It was a game I had been keeping an eye on. When I saw in the discussions that there were no resolution settings, I held off on buying and waited for updates. Once I saw that the devs were actively pushing updates and listening to players; resolution support was added. I decided to give it a shot. Fans of the genre might want to do the same.

I am a huge fan of the genre. Hundreds of hours across probably 20 good titles.

This is one I can't give a chance. Let's break it down:

Technicals:

Highest resolution is 1080.
Framerates are capped.
Sound design is horrendous. The swooshing of the sword is flat and repetitive. It only makes me wonder what the other character sounds are.

Art:
Completely disjointed art style. Lack of cohesion across elements.
The characters and enemies look like they don't belong in the world they are in.
The world they are in is empty, soulless, and and scattered.
It looks like the entire game was made with 3 asset packs. None of this looks hand designed, or even thought of by an artist.
UI elements are awful. muddy and bland tones on sloppy rectangles, that again look downloaded, rather than designed.
None of it fits. Sanctuary looks like it came out of a pre-fab sci-fi pack.
Fonts, omg the fonts. None of the words and letters inside the boxes look like they belong there. And bright white at that.
The best part about the visual are the look of the lord/ladies/zeniths (skill givers) and because they too are so wildly different in style i am starting to wonder if anything in this game didn't come from an asset pack.

Gameplay:

I'm sorry, but it's stale and objectively poor.
No matter what your build is, you do one thing. You swing sword. Sometimes you swing sword and balls come out. You can pick up a hat that makes you swing sword harder. You can wear some rings that make you swing sword faster. You can't aim your sword either. You can kind of point your stick in a direction and if your character looks at it you'll swing. If there is precise aiming, there is no indicator.
Leveling curve is really confusing. levels 1-10 are like instant, and then it feels like ages before you get levels beyond that. Also the skills and level up choices lack diversity.
Finally, incremental level-ups lack any real impact. I don't want to spend 4-5 minutes getting XP orbs to have a choice between 1% more trigger chance, the same dash attack i've ignored all game, and a chance to heal sometimes.

Maybe I didn't play long enough, but there isn't a plot. You're just... there. You just swing sword. You swing sword again and again in the same place. That place that is barren and lifeless outside of the occasional rock with purple on it.

The only thing I liked about this game is the forge idea. That's super cool, and unique to the genre. Lean on that. Usually when you find gear you dont want, you can sell it or stash it. This game's take on old gear is fresh.

Oh yeah, and the price misses the mark. Not even in the ballpark of 9 dollars. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but there are better games, with more content, with more engagement and replayability, and more versatility, for half the cost (or less on sale).