I’m still not entirely sure what to think of Zhen: Shattered Legacy. Straight off the top, I’d implore the devs to change the promo art, which does an awful job of communicating what the game does or how effortlessly cool it looks in play.
It casts you as a little robot Warrior-Monk traversing a techno-spiritual world to unlock the teachings of several wise masters. The world is overrun with monsters and bandits, but luckily you’re armed with a cool staff and a cooler hat.
Where I hit a wall that I still haven’t quite gotten over is the combat. Zhen is a twin-stick shooter with a melee focus, and to attack enemies you must flick the right stick in the correct direction. Doing it over and over will create combos, but my issue is that if you hold it a nanosecond too long he will instead do nothing, and it’s really easy to do so.
There’s a parry attack with a fairly forgiving window that requires you to press R1 while you push in the direction of the incoming attack, which never felt less than awkward to me. The world itself is interesting enough, with hidden routes and alternate paths, and pick ups to improve your health.
You’ll find new weapons now and then, and new abilities that can alter your combos and attacks. The problem I had is that the combat doesn’t feel natural or smooth enough, and in fact does nothing that simply pushing a button doesn’t do. I’m sure there are those to whom this will appeal, but for me it adds extra steps to a system that already works for minimal benefit.
I do really like the look of the world, and the use of colours in the art style. Again, it looks and moves much better than the promo images would suggest. Some of the combat has good moments, though I did find the final fight of the demo to be almost impossible. Perhaps this is intended, or perhaps I’m just bad. I guess I’ll never know.
Either way, Zhen: Shattered Legacy will certainly appeal to those looking for a different kind of challenge, and the full game will likely feature many more weapons and combos with which to defeat your enemies. Even though the demo wasn’t quite enough to get me fully invested, it has managed to pique my interest and curiosity.
Zhen: Shattered Legacy is set for release in 2026.
