#final vendetta

[sandythereadingcafe]

REVIEW TOUR:

FINAL VENDETTA (Saint Trilogy 3) by T.K. Leigh at The Reading Cafe:

'The premise is dark, dramatic and captivating'

Give Me Books

FINAL VENDETTA (Saint Trilogy 3) by TK Leigh-review tour

FINAL VENDETTA is the final book in TK Leigh’s contemporary,adult SAINT dark, erotic, romantic suspense trilogy focusing on Gideon Saint & I

[cosmosrebellion]

Something I love about Beat'Em Ups, specifically the ones that take place in urban settings, is how your set of protagonists are usually of the "Just Some Guy" variety. Like, they're rarely some chosen one warrior who's going on grand quest. Most of them are average schmucks who want beat up the final boss because they kidnapped someone they love, or because they're just kind of a dickhead who has it coming. It's weirdly charming, I would guess that inspiration probably come from classic martial arts movies that had similar premises.

[ercdouken]

Final Vendetta (PC/Steam) - Claire Sparks Arcade Playthrough

[lorz-ix]

Final Vendetta (2022)

Let me get this straight: as a beat em up fan, there is no way I could argue this isn't a competent game. I need to make this very clear first, as I have a lot of fundamental criticisms for it and its design choices, but none of these mean it is incompetently made. The gameplay is clean and responsive, the sprite work is strong, the music is good, so it basically checks all the boxes for a retro throwback in this particular genre.

The glaring issue at the core of this game's design is that it is severely held back by this sentiment of "old games used to be better and so much harder". As I said, I am a fan of the genre, and old beat em ups were nothing like this.

I could bring up arcade versions of games like Final Fight, which due to the nature of those coin-operated machines, were incentivized to add cheap, anti-player traps to suck as much money out of them as possible, which is a design decision no sane person should try to emulate. Or I could bring up console beat em ups like Streets of Rage, that were designed with much fairer challenges and also offered you "continues" when your lives ran out. Final Vendetta, to be fair, doesn't have as many cheap traps as an old arcade game (the bosses can be cheap or lazy sometimes), but it does have traps and notably challenging level/enemy design at many points, plus it completely does away with any continues once you game over. This isn't an attempt to make a game as hard as the old ones, it's just an attempt to make a purposefully tough-as-nails game that looks like a classic.

I'll be honest. Making it through most of the game only to lose and be forced to restart as the default mode of play isn't particularly fun. In fact, it's quite frustrating, to the point that I was glad that the game was also fairly short. Not a good sign when someone is glad they have to play less of your game, is it? I was a bit surprised that there were only like 6 levels, and they're not exactly long. But hey, in order to unlock more of those game modes, you have to beat the game in one sitting with a specific character in a specific level of difficulty, so you better get to it.

I have other minor complaints aside from all that. For example, my only issue with the controls is that adding a block button, along with the design decisions that come with expecting the player to be able to block, wasn't my favorite. It's a mechanic that barely any games in the genre have, so it feels out of place and forces you to keep something more in mind, something that wouldn't be in your skillset no matter how seasoned you are. One other thing I dislike is how uncharismatic the game is on a story and visuals level. These characters and enemies might have been given a pass in the 90s, but they're very forgettable for a 2022 game. Frankly, the "hot ladies and beefy men" school of design doesn't cut it, it feels like you're stuck in an idealized form of the past with no nuance.

In conclusion, if you are up for a tough challenge, if that is specifically what you want, it's not like Final Vendetta is bad in the slightest. It expects and demands your best. I'm just saying this "old games used to be hard" mentality is kinda lame. There are design limitations we moved on from for a reason, and making something that's trying to bring those back, especially with those fake nostalgia, rose-tinted glasses will result in a fairly unappealing product for most people.

[megahorous]

The Beat em up Dommes and Homer hangin' out !

[megahorous]

This time, I re-played Final Vendetta because it's short and sweet. It's kind of like Final Fight, but in England

-- I just noticed, I think the protagonists are named after beers. But, I wouldn't know much about that

-- The food pickups should've been tea and crimpets

-- As in all beat em ups, the prerequisite Damsel in Distress is wearing a red dress, and there are Domme enemies [the best kind of enemies]

-- I like how the final boss is a robot for no reason, and then they go for Burgers at The End; it's like a kid wrote the story

[lexicnation]

Final Vendetta

[thehouseofflyingcontrollers]

Me and my wife have been finishing as many Co-op beat ‘em up style games that we can find. Final Vendetta was on sale and I picked it up the Nintendo Switch copy. Believe it or not it has its own vibe mechanically in little small ways. We have been having a lot of fun with it but again nothing hits the sweet spot like streets of rage and final fight I’m gonna do a top ten beat ‘em up games my next post stay tuned