There aren’t a significant number of games that make it to the west focusing on Chinese culture and mythology. We’ve gotten a few, most notably the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games and the Dynasty Warriors franchise, and there are plenty of games based on Journey West as well. Generally, the West usually ends up with something out of the list of the top ten classic Chinese novels of all time. Having read a couple of these personally, it’s easy to understand why too. They’re brilliant pieces of literature and the ideas tend to translate well to gameplay concepts. But Chinese games are slowly making headway into Western markets and Eastern Exorcist from Wildfire Game and publisher bilibili is just such a title!
Eastern Exorcist focuses on an exorcist named Lu Yunchuan. Lu has a bit of a troubled past and a good nature, and ends up making some mistakes that leave his brothers dead. He swears vengeance by hunting down the diabolical King Mandrill and stopping his demon legions. There’s a bit more to it than that, but suffice it to say that it’s a solid story with powerful cut scenes and interesting performances from the characters. All the dialogue is in Chinese with English subtitles but the voice acting feels solid and is surprisingly enjoyable for non-Chinese speakers. There are a fair number of smaller side quests that add depth to Lu’s character and flesh out the townsfolk and the backdrop of the story and none of it is boring. This is definitely a well-written game through and through, even though the focus is most certainly not on the storyline itself.
The meat of Eastern Exorcist is combat gameplay, and that gameplay is quite good. The game consists of side-scrolling stages that are open, allowing you to travel back and forth. Enemies can respawn if you leave an area, and you can regain health and save at shrines, allowing you to survive difficult areas. The actual gameplay is reminiscent of a variety of other titles such as Muramasa, Demon’s Souls, Nioh, and even Devil May Cry to a lesser extent. Don’t worry though, as there is less complexity here and on default difficulty, Eastern Exorcist isn’t as hard as some of the aforementioned titles. That’s not to say that it isn’t difficult, but a bit of tenacity goes a long way.
Combat is smooth and fluid in Eastern Exorcist. Once an enemy is defeated, you must exorcise their spirit, sending them back to the underworld at the press of a button. Simple but gratifying. The moves aren’t complex either, with buttons mapped to attack, jump, parry, block, and use Exorcism Arts. As you progress, combo attacks allow you to hit harder, but they have the added effect of draining your stamina quickly, leaving you defenseless as enemies advance towards you. Along the way you’ll pick up a variety of Exorcism arts as well, allowing you to build up spiritual energy and release it in a burst of damage during combat. As with all games in this style, there are a variety of combo attacks, but they’re generally easier to pull off that similar titles and not too complex through most of the game. Combat never feels like a struggle, except for the accursed stamina bar, the bane of Eastern Exorcist.
Stamina bars have been in games for a long time but they took a front row in modern gaming around the time Demon’s Souls came out. Now, it seems like every character gets tired and has to rest for a moment or two. In Eastern Exorcist, that bar drains incredibly fast and all while you’re being swarmed with enemies. By the time you’ve weakened one or two enemies enough to dispel their spirits, your bar is empty. Unfortunately, you’re usually still under attack at that point, forcing you to dance around the screen and block while the bar recharges. It’s a frustrating addition to an otherwise elegantly controlled game. Land a few solid hits on a boss, then wait for a recharge while he’s attacking you. Trying to dispel a few enemies while you’re surrounded? Sorry, your stamina bar is too low and some of them regenerated a half-second before you could manage it. It’s honestly a bit infuriating. Add to that the fact that your spiritual energy bar charges incredibly slowly in order to use the Exorcism Arts and you end up waiting to fight almost as much as you’re fighting. This is especially frustrating because it’s a simple fix from a programming standpoint and would vastly increase the flow of the game. As it stands, there’s an artificial bar blocking you from fully enjoying the excellent responsiveness of Eastern Exorcist’s controls.
Levels are entirely 2D, but they use a modified platforming design where you can jump up and down from platforms and areas. It’s a common convention in 2D sidescrollers but it’s slightly irritating in Eastern Exorcist due to the fact that the art design doesn’t always clearly slow where you can jump to. Often, you’ll find yourself walking up a hill not realizing you can jump down from it to access another area. There’s a convenient map in the pause menu though that shows how each area links up so if you’re not sure where to go, check the flow map! There’s also an area map that shows your position in relation to the exits. The game includes visual indicators at the edge of each level as well, so this was definitely a conscious choice of art over function, and it does make sense in order to preserve the immersion level as much as possible.
Eventually, you’ll have amassed enough power to level up. Simply go to a shrine and you can raise your character’s level, gain extra health potions and power, attempt challenge stages, and train. It’s easy to forget to level as the game gives you no other prompts and you may find yourself several levels behind and struggling with basic enemies before you realize you forgot to use all that experience you’ve gained for the last several areas. The variety of shrine options is a nice touch, allowing you to take a side detour and power up on challenge stages, giving you the means to progress more easily in the main game. It’s a solid component, but easy to skip past and definitely takes a backseat to the main gameplay.
While the stamina bar is frustrating, the game makes up for it by being surprisingly compelling overall. Enemies are interesting and varied, levels show a wide variety of ideas, and the visuals are quite stunning. Eastern Exorcist looks like it was hand drawn with a pen and brush by Chinese master artisans. It’s a simply gorgeous game and its unique style only heightens the feeling of being lost in an Asian fantasy world. Occasionally there are some stilted animations, but the details of the backgrounds and characters and the sheer creativity of the game makes up for any shortcomings. Toss in a bunch of great cinema sequences that pull you into the scenarios and you have an unexpectedly powerful experience. In short, this is some outstanding art design and the care given to the visuals is evident in every screen. Just wait until you see some of the bosses!
Accompanying the excellent visuals and character design is an equally excellent musical score, one that makes you feel like you’re in feudal China. The music ramps up at the appropriate times and has a peaceful zen-like quality to it. The soundtrack never really feels stale here and between the visuals, sound effects, and music, Wildfire has managed to weave a surprisingly immersive experience. Now if only there were a photo mode, as some of the backgrounds and visuals are definitely desktop-worthy!
Eastern Exorcist is an outstanding action game. It’s not designed for the hardcore gamer but instead takes a more approachable story-based approach with an elegantly designed interface that works quite well across the board, but is hampered by a questionable stamina bar. The plot is compelling, the artwork is outstanding, and the game itself is definitely an enjoyable experience. That being said, this does not feel like a AAA title and may come off as slightly rough to some players, especially if they’re expecting an incredibly polished experience. If your goal is pure challenge and difficulty, look elsewhere too. But if you want to have a great time with a great story and some solid gameplay with some interesting boss battles, Eastern Exorcist is definitely worth checking out, especially considering it’s still in Early Access on Steam and will only run you $16.99!
This review was based on a digital copy of Eastern Exorcist provided by the publisher. It was played on an I7-8700K with 16 GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, an Asus GeForce GTX 1080 ROG Strix graphics card, and an Xbox One controller connected via bluetooth. Eastern Exorcist is currently available on Steam in Early Access.