I replayed it and yep, this game fucking owns. A fever dream with the kind of confidence and sheer flex of artistry that is so unique these days. This game delivered all the way through for me. I didn't expect 20% of what the game delivered to me. To say it went the full distance would be an understatement.
It's probably the most interesting fictional take on Judeo-christian stories I've seen. You play Enoch acting in a bid to fight the watchers who became fallen angels after they became obsessed with the potential of mankind. Your partner is Lucifer talking with God through a phone with his extremely deep voice (fantastic dub btw), and the nephilim are cute blobs looking like plushies but have extremely dark stories.
Enoch tries to restore the natural order of evolution dictated by heaven while the fallen angels wants to give wisdom to mankind in order to advance their evolution. It's super interesting and very mysterious, especially with all the intentional idiosyncrasies. There's a ton of info to try to get. The archangels are guiding you with their voices, the fallen angels are trying to make their position heard, Lucifel is playing games with you, and it's just a constant tug of war of trying to know how you should feel and where you should stand as a player.
There is this part at the beginning where you fight one of the watchers after pressing start to start the game. You get instantly destroyed, so Lucifel snaps his fingers and you go back in time, and it sends you back to the title screen. This is extremely cool.
And it's all justified in gameplay too! When you fall down the platforms, you hear the snap of Lucifel. The game didn't just go back to the last checkpoint, you canonically went back in time before you died thanks to Lucifel! Such a good and fascinating character.
You enter a hellish tower you take 300 years to find in-universe. One of the floors is super focused on cartoon, toy-like 2D planes for platforming. One of the floors of the tower is a hyper-futuristic city that has a RACING SECTION that is putting FF7 Remake to shame. It's a wild ride and yet it make sense within the confines of the story.
Also one floor has a watcher where he is putting the show of his life while you fight enemies. Only El Shaddai can offer you the king of pop obstructing the screen while you are on a mission from god.
The gameplay is like an action game, Enoch has access to four weapons, however he cannot switch them at will. He can only steal them from enemies when they're downed. Encounters have often four enemies maximum, and even in normal they give quite the challenge for me. The point is that you have to steal the weapon for the right enemy, because they have strength and weaknesses. It can get quite overwhelming so you have to prioritize the right type of enemy. The game has no HUD whatsoever so you have to look at Enoch's armor to see how close to death you are. If he is half-naked with only his jeans, then this means he is close to dying. Yes, Enoch wear jeans.
You'd think a system where everyone loses pieces of armor and clothes upon damage would be bad, and I would be inclined to agree (fuck The 3rd Birthday), but El Shaddai is here to show that context is everything because there is a diversity of bodies and types in this game. From fallen angels, monsters, men, women and more. It's obvious from the start that it isn't a ploy to show cute girls topless in unfortunate positions. Not to say the game isn't horny, but it is in a good way, not the kind that makes you roll your eyes.
Let's just say the game is more dedicated...to the male form. This is the player character, Enoch.
The game is also dedicated in its art. I took photos of my TV because I wanted to show how good it can get. This game was constantly surprising me. This game genuinely gets better and better.
The tower
One of the various moments that made me go "how did they do this"
This game has more color to it than the entirety of the 7th gen
This game would change its background for fights even in the same arena. A constant feast for the eyes
Seeing this city for the first time made me go "WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF". This game is surprises among surprises
The platforming is really good in my opinion. They had some great ideas and they had the kind of focus on making them incredibly beautiful and inspired. It reminds me of Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze.
Incredible shot
I love the perspective here
The colors here are breathtaking.
And the music...the fucking music. It's BANGERS ENTERPRISES
This game is incredible. Godlike even. It's short too. Just seven hours long, but I will remember those seven hours for a long ass time.
As always with every good game trying something different, it failed so we'll never get a new one. But at least the mad lad, Sawaki Takeyasu, literally bought the IP back from Disney, so maybe there is a chance we'd see at least a remaster in my lifetime or whatever.
It's probably the most interesting fictional take on Judeo-christian stories I've seen. You play Enoch acting in a bid to fight the watchers who became fallen angels after they became obsessed with the potential of mankind. Your partner is Lucifer talking with God through a phone with his extremely deep voice (fantastic dub btw), and the nephilim are cute blobs looking like plushies but have extremely dark stories.
Enoch tries to restore the natural order of evolution dictated by heaven while the fallen angels wants to give wisdom to mankind in order to advance their evolution. It's super interesting and very mysterious, especially with all the intentional idiosyncrasies. There's a ton of info to try to get. The archangels are guiding you with their voices, the fallen angels are trying to make their position heard, Lucifel is playing games with you, and it's just a constant tug of war of trying to know how you should feel and where you should stand as a player.
There is this part at the beginning where you fight one of the watchers after pressing start to start the game. You get instantly destroyed, so Lucifel snaps his fingers and you go back in time, and it sends you back to the title screen. This is extremely cool.
And it's all justified in gameplay too! When you fall down the platforms, you hear the snap of Lucifel. The game didn't just go back to the last checkpoint, you canonically went back in time before you died thanks to Lucifel! Such a good and fascinating character.
You enter a hellish tower you take 300 years to find in-universe. One of the floors is super focused on cartoon, toy-like 2D planes for platforming. One of the floors of the tower is a hyper-futuristic city that has a RACING SECTION that is putting FF7 Remake to shame. It's a wild ride and yet it make sense within the confines of the story.
Also one floor has a watcher where he is putting the show of his life while you fight enemies. Only El Shaddai can offer you the king of pop obstructing the screen while you are on a mission from god.
The gameplay is like an action game, Enoch has access to four weapons, however he cannot switch them at will. He can only steal them from enemies when they're downed. Encounters have often four enemies maximum, and even in normal they give quite the challenge for me. The point is that you have to steal the weapon for the right enemy, because they have strength and weaknesses. It can get quite overwhelming so you have to prioritize the right type of enemy. The game has no HUD whatsoever so you have to look at Enoch's armor to see how close to death you are. If he is half-naked with only his jeans, then this means he is close to dying. Yes, Enoch wear jeans.
You'd think a system where everyone loses pieces of armor and clothes upon damage would be bad, and I would be inclined to agree (fuck The 3rd Birthday), but El Shaddai is here to show that context is everything because there is a diversity of bodies and types in this game. From fallen angels, monsters, men, women and more. It's obvious from the start that it isn't a ploy to show cute girls topless in unfortunate positions. Not to say the game isn't horny, but it is in a good way, not the kind that makes you roll your eyes.
Let's just say the game is more dedicated...to the male form. This is the player character, Enoch.
The game is also dedicated in its art. I took photos of my TV because I wanted to show how good it can get. This game was constantly surprising me. This game genuinely gets better and better.
The tower
One of the various moments that made me go "how did they do this"
This game has more color to it than the entirety of the 7th gen
This game would change its background for fights even in the same arena. A constant feast for the eyes
Seeing this city for the first time made me go "WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF". This game is surprises among surprises
The platforming is really good in my opinion. They had some great ideas and they had the kind of focus on making them incredibly beautiful and inspired. It reminds me of Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze.
Incredible shot
I love the perspective here
The colors here are breathtaking.
And the music...the fucking music. It's BANGERS ENTERPRISES
This game is incredible. Godlike even. It's short too. Just seven hours long, but I will remember those seven hours for a long ass time.
As always with every good game trying something different, it failed so we'll never get a new one. But at least the mad lad, Sawaki Takeyasu, literally bought the IP back from Disney, so maybe there is a chance we'd see at least a remaster in my lifetime or whatever.
