GAMbIT Magazine Issue #27 June 2017 | Page 29

PAGE 26 may be referred to as shi at any given time can be difficult in some cases. What is a menshiro, and why can Chado generate one from shi? Maybe it's explained later in the game, but early on it just throws names and concepts at you out of the blue. Audience surrogate characters aren't usually much liked, but sometimes they're a necessary evil. Especially when you're trying to get a lot of world building done in a short time. Overall, it's not as bad as I may have made it out to be, but they do sort of dump you in the deep end of the pool. Speaking of Shi, it adds to the confusion in combat, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The combat is real-time, and it would be helpful to imagine it akin to a 3D fighting game. Punch and  GAMBIT Kick are assigned to X and A, respectively. You can access your equipped spells with left trigger and a face button press. Block is B, and parry is Y. Left bumper switches characters, right trigger focuses shi (regenerates your shi bars) and also activates combos (it is the last button in the chain for all of them). The combat, needless to say, is a bit too cumbersome for it's own good. Shi isn't cast from a general pool, but rather four specific pools for each element. Physical attacks are all well and good, though most enemies can punish you for thinking you can get too punchy. Parry requires proper timing to use, which can be difficult in the middle of a heated battle. Things, overall, can get frustrating very fast; the combat techniques require a timing all their own. There's a reason many tips I found were to simply hang back and sling shi at