This is an interesting game that tries to do a lot of new things, most of which work. First of all this can be best described as an isometric rpg with souls-like combat. What I mean by that is that combat involves dodge, block and perfect parry mechanics as well as the ability to break the enemy's posture/defense and leave them vulnerable, so it's far more skill based than most ARPGs where you just build up stats and facetank enemies or spam skills from range. Weapons also have different characteristics, dual daggers is very fast attacking and doesn't drain stamina much but has far less stagger, while halberds have long reach and their heavy attacks can stagger enemies in just a couple hits, but will drain your stamina really fast.

The other thing this game does that is new is the leveling system, you don't actually gain experience in this game, you level up after completing fighting areas (this game's equivalent of dungeons). These are ranked on difficulty and spread between the game's 4 regions, if you complete one you level up and get a mix of stat, trait, perk and skill points you can then allocate to level up your character. So you can farm enemies in the open world all day, and complete as many quests as you want, but those will only give gold and loot, not level ups (granted, loot is a very strong determiner in your overall power level as well).

Finally, there are a variety of skills and perks you can choose from, I'd say melee is the most fleshed out but there is a good number of magic spells, some which have limited numbers of use per combat, others which have a stamina/cooldown that limits them. These include a variety of melee skills like charges and rogue blink backstab attacks, to magic attack spells, buffs and summons. Your gear determines how often you can use spells as light robes and magic staves improves their effectiveness while heavier armor and weapons lengthen's the cooldown, meaning you can still use them but far less often. There is also bows/throwing daggers for ranged combat but that has the fewest skills asociated with it (it is pretty effective though).

There are companions you can get, they are restricted based on your alignment, personally I prefer the good companions as one of them has an area effect healing spell which is fantastic to use in between enemy groups as you are limited on how many potions/consumables you can bring into a fight, and all healing spells have limited number of uses in a fight. So having an extra heal, that you can even use at the end of the fighting area to top off your health before leaving is really a good quality of life thing, at least for your initial run when you are learning the game.

Finally, I will say there has been a lot of effort put into this game from a relatively small team, the art and environments is very good, the combat generally feels good although it can definitely be hard to get a handle on at first, and there is even a competitive mode where there are other rival champions also trying to reach the same goal as you, but they will also complete quests and fighting areas themselves (denying you their rewards, even the level up rewards) so I would NOT recommend it for a first run, only something to challenge yourself if you finish a single player run and want a more hardcore experience. I think the game is worth trying out, although whether it's worth the price point is up to you, perhaps wait for a sale if you think it's a bit pricey.

This is an interesting game that tries to do a lot of new things, most of which work. First of all this can be best described as an isometric rpg with souls-like combat. What I mean by that is that combat involves dodge, block and perfect parry mechanics as well as the ability to break the enemy's posture/defense and leave them vulnerable, so it's far more skill based than most ARPGs where you just build up stats and facetank enemies or spam skills from range. Weapons also have different characteristics, dual daggers is very fast attacking and doesn't drain stamina much but has far less stagger, while halberds have long reach and their heavy attacks can stagger enemies in just a couple hits, but will drain your stamina really fast. The other thing this game does that is new is the leveling system, you don't actually gain experience in this game, you level up after completing fighting areas (this game's equivalent of dungeons). These are ranked on difficulty and spread between the game's 4 regions, if you complete one you level up and get a mix of stat, trait, perk and skill points you can then allocate to level up your character. So you can farm enemies in the open world all day, and complete as many quests as you want, but those will only give gold and loot, not level ups (granted, loot is a very strong determiner in your overall power level as well). Finally, there are a variety of skills and perks you can choose from, I'd say melee is the most fleshed out but there is a good number of magic spells, some which have limited numbers of use per combat, others which have a stamina/cooldown that limits them. These include a variety of melee skills like charges and rogue blink backstab attacks, to magic attack spells, buffs and summons. Your gear determines how often you can use spells as light robes and magic staves improves their effectiveness while heavier armor and weapons lengthen's the cooldown, meaning you can still use them but far less often. There is also bows/throwing daggers for ranged combat but that has the fewest skills asociated with it (it is pretty effective though). There are companions you can get, they are restricted based on your alignment, personally I prefer the good companions as one of them has an area effect healing spell which is fantastic to use in between enemy groups as you are limited on how many potions/consumables you can bring into a fight, and all healing spells have limited number of uses in a fight. So having an extra heal, that you can even use at the end of the fighting area to top off your health before leaving is really a good quality of life thing, at least for your initial run when you are learning the game. Finally, I will say there has been a lot of effort put into this game from a relatively small team, the art and environments is very good, the combat generally feels good although it can definitely be hard to get a handle on at first, and there is even a competitive mode where there are other rival champions also trying to reach the same goal as you, but they will also complete quests and fighting areas themselves (denying you their rewards, even the level up rewards) so I would NOT recommend it for a first run, only something to challenge yourself if you finish a single player run and want a more hardcore experience. I think the game is worth trying out, although whether it's worth the price point is up to you, perhaps wait for a sale if you think it's a bit pricey.