Shiness the Lightning Kingdom, I have honestly been looking forward to this game for an incredibly long time, from the moment I saw it on Kickstarter I have been following the game obsessively waiting as patiently as I can to get my hands on a copy of it and honestly, a moment of truth?
It was so worth it, there are a few minor bugs here and there like getting stuck when you jump up and you land on an area connecting two zones. But outside of that one really annoying bug, and some crashing the game is surprisingly good.
Now, the biggest thing I’ve noticed about the game is its combat system. It is a very unique combat system, unlike traditional RPGs where you have a lineup of characters fighting by your side this one takes a cue from Street Fighter where one character fights one enemy, however, you can trade out during the fight for another character to best match your enemies this ability is also granted to the enemies as well that you fight.
The biggest difference is that the battles are handled in an arena concept. When encountering a bunch of enemies, it makes a dome around the fighting arena and you are forced to battle one on one with all the enemies until there is a victor, subsequently, everyone gets EXP from the battle and they don’t need to participate in the battle to get EXP.
However, if you plan on learning new skills, or moves you must use them in battle, or else that character will never learn them. So it’s a double-edged sword, you can have one good character or if you want a team of good characters you need to individually train them all.
Another fun factor of the game is its stage mechanics, where each character has a special skill to help them solve various problems that occur in the stages you play in. Chado can throw rocks or place them, Poky can connect electrical currents with his wrench, and the other guy has psychic powers. I forgot his name, but he looks cool!
The story thus far is to primarily get to a place called the Land of Life which for the most part is the grueling aspect of the game. Although having only played the game for several hours at this point, I have been really enjoying the combat and the interactions with the other characters in a comic book mischief-type of setting.
Action scenes are done with comic panels and audio dialog instead of a more interactive experience to give the game more of a fun and mischievous kinda feel and honestly? It works really well for the game.
I really enjoy the characters, the story so far, and the soundtrack to the game which helps add a bit more life to the game. I also absolutely enjoy just how colorful and vibrant the game is and it’s something I openly look for in games because I love to see the actual color in games. Not some monochrome gray-scaled game that says it’s fun, but a game that openly embraces color, and antics, and understands that not everything has to be dark and gritty to be a game.
The interactions with the other characters, the jokes, and the chance to jokingly insult a villain are aspects that help breathe life into this game and are the main aspects I really love about this title. I feel at times there are just not enough games out there that have these aspects. It’s not always about assassinating someone, it’s not always supposed to be grim. Sometimes we need a bright, cheerful, and fun-loving game to break up the grimness of reality not only because it helps immerse us in a fantasy world, but also because it helps bring freedom and joy that we cannot experience in the real world.
Shiness the Lightning Kingdom is one of those games that help share that fantasy with our reality and helps bring us back to the roots of gaming with its colorful and cheerful atmosphere and an array of interesting characters.
An autistic gamer with opinions on games who also enjoys making dumb videos on the internet!