The original Slayin was a mobile marvel of simplicity; a lovely little bite-sized twitchy RPG-ish thing where you effectively just moved left and right putting holes in enemies and using their dropped loot to improve your stuff. It was a familiar rogue-lite approach that worked brilliantly for a few rounds at the bus stop. In moving the sequel to Switch, developer Pixel Licker has sensibly overhauled the progression into a more traditional and satisfying "Story" mode, while retaining the same addicting gameplay flow and incremental upgrades.
Taking place on single-screen levels across two "planes" (not unlike the Saturn classic Guardian Heroes), Slayin 2 boils combat down to five buttons – left, right, jump, switch lanes and attack. That last one is a bit of a doozy, though – in Slayin 2, simply moving left and right has your hero raise their weapon, and touching enemies in this state will damage or kill them. For the fodder monsters such as your traditional "slime", this means the earliest stages are spent simply walking back and forth, hopping between lanes to mop up enemies as the omnipresent timer counts down. And that's really the crux of Slayin 2's gameplay – you kill enemies, mostly by walking into them, and when time runs out you fight a boss. It's difficult to make it sound interesting, but it's everything layered on these simple mechanics that make it work.
The aforementioned attack button lets you use a "spark" – a special attack that you gain limited uses of by attacking enemies normally. Killing enemies with your "spark" drops better, higher-value loot, which directly translates to more money to spend on weapon upgrades, recruiting new warriors and restoring the townships that have been razed to the ground by the hostile creatures you're striking back at. Sustained slaying without taking damage also increases your loot multiplier, and it's easier said than done due to a wide variety of different monster types, some with multiple attacks.
It's the variety and ensuing carnage that elevates Slayin 2 – Flying enemies! Enemies with polearms that can only be hit from behind! Enemies that throw projectiles between lanes! Enemies that poison you! It's constantly engaging, forcing you to focus and study the battlefield to find the best path not only to gather maximum coinage, but simply to stay alive.
The graphics are as good as they need to be, with attractive pixel art that doesn't fall into the generic, flat look of so many throwbacks. Occasionally you'll face a boss that looks like it has fallen out of a different game, but mostly there's a pleasing consistency to it all and you won't find yourself confused or unable to discern an enemy or its weapon in the heat of battle.
It's fun to explore the map and see what new twist the developers have cooked up next. With each level being not much longer than a minute or two, the game is easy to pick up and play, with even a failed stage yielding coins; you're never too far from the next new thing, which keeps things compulsive, but there is a grind involved to some extent to level up every weapon for every character.
For fans of the original Slayin, a more familiar "Arcade" mode that eschews any kind of narrative is present, and full local co-op in either major mode is a welcome bonus. Overall it's a package we think is well worth the asking price, something that's brilliantly simple in principle, but reveals its intricacies and hidden difficulty as you play through; it wouldn't be entirely out of place in a late eighties arcade.
Comments 17
Urgh, you mention 'mobile' and 'rogue-lite' in the first paragraph however you then use the combo-breaker of 'Guardian Heroes' to draw me back...interesting..
I played a ton of the original and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to checking this out if the price is right
A game where you don't have to press a button to attack? Sounds a lot like Ys to me. I may check it out during a sale.
Slaying was a clone of Cicle Entertainment's Drancia Saga to a follow up with a lot more personality. I'm enjoying Slaying 2 so far the half an hour I played.
They're using in an smart way the Drancia Saga formula and adding more deep into the story by putting some Zelda II elements.
I think the developer has been smart by going forward with the Drancia Saga gameplay by adding the technics, but I don't think the 2 layers are great.
In any case, a great addition to the library. I really don't undertstand why Circle is not bringing a second game to Drancia Saga.
@retro_player_77
Same thought here.
I didn't like it in Y's fwiw. Never got comfortable with it.
This is more arcadish than YS games. The simpleness is similar, but the gameplay has nothing to do in comparison.
Loving it so far! Fair price and engaging/addictive gameplay. Definitely a more fully fledged version of the original.
I remember whenever this game came up on this website as an article people would mercilessly rip on it due to it’s “endless rogue-like RPG”, graphics, and mobile background. I’m glad it turned out to be good and people are actually noticing it has a campaign. Will pick it up eventually but I’m busy with FE: Blazing Sword and Animal Crossing.
I have it and my super simple review is this. It's a "beer and pretzels" game. It's not a meal and that's fine. It's a charming little time waster to kill time when you aren't going to play something more substantial. If you play it in occasional 5-10 increments, you'll have a great time. Whether or not that justifies the price is up to taste.
@Muddy_4_Ever Does any game ever justify the price ?, I wud say "no"...especially on Nintendo...
Got it. Beat the story mode In a few hours. It was fun, variety of classes and abilities. big difficulty spike in the middle that needed some grinding, but then secrets and challenges opened up that helped make it less of a grind. Probably would be more fun in co-op. 8/10 sounds fair.
@sword_9mm Ys, not Y's.
Loving this game! When I’m not playing the story-driven Tales of Vesperia, I’m either mindlessly rolling in Katamari, or playing this. I think I’m in the middle where the difficulty spikes.
@Deltath
Right. Been a while since I looked at the jewel case on my TG copy.
@Lordplops For what its worth, playing the demo I got Guardian Heroes vibes (and I had not read this review). It's the fun progression and co-op that did it for me. There are just as many differences as similarities (no scrolling for instance), but the core elements still brought me back in a good way.
I was a fan of playing Slayin' on my phone for a long time. Kept going back to it. I really, really like what the developer has done in adapting the sequel to a more dedicated gaming machine. The diversions to towns and story are light and just enough to get back into the action while still adding flavor. The graphics are better in motion, too.
I played with my son and we really enjoyed it. This is a pleasant surprise for me.
@Sim1 I think maybe video games are not for you?
We are absolutely spoiled at the price point of games at this point in history. Adjust for inflation and you'll see that people were paying $800 for an Atari 2600 systems. It was $80+ dollars for a game made by one person (before quality issues sent games to the bargin bin and Nintendo, then Sega, eventually picked up the pieces).
Now games have budgets in the 10s of millions of dollars and often requiring 100+ people to meet the demands of gamers — gamers who are more fickle than ever and who actively try to tank games if there is some minor aspect they dislike... gamers who complain the game is over priced if it is over $60 and have (and you better not try to make money any other way than a one-time purchase). Of course they don't want to wait the few months it takes for those games to lose half their value to the next wave of new games and pay half the price or less.
I mean there are market forces at play and it is a constantly shifting market, but there are very few games that have not justified their price for me personally.
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