The Last Oricru Review: a sci-fi fantasy action rpg that doesn’t convince

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The Last Oricru Review: a sci-fi fantasy action rpg that doesn't convince

After seven years of development, The Last Oricru lands on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S and PC. Will this long wait be worth the candle?

The Last Oricru, formerly known as LostHero, is the new action with soulslike elements that it scores the debut of GoldKnigths, a development studio founded in 2015 by PJ Strnad in Prague. The title is available starting October 13, 2022 on consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S) and PC. A little less than a year ago, we already had the opportunity to get our hands on The Last Oricru (if you missed it, here is our proof of The Last Oricru) and today we are finally ready to sum up the first work of GoldKnights , which unfortunately failed to hit us as we hoped.

It’s time to decide which side to take

Silverthe protagonist of The Last Oricru, is immortal, destined for an eternal cycle of death and rebirth that makes him particularly attractive in the eyes of the two competing factions the domain of Wardenia (a soldier who never dies is the happiness of any ambitious general). After waking up from a strange dream that also causes him to lose his memory, Silver is dragged into a bloody civil war in which he will have to choose which side to take sides and in the meantime find out more. about its mysterious past.

Follow the revolutionary thoughts of the Ratkins, anthropomorphic warrior mice, or embrace the conservative ideas of the Naburu? This is the dilemma. The story of The Last Oricru develops according to the choices of the hero: during the adventure we will be called to make important decisions that they will shape the fate of the civil war and the attitude of the different NPCs that we will meet in the abundant fifteen hours necessary to get to the credits, which guarantee high replayability to the work before GoldKnights. In this regard, even the environment reacts to our choices. During one of the first missions, for example, the protagonist can choose to send an important commander of the Ratkins army to better life (or not). Once the enemy was killed, all the rats left the area allowing us to finally roam free without the anxiety of having to fight at every corner. After this event, the question arose spontaneously: what would have happened and what direction would the story have taken if we had spared the general? On the narrative front, the story devised by GoldKinghts works quite well – leaving out occasional lines of dialogue characterized by a forced comedy that leads to the grotesque – and manages to intrigue the user, a fundamental factor to encourage him to continue despite the big limitations on the gameplay side.

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Fights in slow motion

As explained at the beginning, The Last Oricru is an action RPG with strong soulslike elements. In fact, we find the energy flasks that regenerate with each rescue and the classic experience points obtained after each kill, essential to enhance one of Silver’s six stats. Between vitality, strength, vigor, dexterity, intellect and will, the possibility of choosing how to build our build is not lacking, although we do not reach a truly noteworthy depth. The weapons – quite numerous and different from each other – scale according to the above statistics and can be improved, together with the armor to wear, thanks to specific materials scattered across the map.

We are talking about well-known role-playing nuances but which make the development of our alter ego crucial to steer the game economy in our favor. On the theoretical level, everything seems to work quite well. Problems arise when a sword is held. The combat system of The Last Oricru is in fact rather problematic.

Silver’s movements are plastered, the feedback of the shots is not particularly convincing and several times we have also found cases of input lag both with the attack button and with the one to raise the shield. On the opposite front, the mobs, unique for each biome, are equipped with an artificial intelligence that makes them sufficiently aggressive and therefore always dangerous, despite easy to memorize patterns. The only precaution is to remember which stocks are equipped with tracking. However, on more than one occasion we have struggled to get through the game sections unscathed due to multiple intersecting factors.

Silver, stamina permitting, can avoid a lunge with both a backward and forward sprint. In the latter case, dodging would seem useful for moving behind the enemy on duty. Unfortunately in practice, the move almost never manages to take us beyond the enemy, interrupting most of the time at the height of the rival’s side and inevitably leaving us uncovered. Consequently, an aggressive strategy can be set aside in favor of a more reasoned one which, with the shield as protection, aims to rotate around the opponent until it finds the right moment to attack. To aggravate this dynamic that will immediately become repetitive, we find another hitch that should not be underestimated. The frame rate drops are important, frequent, and clearly undermine the enjoyment of the clashes. We then report the occasional (but annoying) disappearance of the mobs, which reappear in front of the protagonist to lead him to an undeserved death. In most cases, in other words, the defeats do not depend on a question of skill but on the problems just outlined. The opportunity to try The Last Oricru campaign in co-op, both online and locally, can partially offset these gameplay flaws by making it more enjoyable, complete with melee attacks and spells to perform. exploiting the synergy between the two characters.

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A confusing level design

Silver’s journey passes through opulent castles and dark mines, passing through settings that take full advantage of the sci-fi universe. Unfortunately, we also encountered a couple of important critical issues during the exploration. The repetitiveness of the rooms e the absence of a map to consult, they have in fact often sent us into confusion. All of this translates into backtracking that significantly breaks the pace of the match. Luckily, there are shortcuts to unlock that help to recover the lost experience and retrace your steps as quickly as possible.

From a graphic point of view The Last Oricru was decidedly weak. The lighting system shines in rare cases but in general, also given the overall quality of the settings, the feeling is of playing a title with several years on the rump. The facial expressions of the various characters are also flat and further damage that sense of immersion that a story with multiple shades should be able to arouse.

The Last Oricru
The Last OricruPC Analyzed VersionNet of a fairly interesting story capable of offering some interesting narrative crossroads, the first work of GoldKnights did not fully convince us. The main problems lie in the gameplay of The Last Oricru: the combat system is cumbersome and not always perfectly responsive, a situation further aggravated by significant drops in frame rates. Exploration, on the other hand, suffers from scenarios that tend to repeat themselves and confuse those who pass through them. Basically we are talking about a missed opportunity, which we hope will give the team some important lessons in view of future productions.

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