, the Academy feels lifeless and empty. Putting three paintings on the walls is not thrilling in any way, and after doing it once, there is no urge to swap them out for new ones as they’re unlocked. It’s a truly puzzling element of the game that’s pretty boring, frankly. Completing the Figments of Battle and beating the Portal Relics’ timing objectives was a prime chance to let players unlock other decorations for the Academy and bring it to life.
In the same vein, Ime’s armor skins are lackluster as well. As the Lysfanga runs through the different areas of the game, she finds glowing chests, some of which contain new armor skins. Eventually, Ime also unlocks a Golem to forge new armor, and carefully collected orbs serve as the currency to buy these. However, the purchased armor sets look identical to the skins found in chests throughout the game for free, so it’s baffling why the devs seem to have given them different values. That said, the skins themselves just change the color scheme of Ime’s costume. They’re not different cosmetic armor sets that make any significant change to her appearance. Again, it’s an aspect of the game that could have used some expansion because it feels unfinished and unfulfilling as implemented.
The combat in Lysfanga really seems to do all the heavy lifting, and it’s unfortunate that the rest of the game leaves so much to be desired and feels like it’s just there as ungratifying filler. However, it’s a hack-and-slash game, and the fighting is what’s ultimately most important. For non-completionists, the game can be finished in about 15-20 hours, and most of that time will thankfully be spent in combat taking out bad guys.
Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior
Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior is an isometric single-player hack-and-slash adventure game with a tactical twist that gives protagonist Ime the power to control time.
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Developer(s)
- Sand Door Studio
- Publisher
- Spotlight by Quantic Dream
- Genre(s)
- Hack and Slash
- Unique rewind and echo mechanics
- Engaging combat
- Interesting story
- Non-combat mechanics not fleshed out
- Customization options are lackluster
Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior launches on PC on February 13, 2024, but before then, a free demo will be available during Steam Next Fest, from February 5-12. Game ZXC was provided a PC code for this review.
