Hello Everyone, today I want to talk about a game I spent a lot of time on when I was younger and have finished just now. Shadow Fight 2. A Free-to-Play game in iOS and about $25 on the Switch eShop. A bit of a steep difference, but I assure you the Switch version is mostly worth that price.
Let's talk about what the game is first. Shadow Fight 2 is a one-on-one fighting game where 2 players control a silhouette of a fighter and fight each other. Unlike more traditional fighting games where the inputs are often very complex and there's a focus on combos, SF2 was made initially for phones so its control scheme was designed to work for that (which is weird because SF1 was a simple Facebook game so it's weird how good the controls transfer over). You have 2 basic attack buttons, kick and weapon/hand, and a virtual stick. A direction + an attack button does a specific attack. For example, No direction + Kick does a simple roundhouse kick to the head. Up + kick does a jumping kick at the opponent's chest level. Down + kick is a sweep. Front + Kick is a push kick to the opponent's stomach. Back + Kick is a weaker but longer and faster kick to the stomach. Etc All these attacks can be somewhat comboed into each other. But the main thing is that each attack is quite deliberate and long and can't be cancelled. The main way to damage opponents is to attack them during an attack animation. Maybe they try to do a rather long attack with a sword and you try to avoid it so you can counter attack. You block automatically by not doing anything when you get attacked but you can throw blocking opponents by getting in close and pressing left or right + an attack. So a typical match consists of all these balancing acts where players have to watch their opponents moves, counter or respond correctly and hopefully gets some really good hits in. Someone taking damage also tends to fall over quickly and moves to attack a grounded opponent are quite feeble. There are some other aspects to fights. Hitting an opponent's head does bonus damage and may even "shock" the opponent where they drop their weapons and have to fight with their fists instead which can be quite devastating as weapons are the most powerful attacking tools. Speaking of which, there are different weapons combatants can use, each with their own pros, drawbacks, combos and intricacies. For example, double handed sword makes your weapon attacks very strong but very slow leaving you more open to counter attacks from faster attacks but also leave you without an intermediate attack as all you'd have are slow and strong attacks with your weapon, and fast and weak attacks with your kicks. Other weapons like knives give you great speed and combo potential but a very small range which can leave you vulnerable to throws. You can bring ranged weapons like shurikens or throwing knives in addition to your primary weapons. They work by doing a somewhat fast wind up animation and throwing a single item horizontally at the opponent which can't be blocked but can be rolled under which leaves the thrower vulnerable just before and after throwing. Most of the weapons do see relatively balanced and I never found a pair that were just too amazing or too weak.
Magic is also a part of fights. After chapter 2, you can purchase a magic power. Then as you deal or receive damage in fights, you build up a meter which can release a magic attack such as throwing a fireball forward or summoning a lightning strike where an opponent is standing. Note, enemies can dodge or interrupt you doing this which can waste the magic. Magic is also the only thing conserved between rounds. Meaning that if you end a round with 80% magic left, you start the next round with 80% magic. Note that bosses have more absurd and broken magic powers like being able to fly around and shoot lightning from the sky at you which can combo and take huge chunks of your health away. My one criticism towards the Magic UI is that it's at the bottom of the screen. I wish it were at the top alongside health. I do wonder if Magic was used more as a comeback mechanic rather than as an offensive tool that it would suit the game better? Like if you only got the Magic meter filled by taking damage rather than through also dealing damage.
So because of this system, trying to get a simple 5 hit combo is quite rare. Your opponent may simply fall down after 3 hits, or recover and start blocking. So it means getting combos feels like quite the accomplishment. More importantly, this system is more intuitive for touchscreens than Street Fighter or KoF on phones.
Now, that's just the core fighting system, SF2 has a rather robust Singleplayer campaign and no online or PVP side except on the Switch which has a free play option where you and a friend can fight using any character from the singleplayer and even customize their weapon choice and perks. You can unlock more characters for this Sparring Mode by defeating certain bosses in the campaign. Sadly, you don't get to unlock the Final Boss as a character. Would have been really cool if that were the case.
This singleplayer campaign is divided into chapters. Each chapter has different activities you can partake in and has its own roster of unique enemies that you'll fight throughout the activities. There are story fights where you must defeat many lieutenants and eventually the boss to complete the chapter. This requires the player to get stronger gear after beating every lieutenants since they get stronger seemingly exponentially. Each Story Fight awards a lot of exp and money. There's Tournaments, which are 30 fights all getting progressively harder but against regular opponents. They reward a fair amount of money and exp. There are Challenges, which put a single additional challenge onto the fight disadvantaging you. Some are quite minor like you can't use weapons, or armour, or jump, or block etc. But some can be quite interesting and really shake things up. Like you have to stay within a zone or lose. Or can't stay on the ground for more than 6 seconds at a time. I do wish there were more of these wacky challenges than the minor ones (The later chapters feature the more interesting ones). These award a fair amount of money and exp. Note you can't go back and replay story fights or tournament or challenge fights once you complete them until you complete the entire set and unlock Eclipse Mode. There's Duels, which can be replayed every 10 minutes IRL. They work by giving both you and the opponent a random but balanced set of gear and have you fight. These are nice as they shake up what you are using but I wish they got more wacky with perks and magic as well. They award a little amount of money and barely any exp. Finally we have Survival where you have 1 live but need to go against waves of progressively stronger enemies. This is the best way to grind money if you need to upgrade your gear but award basically 0 EXP.
