Decay of Logos

 Switch
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6

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  1. DinoJetPilot
    Jan 6, 2020
    7
    A Diamond in the Rough

    Decay of Logos deserves more credit than it’s been given. Even as a game that was inspired by classics like Zelda and the Souls series, I enjoyed playing through this indie action RPG from Amplify Creations and Rising Star Games. Personally, I was also happy to have a game I could play while my kids watched because it had limited blood, women weren’t over    A Diamond in the Rough

    Decay of Logos deserves more credit than it’s been given. Even as a game that was inspired by classics like Zelda and the Souls series, I enjoyed playing through this indie action RPG from Amplify Creations and Rising Star Games. Personally, I was also happy to have a game I could play while my kids watched because it had limited blood, women weren’t over sexualized, and it wasn’t a grotesque “dark” fantasy. Even with that, the mood of this world was still grim and mysterious, and I enjoyed discovering more about it. DoL has a simplified and stylized graphical style, but the game was still visually appealing. Much like in the Souls games, I was eagerly waiting to see what the next area would look like. Each new location made me want to keep playing to see more. One major drawback was the framerate, but I don’t know how much is the developer and how much is related to indie games on the Switch.

    The protagonist is a strong, silent female elf named Ada, and she’s on a quest for vengeance. Along the way, she befriends a mystical elk which helps her in various ways. The AI for her companion was clunky and frequently got trapped, but it was interesting how the Elk was used for extra inventory space, to aid in combat, and help with obstacles in the game. I liked how you could see the weapons stored on Ada and her companion. I enjoyed the combat in general, not because it was “easier” than the Soulsborne games, but because there were more opportunities to try thing out and learn by getting hit. I felt like I could experiment with combat, when in Dark Souls I always felt penalized when I tried new tactics on enemies. The combat is similar to the Souls series, but lacks precision (some swings that should’ve hit me missed completely, yet I only noticed the issue with enemy hits on me, not the other way around). Other unique implementations were the temporary stat reduction if you died too many times without “resting” at a camp. Magicae (magic) was also an creative aspect as well. I liked how the “twines” (as they are called) served dual purposes - in combat and world interactions. I only wish there were more puzzle elements to use it elsewhere. I found Exuro a bit overpowered as I progressed. The weapons and shields were fun to use in combat. Because of that, I wish the shields could have counted for a slot on their own so I could have tried more weapon combos. On the other hand, the bows felt fairly useless, and I never quite understood their function, because I could easily aggro one enemy at a time without needing to shoot them from a distance. I also enjoyed the visual design and atmosphere of the game, particularly the weapons and settings. I enjoyed the Roman/Latin influence on architecture and nomenclature. I thought the level design for the outer world was cohesive and did a good job of feeling immense. However, I eventually got tired of all the walking back and forth (the Elk didn’t help much either), so I would have liked a better fast travel system. I liked how various areas connected together and how you could get visual hints on the horizon of the new areas you were heading towards. The story was compelling for me, but I feel it concluded abruptly and revealed a lot in a rather rushed way (maybe foreshadowing it would have been better to have the ending hinted to in more echo shells?). Even so, there were a couple of interesting twists that I hadn’t expected. The Arx and Sanctum dungeons were a little repetitive, but still enjoyable because they weren’t usually too large. The only one I really disliked was the Vallis Sanctum. It was so big, with multiple levels, I found myself frustrated and running in circles (but I’m sure that was the intention). You can tell this small development team really put their heart and soul into this project, and I think that shows in their attention to detail). All in all, I enjoyed the game and I hope more people can see it for what it really offers - a unique fantasy adventure. Pros:
    - Environmental design and atmosphere
    - Story telling elements
    - Temporary penalty on stats when dying
    - The “magic” system
    - Inventory management system
    - Combat variations for weapon types
    - Clean minimalistic look to the menu
    - Replayability with NG+ additions Cons: - Frame rate issues
    - Revised control binding issues - Movement glitches - The Elk riding controls and AI

    tl;dr Decay of Logos does have crucial aspects that need to be tweaked to improve playability (frame rate issues, camera movement, Elk AI), but at the core it has great storytelling elements, some amazing design, and was a fun action RPG experience.    … Expand
  2. JediJen
    Sep 5, 2020
    6
    I guess I have been lucky in the 3 years I have had the Switch because I have had the luck to enjoy some really decent to great games this whole time. Decay of Logos went on sale on the E-Shop and, it looked like a game I'd really enjoy and the gameplay was right up my alley (3rd person, fantasy/adventure, exploration, combat, and light puzzles). Zelda influence? Sold! Souls-like? Sold!I guess I have been lucky in the 3 years I have had the Switch because I have had the luck to enjoy some really decent to great games this whole time. Decay of Logos went on sale on the E-Shop and, it looked like a game I'd really enjoy and the gameplay was right up my alley (3rd person, fantasy/adventure, exploration, combat, and light puzzles). Zelda influence? Sold! Souls-like? Sold! $10 at 50% off? Take my money. I wanted to like this game so much. To be fair there IS a lot to like about this game and there is a lot of potential. The art and environment is awesome to look at and experience. I give the devs a lot of credit for their world-building and design. I wanted to explore and see what else was in front of me. The story felt compelling (if not typical) and I also wanted to learn more about Ada, your avatar, and what had happened to the world around her. Unfortunately, I couldn't get through much of the game due to several factors:

