Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade Review – Repetition Without Reward

Repetition is common in action roguelike games, and that’s not always bad. But Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade makes a mistake by not adding enough exciting meta-progression or a strong story to keep players interested. Its few attempts at drama and humor mostly fall flat, while decent combat and unique weapons are overshadowed by weak monsters and dull level design.

The “Legends” in the title is literal—Yasha tells its story across three campaigns with different playable characters. Each campaign reshuffles key characters, like a theater group performing different plays with the same cast. For example, the old man Gengo plays different roles: village elder, adoptive father, and king. This idea is interesting but the stories themselves rely on common tropes, such as the mysterious chosen one or the loyal soldier fighting for honor. The problem isn’t just a lack of originality—it’s that the writing is mostly boring, with dull dialogue and failed humor. The emotional moments feel forced and the humor overstays its welcome in these three stories that try, but fail, to be meaningful.

The game’s structure also hurts the story. It tries to mimic Hades by including conversations between boss fights after each dungeon run, but these moments are forgettable and don’t provide good reasons to keep playing. After each run, the chapter changes but the gameplay repeats with almost no changes. The village you are supposed to protect is full of NPCs, but none have anything interesting to say. This repetitive cycle makes the story feel even weaker.

Each hero is on a quest to stop the Fox Demon, who spreads chaos across the land. Their journey takes them through the same three locations every time: a crab-filled beach, a demon-infested forest, and a cold castle full of enemies. Runs are predictable because the stage layouts, enemy types, and spawn patterns stay mostly the same. Monsters get stronger and room shapes change slightly in later chapters, but overall, the experience is repetitive.

Repetitive Gameplay Makes Yasha’s Weak Story Worse

The areas in Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade look nice, but they don’t offer much variety. Only the final castle stage has interesting features like destructible walls and floor traps that add some challenge. While this helps you learn patterns and improve with each run, most fights feel too easy on normal difficulty. Only the last few bosses provide a real challenge with their large health bars, forcing you to play carefully.

Even though the game is on the easier side, it’s still fun thanks to its smooth and responsive combat. The three playable characters feel different from each other. Shigure uses balanced sword attacks and counters, Sara focuses on fast, aggressive dual blade combos, while Taketora prefers ranged attacks with his bow but can also fight up close when needed. The combat is simple but satisfying, giving every hit a “crunchy” feel.

Each character can pick from about seven different weapons per run, carrying two at a time. Weapons have unique effects like burning enemies or growing stronger with repeated attacks. However, many weapons across the characters feel too similar. For example, each one has a fire-based weapon or a strength-boosting variant, which limits the excitement of experimenting with new builds, especially since most enemies are easy to beat.

The game’s main variety comes from soul orb buffs, which upgrade your weapons after clearing rooms, and amulets that boost stats. Choosing which buffs to use adds some strategy, but most of the time, I focused on building a setup strong enough to handle the difficulty spike of the final boss. Once you find a powerful combo, there’s little reason to switch strategies.

After every run, you can spend earned currency to unlock passive upgrades that improve your stats or add special effects, like increased damage when your health is low. These upgrades make future runs easier, though they don’t really change how you play. They simply enhance what you’re already doing.

Finishing a character’s story unlocks modifiers that make the game harder and offer better rewards. This adds some extra challenge, but after 21 hours of going through the same areas and enemies with little variety, the motivation to keep pushing further fades quickly.

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Conclusion

Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade offers fun combat but falls short with repetitive levels and low challenge. Despite a solid weapon variety, easy enemies and limited story depth make the game lose its appeal quickly. Most players will see everything by the first chapter, making the three campaigns feel repetitive and unengaging.