Activities have a difficulty rating which tells you how powerful gear your opponent will be wearing but doesn't comment on the AI's difficulty. So you can have activities against Impossible Level enemies who could wipe you in one shot but are so brain-dead that they won't try much. Or fights against Easy Enemies who become blocking and attacking super champions that they can whittle your attack down with each attack only doing about 1% damage to you and the game praising their combo score. Fortunately about 80% of the time, your opponent's AI is about on par with what the challenge level dictates.
In the iOS version, you have an energy meter that limits you to around 6 matches in one sitting and recharges over a few hours. Which can make repeated losses against bosses quite frustrating. There is no energy system in the Switch Version. Both versions also have a feature called "eclipse" which lets you play certain events in a harder difficulty, and even some already completed events, for additional money and even some premium currency. In the iOS version, this currency is extremely rare to earn without paying for it with real money but very valuable as it lets you buy extremely powerful gear you can't get with regular money. In the Switch Version, it's very easy to farm this premium currency which often can make the regular currency seem less useful. Make of that what you will.
In between activities, you can head to the shop to buy and upgrade your gear. Normally, I would oppose such systems in fighting games as it can get unbalanced but the system is simple and upfront. A piece of gear can only be upgraded a few times depending on your level. Once you level up, a new tier of more powerful gear becomes available to buy, consisting of an option to buy for regular money that is pretty expensive and a much more powerful option available only for premium currency that is priced much lower and has a bonus perk like "does extra damage when you take a critical hit" or "poisons your opponent". You also have the option to pay a little extra of either currency to upgrade your already existing gear to the next tier so it can continue being useful. As far as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be any catch to this. I like this system because you can either get a new experience with a new weapon which the game encourages, or if you find something that really clicks for you, you can keep using it. In my first playthrough back in 2014, I kept using Sais all the way until Chapter 3 because I loved them. My one criticism of the system is that if you want to upgrade a weapon from a couple tiers back, it's going to be very costly. There's also no way to sell unused weapons and gear. I also wish there was more of an easy way to transfer or add perks to gear
When you level up, you either get a new move, or a choice between 2 additional perks like "deal 30% extra damage when your health is below 30%" or "reflect 5% of the damage taken from a critical hit back at the opponent". I love the idea of unlocking new moves as you progress through a campaign as such an addition makes you objectively more powerful but you need to figure out how to incorporate the move into your arsenal to make use of that power. And by staggering unlocks like this, it allows the player to acquainted with the combat system and their existing moves before getting more. For example, one of the new moves you can unlock is a double sweep with down + kick + kick. This isn't a straight up upgrade over the single sweep with down + kick because the combat system allows the opponent to punish you if you're committed to the wrong move for too long. A single sweep is still necessary to allow the player to interrupt some attacks safely and quickly while a double sweep can be used to trip and opponent with the first sweep and head shot them with the second sweep.
As for the perks, I like them. They add a little more flair to upgrading and the player can't be given new moves forever. And over time, they can add up to make an appreciable impact. I remember one of my luckiest wins against a harder opponent coming down to the wire and he headshot me with a critical kick.... and then keeled over because the damaged reflected back onto him and took him down from 3% heath winning me the fight. They won't let the player make crazy unique builds but they add a nice amount of personalization and flair.
One issue I do have with the Switch version is that you cannot play it with just the touchscreen. You need to have some controller connected..... despite the fact this was once a phone only game and you can still use the touchscreen on the Switch to go through menus.
The Campaign itself is quite long. My Switch told me I had played the game for over 25 hours before I was done. It does feel quite padded. After you complete the first 6 chapters, the game asks you to go through it again in its entirity with harder enemies and challenges. Your regular currency is replaced by a new one though that seems to be aesthetic. Then once you complete the 6 chapters again. You get placed into a new final chapter that prepares you fight the final boss (and your regular currency is swapped out again). This section is quite novel as the aesthetic shifts from the Feudal Japan inspired one of prior chapters to a heavy sci-fi one. Your character gets a new portrait with green tron lines. You fight enemies that are robots with laser weapons and guns. It's quite the change of pace and really engaging. Only issue is that it goes on for a really long time which can make it feel quite repetitive if you try and beat it in 1 sitting like me. The Final Boss Titan is built up throughout this chapter and his fight is quite the challenge seeing as he can't be grabbed or knocked down and he can quickly headbutt you out of your combos, has many long range swipes and attacks that can't be blocked and do a lot of damage. Oh and he's twice your height. Not the most fair bossfight but I do wish you could unlock him in Sparring Mode for beating him.