    1.) The combat was clunky, unreliable, and the input lag was unreal. Sometimes it was so laggy I thought that was just how the game was so I purposefully tried to time hitting my abilities a bit sooner, which of course was when it would take my input properly and cause mishaps. Somehow I missed enemies when I'd hit them just prior in the same position right in front of them with the same ability. This also happened while just being in the world. I'd miss jumps and fall to my death because even though I hit the button at the right time, my character did nothing and just continued to run off the ledge.

    2.) The Elk Companion AI. I'll be straight-up: i am a sucker for these type of gimmicks. Give me an animal companion and I'm 70% likely to buy your game. It's a mount that helps you carry inventory AND solve puzzles? Amazing! I didn't even mind that you had to feed your Elk berries in order for it to allow you to ride it; berries are plentiful and the effect lasts a long while. But who wants to ride it if running around gets you there in the same amount of time and you have to get off it quite frequently anyway. The controls are also, you guessed it, clunky, where you get stuck quite a lot or it just won't move faster when you spur it in an open area for reasons unknown. I went into combat while mounted and the enemy was close-by. Not right next to me but i guess close enough where I couldn't dismount until the enemy hit my Elk hard enough that I was knocked off. Okaaaay. Then there is the fact that you need to use/maneuver the Elk into specific places to solve puzzles. Yeah, not great.

    3.) Ambushes. I actually don't mind that your skills lose potency every time you die. I know a lot of people are not fans of this particular mechanic but it does up the stakes and makes you careful. If you're not wary, you will have to wend your way back to your last position fighting with lowered potency. Not impossible but can be a pain. Just run through? Well, a lot of these enemies don't tether, for some reason so you'll juts get continuously followed in you stay in the area. Anyway, that's not my gripe. If you're able to fight or run through and find a rest spot in time, that should be reward enough and you should be allowed to rest. But, about 30-40% of the time (in my experience), you get "ambushed" meaning, before you're allowed to rest, enemies are on top of you, often 3-4 at a time, and you have to kill them before you can rest. So your durability and skills are down and you're not given any choice but to fight. Not only that but the game itself tells you that drawing out enemies and figthing 1:1 is best but they go drop multiple mobs on you while you're down.

    4.) Inventory management. Early on, you're only allowed to store one item, be it a weapon or gear and the rest is what you just have literally on you. You get to use your mount later on as storage but I don't know why this isn't an option from the get-go. Not only that, you can only set two items as available weapons and interchange the two. But, while mid-combat, you cannot change out for the third that's in storage on your person (not on your Elk). You can only swap between the two you have currently set. This is just a preference but I would much prefer I be able to swap any weapons that I physically have on me.

    5.) Framerate. Before writing this, I read other reviews of this game on other platforms to see if this was just a Switch issue. Nope. Apparently this happened across the PC, PS4, and XBox as well. The Switch is not a powerful machine, obviously, but it played Breath of the Wild with little issues so I'm not sure why this much smaller-scope game was having such issue with chugging.

    Overall, I think this game has a lot of potential and the studio/devs are capable of putting out a great game in the future if they're able to take time to tweak some things. I will definitely keep an eye on this team for future games but this one I am just going to have put aside and chalk it up to my luck running out    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
27

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 4 out of 4
  1. Cubed3
    Feb 7, 2022
    30
    Yes, Decay of Logos is that bad. Underneath a generally good-looking bonnet, lies a pile of half-broken machinery, leaking tubes, and tangled circuitry. This soulslike has a lack of balance, is not very fun to play, and most importantly, is broken. The fact that almost three whole years after its initial release have passed, and the developer still hasn't fixed its many bugs, says a lot about the quality of this bad attempt at a budget Dark Souls.
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  2. COGconnected
    Jan 21, 2020
    19
    Forget this game. Move along, and pretend you never heard of Decay of Logos. It tries so hard to be something that it simply isn’t, and it leaves players with a frustrating mess of mechanics that have been done so much better elsewhere. There really isn’t any reason for someone to pick this up. If you’re craving a big, open-world to explore, literally any open-world game will be better than this. If you’re looking for a difficult, combat-based action game, literally any combat-based action game will be better than this. Some of the sound design is actually decent, and I’ve heard worse soundtracks before, but there is no reason you should be playing this game. Get out while you can.
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  3. Digitally Downloaded
    Dec 2, 2019
    30
    Good intent doesn't cover for a game this poor though. I would love to see the developers learn from this one and come back with something more, because there is a lot to admire about Decay of Logos. Enough so that I don't think I've ever felt quite as deflated having to give a game a score like this.
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