Frenzy Retribution No heals, no retreat, only blood

This is a game built around high penalty and high reward. There are exactly two difficulties, Hard and Retribution, and neither one is a warm-up. Boss fights take real attempts, and the moment one finally breaks you open, it lands hard. One thing worth knowing going in: the game is rougher around the edges than the big names it gets compared to, and a few bugs and rough animations are part of the deal. What you get in return is a fight that demands everything and means it.

There are no heal items. None. The only way to undo a mistake is to stop running, kill an enemy and use an execution to take their blood. Attacks build up an enemy's stun value, and when it fills, they stagger and you can execute them: a quick, critical strike during which you take no damage and recover health. The catch is that stun drains over time. Back off too long or fail to keep a combo going, and everything you built up is gone. Executions become your rhythm, your healing and your breathing room all at once, which means the game never gives you a reason to slow down.

Your weapon is a jet samurai sword with a mechanical scabbard, a mix of traditional cold steel and sci-fi machinery. The sword has a turbo nozzle on the back: fast attacks, short range, high mobility. The scabbard is a small handheld railgun, and it doubles as a crowbar in a pinch. Connect the two and you get the cannon slash, a mid-to-long range sickle whose rear muzzle can blast through a crowd, at the cost of slow, heavy swings. Switching between the forms is itself an attack, not a menu, and the combos you can build across taps, heavy hits, deformation and dodge attacks run deep.

Hurt enemies do not retreat. They go mad, attacking without pause with brute force you can barely stop, and a field full of maddened enemies can turn into chaos fast. You have your own answer: beast mode, unlocked at the third stage of weapon activity, where you drop the weapon, extend claws from your mechanical prosthetic and attack at high speed. It builds stun faster and restores a little health, but your damage drops and you take more in return. Push it further and a perfect counter against a maddened enemy triggers a chain execution that ignores every state on the field, potentially emptying the whole battle in one go.