El Shaddai hits next week

By next Tuesday the US can finally begin enjoying what the Japanese have been doing so since April, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. (Sorry Europe, you'll have to wait until next month...)

For those of you not familiar with this breakthrough game it is an action packed hack-n-slash style game with cel-shaded art styles that tells the story of Enoch, a priest seeking seven fallen angels to prevent a great flood from destroying mankind. The story is heavily influenced by the Deuterocanonical Book of Enoch. The game takes place in the legendary Tower of Babel, where seven angels have taken over a floor and turned it into their own playground.

At first I wondered, how would the reception of a game heavily inspired by religious texts be received? But the reception has been wonderful by the gaming community. The story line is filled with massive plots and the dialogue is better than expected. Thankfully there has been no criticism over the story that the game revolves around, causing the development team to produce a masterpiece that is this game.

The combat is simple hack-n-slash but is still difficult to fully master. You get 3 weapons: The Arch, a curved blade which also allows the user to float. The second weapon is the Gale. It's a ring like weapon that provides a dash ability and the power to throw small darts at targets. The third weapon is the Veil, a shield that also acts as a pair of gauntlets. This is the the strongest defensive item but it does allow for a strong punching attack. The Gale is the fastest weapon of the three and the Veil being the slowest. All of the holy weapons become corrupt as they are used and have to be purified throughout the game or simply steal one from one of your attackers. Corruption will cause the weapon to weaken it's attacks and defense. You do also get a handful of divine powers bestowed upon you by God. Powers such as self resurrection. Useful for when power runs low.

Combos are performed by rhythmically tapping the one button that is used for attack. For example, tapping the attack button 4 times will give you a basic combo but doing so like this "tap, tap (pause) tap, tap, tap (pause) tap, tap" will give you a different combo. Strange, but will make it that much harder for you to pull off the best, perfect combos.

Ignition has been trying to capture the attention of "casual gamers" and "female gamers" hoping to gain more of a spotlight for this game. It may not appeal to all but I am still looking forward to getting my hands on this game. It's a welcomed change to the visuals that we are all used to and the simple yet difficult fighting style will be a challenge. Sort of how Mirror's Edge was when it first came on the scene. All in all, El Shaddai is a definite recommended play in my book. Get yourself a copy and enjoy the fun.