Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a visually stunning game with nostalgic gameplay. Despite it showing that I have low hours in this game, I originally played it on the Epic Games Launcher and dumped tens of hours into it (got it on Steam for easier play with Steam Deck despite Heroic Launcher being a thing. I just want the faster access). It's amazing, the game's visuals made me fall in love with it. The combat and the premise is very good. It reminds me a lot of back in the day when I played Tak, if any of you remember those games. I highly recommend, especially now that they have updated the game for its anniversary. The best part are the Rots. So adorable. Play the game!

V Rising, a game that I've been holding off mainly because I was huffing mad copium that maybe one day Stunlock Studios would come back to Battlerite. This is a very different game than what they usually make. Stunlock Studios is known for their True MOBA known as Battlerite. When I mean True MOBA, I mean that it directly fits the term "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena". Instead of a MOBA, this time around they dipped their hand into the survival genre. V Rising is very much an action oriented survival game, wile still having that Stunlock flare to it.

Me being used to Battlerite's gameplay mechanics I got accustomed basically instantly. The game starts off without a hitch, dropping you in an abandoned mine with nothing but your hands and a need to drink blood. As you progress, you start creating your own living quarters from the resources you collect in the world. You have this important structure called the Castle heart that runs purely off blood you collect from killing organic beings. Whilst doing this, you also encounter bosses throughout the massive map and fight them. If you win, you get to absorb their very essence and utilize the abilities they had. It encourages you to go out and find bosses to increase your ability pool.

The difficulty increases as you progress. As you craft new gear and weapons, your level increases. This is a very Monster Hunter-like system. Instead of leveling up like normal RPGs, your strength depends completely on the items you equip. I like this sort of system, so I don't mind it. There are however similarities to Monster Hunter that I do not like. For instance, they lock a lot of armor and weapons behind bosses, so you need to succeed in killing them to progress, though that's easier said than done sometimes. This also leads into another issue I have. I dred this in every game and this is no different. What I'm talking about is the thing that's on my top 5 most hated things in gaming: RNG

The RNG in this game is absolutely horrible. While yes, bosses can give you new armor that increases your level, you also have certain equipment, usually called Merciless, locked behind random chance. There are three structures that you can make that depends completely on a Random Number Generator. These structures are the Research Desk, Study, and Athenaeum. They require you to collect Paper, Scrolls, and Schematics respectfully. These are not exactly hard to get, as they drop frequently when killing human enemies. However, once you begin to leave early game, your need for these items increase. There are certain structures an, weapons, potions, and accessories that are completely locked behind the structures and they are usually, if not always, stronger than the boss rewarded items. Many are also absolutely NEEDED to progress. Example is needing at least a Merciless Copper weapon to be able to mine Iron, which is paramount to getting through the rest of the game. We were stuck on relying on RNG to give us at least ONE Merciless Copper weapon for hours on end and it was absolutely infuriating. This was also the case for when we needed Merciless Iron to be able to collect Silver.

Another gripe I have is the game economy. Many things that are made in crafting have absolutely ridiculous quantity requirements for extremely little output. Example is needing 15 Silver Ore to create 1 Dark Silver Ingot, and that's when you have the room bonus activated. This doesn't seem like a lot, until you actually start needing a lot of Dark Silver Ingots.

Another thing that I hate is the Castle Heart System and basically using real world time in general. All crafting takes real life time to make. As you progress, these crafting times get longer and longer. With that, brings a lot of "downtime". A period where you're basically not doing much except waiting for things to be finished in your crafts. The castle heart also requires blood every now and then to power your settlement. If you don't keep it fueled, your settlement will stop powering your stuff, and eventually the entire thing will be destroyed. You can fill up the Heart and it'll take real world time to drain. All of this makes me realize that Stunlock added these systems to inflate play time. It's a shame that they felt the need to do this, as I would have sunken many hours in this game regardless.

Cons aside, I love the boss fights, they are unique and different from one another (I didn't enjoy Frostmaw though. Hate that boss). Combat is fun and mostly fluid as well as satisfying when you are adept at the mechanics. I found myself sinking hours into the game just running around and killing things and wanting to fight bosses. They are challenging almost every time you get access to a new one and has you creating strategies on the fly.

The world is a bit bland to explore, with the littered enemies on the road, however there are some cool moments where you come across a mini boss or a place to farm resources. Other than that, the world makeup is nothing special.

Building your domain is straightforward and snappy. Think of it kind of like The Sims, or Rust. The building system is very nice, I have no complaints about it. You can stylize your living quarters really well too. There's a lot of decor you can choose and have your own aesthetic as well.

This game is in early access, however it's pretty polished as far as game mechanics go. It derives heavily from Battlerite, there's even abilities from their previous game that make a return in V Rising with new names and visual effects. There's even a large cameo of one of the bosses being a Champion from Battlerite. Reusing assets is not necessarily a bad thing, as most game devs do it for their IPs. I feel that Stunlock Studios has reused the Battlerite assets really well and feel like a nostalgia trip every time you link an ability to a Battlerite character. It brings a smile across my face every time I find one.

Again with being Early Access, there's still a lot of content that Stunlock wants to bring to the game. I am honestly excited for it and hope that they let this game live a long life, even if the player base has stagnated to around 3 Thousand at peak.

As of right now, I'll give the game a 7.8/10. I will continue to play this game and see what the future holds for it. There is bias in this however, as I do like Stunlock Studios and their games. (I still won't forgive them for killing off Battlerite). I recommend it however if you're into survival and the vampire theme.