-The Aesthetic:
Like I said earlier, the fights consist of 2 silhouettes fighting each other. You might think this might make it difficult to see who's who. But the characters are distinguished by their gear and that the players have a large orange or blue indicator below them. The animation and poses are fantastic, which they'd have to be given that's all they have. Critical Attacks feel like they hurt. The soundtrack is a bit mixed. They have some great tunes, especially during boss fights, but 99% of the time, you'll hear the same few tracks repeated over and over again in regular fights. One consequence of using silhouettes is that customization is less prominent. In the shop you can buy some truly cool or funny gear like an "I heart Shadow Fighter 2" shirt, but won't show up because the characters are silhouettes. However, I do suspect the game doesn't even have unique models for many regular pieces of gear as some unique helmets and sais do look the same on the silhouettes even if they shouldn't. This isn't the case for premium gear which can look distinct like the Jester's hat.
Personally, I really like this art style. Way more than even Shadow Fight 3 which dropped the silhouette and now has full 3D models. The silhouettes are quite striking and dramatic.
-The Story:
The story is that you are a ninja who becomes a silhouette (wait, does that mean he has the N-Word pass now?) and must progress through the chapters to figure out what's going on. Your allies include an old mentor who occasionally has story quests where you play as him during flashbacks and a cute red haired female ninja who tells you if your gear is up to snuff. Honestly the story is quite in the background. And it doesn't help that there are such wide gaps between story quests that it's very easy to forget what's going on beyond "I gotta beat up the next guy". So I can't even do a proper critique on the story like I normally would since I can't remember it.
While I'm here, I may quickly discuss Shadow Fight 1 and 3. I played 1 back in the day. It was basically the pvp side of the Switch portion of 2 just more basic. It was fun to knock out a few rounds with friends in the school library. It's a little sad the game is shut down now as it was a great browser game. 3 is different. Like I said earlier, it shifts to a 3D style and no silhouettes (making the title a bit of an artifact aside from a mention of a shadow squad in the story). There are some consequences to this change. For one, attacks and animations are a lot more grounded and "realistic". If you elbow a dude in the air in 2, he just falls to the ground through you while in 3, he tumbles and ragdolls accordingly based on your model which also allows for more punishing of downed or stunned opponents. In addition, 3 ties many moves to gear now. So depending on what you're wearing, your down+kick may just be a regular roundhouse kick to the shins or a full on sweep combo. Up+Right+Kick may be a jumping knee or a multi-flip kick depending on what you're wearing. I'm a little mixed on this. Sure, it varies the gameplay and your moveset as you play but without as easy a way to upgrade gear, you can get stuck with moves you dislike.
Magic is also changed a bit. When you fill up your magic meter now, you can press the magic button to enter a specific state where you can use 4 different magic attacks (based on pressing direction+magic) depending on gear. Each attack cools down for a short while after being used so you can cycle through 5-6 attacks in one state and each attack does a lot of damage. For example, you can press Back+Magic to through a powered up crossbow bold if your crossbow has that perk, up+magic to lift enemies up and do damage if your helmet has that perk. Right+Magic to throw your weapon into the enemy if your weapon has the perk. And Down+Magic may have you set a trap or throw a weapon down or sweep or whatever depending on your legwear. Personally, I'm not a fan of this approach. Instead of Magic being this thing you need to use well, both players effectively get a super state where they can spam moves and cheese through a fight.
The progression is also different. Instead of a linear store and tiers of gear, you earn gear from card drops and said drops also upgrade your gear. There is a store but you need to pay a lot of money or gems to get random drops or whatever selection of gear is available at that day, or upgrade your existing gear with a specific currency that comes from drops. I personally dislike this system. It makes progression way more tied to RNG which can screw you with bad rolls and a lot of time spent grinding. Speaking of which, main missions often require a massive jump in power and there isn't a lot of other activities you can do in the meantime so you're often required to spend a lot of time redoing basic easy matches or Solo duels against versions of other players to earn a small amount of cards to hopefully be able to progress which gets more repetitive. More interesting events like survival or challenge are either part of a battlepass like subscription or events. At least there isn't an energy bar like SF2's iOS version
So yeah, while 3 isn't a bad game, the Free 2 Play stuff really brings it down. I'd recommend either casually playing it here and there or wait for a Switch port or something.
There's also a standalone multiplayer entry in the franchise coming out that uses an Injustice Mobile style character switching system and is based on SF3's engine. I may play that one eventually.
-To Conclude
I quite like this game. I enjoy the satisfying combat and outplaying opponents. The animations and visual style is quite nice as well and the different weapons and characters allow a for a great deal of flexibility. However, I never finished this game for a reason. The iOS version is a tough recommendation because as good as the gameplay is, the Free-to-Play monitization is very heavy handed and would result in a lot of grinding just to be able to somewhat progress. Made worse when I would lose all my lives to a boss and would have sit out. The Switch version is way less grindey and even generous, but the scars of the original version are still present in places. I would recommend the Switch version. It's a great little fighter with a good deal of singleplayer content and the additional free versus mode adds a lot of value. Just Don't rush through it.
My next and final review for 2021 will be Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation. See you then.
