Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior Review

Queen of Persia

At first glance, Lysfanga looks like nothing more than a generic hack and slash game, but underneath, it’s juxtaposed by a fresh, innovative time travel mechanic and layered systems. It’s this unique approach that takes a simple concept and creates an original experience that is just as much about being tactical and solving combat puzzles as it is about swinging your sword.

Combat and Time

Lysfanga is part hack and slash, part beat em up, part tactics game and part puzzle. However, at the core of everything is the time traveling mechanic, which doesn’t accurately describe it. You are a time traveling warrior with the ability to send duplicates of your past self into battle. Each arena is too big and too complex for you to complete with just one attempt and when the timer runs out, you attempt again with your remnant attempts exactly what you tried the first time, allowing you to go down a different path and strategically dismantle the enemies forces.

The hack and slash combat is satisfying, but lacks a certain amount of depth that would have rivalled some of the best in the genre. There are just two buttons for combat, but it’s the layered systems that make the experience unique and rewarding. There are three main weapons that you will unlock during the course of the game. They all feel balanced and ultimately comes down to the preference of the player. Then there ultimate abilities that charge up with the amount of damage you deal, spells that operate on a cooldown and runes that are passive abilities.

Lysfanga flows much more like a puzzle game, as you move from one puzzle room to the next. In the case of Lysfanga, the puzzle is a new battle arena with a different combination of enemies waiting for you to decipher the proper plan of attack. Before each arena, there is a preparation phase that allows you to scout the area and change your runes and skills depending on what the situation calls for.

Some battle arenas don’t require much adjustment, but there are plenty arenas where changing your runes and spells is imperative. The light speed skill for example is one of the most useful and allows you to pass through any barricade or scale any wall upon use. There are arenas where certain enemies sit atop a high wall and this is your only method to reach them. The Orb of Light skill allows you to throw a ball of energy, which you acquire fairly early, but in later arenas allows you to detonate explosives with this orb that would otherwise kill you.

not battle

The world of Lysfanga is inspired by ancient civilizations that takes elements of many different mythologies and at the core is a story about family and betrayal. The isometric world features visuals that feels inspired by early World of Warcraft, and while it isn’t pushing the limits of visual fidelity, the art direction creates an immersive world. Quick PSA, the game runs great on steam deck, but the default settings have the visuals on max which causes some hiccups. If you bump the settings down to medium, you won’t notice a visual drop in quality, but you will notice greatly improved performance.

Lysfanga is a linear game, but it does feature lots of chances to go off the beaten path and explore. Venturing off the main path is contstantly rewarded and I don’t think I have ever played a game that rewarded exploration as much as Lysfanga. If you look you will find find motes of magic, skins and remnant shards.

Missed Opportunities.

This is where the bad news starts. However, the good news is that the problems with Lysfanga is less about what the game does wrong, but more about what the game doesn’t do as there feels like plenty of missed opportunity. The only thing worth exploring for is remnant shards, which if you collect four will provide you with another clone and this will be a difference maker. Motes of magic can only be used to purchase skins back at headquarters, but you can just find skins when you are exploring and on top of all of that, skins are quite hard to notice.

There should have been more use for the motes of magic including being able to level up your skills. The game features the ability to replay every battle to improve your time and it should allow you to create broken builds. Skill trees could have been another way to handle motes of magic. It also would have given the player autonomy, instead of just feeling like another cog in the machine.

The other missed opportunity was not incorporating more bosses or mini bosses. Most arenas are similar with lots of minions of different varieties. These were fun as you had to solve equations, but not only were the boss fights a nice break from the monotony of the minion challenge, but they were also visually refreshing.

Ending

There were definitely some missed opportunities and the story fell a little short, but Lysfanga is a unique spin on the hack and slash genre that takes a time bending mechanic and creates a much more tactical experience that overcompensates for some of the games shortcomings. Just like Lysfanga, the true strength lies in the complete package and not one element.