Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is a perfect activity RPG from designer Enigami. It started on Kickstarter and regardless of having a dispatch window of 2015, it unquestionably took as much time as is needed in getting discharged. In this procedure, it feels like the first pitch for the game was developed as the free engineer Enigami had the option to procure a distributer for it.
The game’s story depends on a manga created by Samir Rebab who is additionally the innovative executive behind this game. The story starts with the presentation of two of the fundamental characters, feline like animals called Wakis who pass by the name of Chado and Poky. They are seen flying their pontoon which has all the earmarks of being in a difficult situation because of unexpected occasions, prompting an accident finding that prompts Poky to escape isolating him from Chado. As Chado recovers cognizance after the accident, he is met with a small flying pixie called Terra who will help the player all through the game’s few areas.
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom is inspired by popular Japanese games particularly Tales of series, Final Fantasy series and even Naruto Shippuden series for its combat. The combat is purely action based where the focus is placed on Parry, Counter and Dodge Roll. Infact the game doesn’t shy away from urging the player to utilize the combat to their fullest in every encounter. There is a hint of a fighting game mechanic in the game’s combat system where the health bars of the enemy and the player are placed on the screen just like in a fighting game. The combat moves also chain similarly in a way which allows the player to rely on their reflexes in order to execute damage on the enemies. At the end of the battle, the game rewards the player a ranking along with the usual loot and experience points. This urges us to perform better in combat in order to get a better ranking.
While Shiness has a pretty fun combat system, it is not without its flaws. Since it works like a fighting game, it is possible to button mash our way to victory. Even though the game does have some challenging encounters, the parry and roll make it far too easy to cheese through the fights. Of course, there are some boss fights that are tough as nails and will require the player to exploit their elemental weakness or formulate a proper strategy, still I wouldn’t really consider it a hard game. There are multiple party members available to control in the game and each of them can be controlled with their unique skills in battle leading to some interesting encounters.
While the combat and the art style is the highlight for Shiness, it unfortunately fails in some key aspects. Exploration often feels like it is lacking since the sidequests are terrible and the optional content in the game doesn’t come close to other games. Another aspect that I hated was the platforming, which can be cumbersome at times. While it was nice to see that the developers have added a jump button, I never expected them to use it for platforming. I mean I don’t mind platforming in my RPGs but the focus should be clearly on the story, characters and the combat. The platforming also feels clunky thanks to the controls and the camera has a tendency to jerk at times, leading to some frustrating moments.
