Severed PS Vita review - A rather fun action/adventure

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Indie games are out there for many reasons and for many people: a big creator’s personal project, the first step of a new studio or just an experiment with new stories and/or gameplay mechanics. This time we got Severed from DrinkBox Studios, the creators of Guacamelee and Mutant Blobs Attack!!!, relatively simple in mechanics but with colorful graphics and interestingly vague story that will make you continue and see where it takes you in its beautiful but dangerous world.

The one-armed warrior.

The game’s story is pretty straightforward: you play as Sasha, who along her family ended up in an unknown world inhabited by monsters. Her family is nowhere to be seen and to make matters worse she has lost an arm, but this doesn’t deter her from embarking in the grand quest of saving her loved ones. With a living sword given by a mysterious entity Sasha faces and slashes the strange creatures that get between her and those precious to her.

Gameplay-wise it has the basic mechanics of Fruit Ninja: you use the touch screen (either from the Vita or 3DS) to slash enemies you encounter, but those similarities end there because things get a little more complex. Monsters have their own attack patterns and gimmicks and you must learn them to attack and parry them successfully. As you hit them with your combos not being interrupted a gauge will fill, and when you finally beat the monster a window will open to cut its parts; these drops are very important, as they will allow you to upgrade the skills you acquire through the game a la RPG, like extending the timeframe when you cut the monsters’ parts or raising your attack.

Sasha’s lost family. Pity those who get in her way.

The stat and skill improvement is really important because they will help you take on tougher encounters: a half of the fight is how you’ve improved Sasha and the other is knowing how to manage your time, because many of these fights are against two or more enemies, and it is there where things get complicated because you’ll have to remember all the monsters’ patterns and deliver some good slashes to stop one from attacking you from the right while you take care of the one behind you. All of this will cause you at one point or another to lose to a group of enemies, sometimes more than once due to trial an error while figuring out how to tackle them, but luckily the game autosaves every few moments so if you die you’ll just start the room before the one where the fight takes place.

Severed is visually interesting with its Mexican influences, not a weird thing when you remember DrinkBox Studios is also responsible for Guacamelee. The monsters’ designs are pretty original and bizarre (tree-like creatures with eyes in their branches and multi-armed skeleton-faced trolls) and the whole setting made me think of something out of Guillermo del Toro’s mind. I can say it’s probably one of the aspects that I liked the most from the game.

Later on you learn the skill to steal buffs from your enemies.

Now we go with the cons: my main gripe with the game, although some may enjoy that kind of thing, is the “big” map i.e. long corridors. They’re actually entertaining enough but only when you’re solving quests or otherwise advancing through the game. Because the moment you turn back to explore parts of dungeons, you didn’t have access before the backtracking becomes painfully tedious, even more when you walk and walk and walk back and realize you’re not encountering any monsters, nor in the spots where you faced them before or new ones, leading me to think battles are scripted.

This guy must not be left unattended for too long, lest he starts to release spores that harm you

In spite of this it there are enough battles for you to get enough body parts to max out Sasha, so no reason to worry on that regard. Another thing that proved to be a nuisance was that sometimes the game doesn’t respond to your slashes as it should, leading to some hits to be registered in the opposite direction you aimed and that sort of thing; not frequent, but it can be a problem when you’re trying to parry an enemy, and you end up failing and getting hit instead, although this could be a hardware-related problem.

Pros:
+ Colorful visuals.
+ Interesting monster design.
+ Some fights in the game can be very challenging.
+ Awesome music.

Cons:
– Scripted encounters.
– Some misread movements when slashing on the screen.
– Backtracking can be tedious.
– Some fights rely on a lot of trial-and-error.

Gameplay: 3.5/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 4/5
Controls: 3.5/5
Replay Value: 2/5

tgg grade 3.5 out of 5

Verdict: 3.5/5.0
Severed may not be an AAA child and while it has its down it makes for an interesting play. It makes you think for a moment how to tackle a fight and try until you hit the strategy you need to move on. The walking may become a bore; some fights will be downright frustrating, and at times you’ll get hit when you try to parry, but if you’re patient, this becomes a gem worth giving a try.

Title: Severed
Developer: DrinkBox Studios
Format: PSVita/3DS/WiiU/iOS
Genre: Slice and Dice, Adventure
Resolution: Standard/Average
Release date: 2016-04-26 (EU/NA Vita), 2016-10-13 (NA 3DS), 2016-09-22 (EU/WW 3DS, WiiU, iOS)
Difficulty: 3.6
Spent time: 8 hours
Average grade internationally: 82.67% Gamerankings.com
PEGI age rating: 12
Price: 14.99€ / 17.49$ USD via PSN