Echoes of Yi : Samsara Review Summary

Sekiro-inspired combat, polished indie graphics, good value, and adjustable difficulty shine, but bugs, performance issues, awful bosses, and lock-on problems hold it back.

Strong Sekiro-Inspired Combat: Many reviewers highlight the combat as heavily inspired by Sekiro, with satisfying hit feel and fast-paced mechanics. The gameplay successfully captures the Souls-like essence while adding its own touches.

Good Graphics and Scenery: Graphics are generally praised as good or beautiful, with stunning landscapes and environments. The visual quality is considered impressive for the project's scope.

Great Value for Money: Many reviewers feel the game is well worth its price, offering good value even at full cost. The quality is considered high relative to the budget price.

Bosses Are Somewhat Easy: A notable number of players find the bosses relatively easy, with many being defeated in one or two tries. However, a few bosses still provide a decent challenge.

Overall Positive Reception: The game is generally regarded as very good and worth playing. Many consider it a must-play for fans of Sekiro.

Abundance of Bugs: Players frequently report numerous bugs throughout the game, including clipping issues and bugs in the end area. This significantly detracts from the overall experience.

Terrible Boss Fights: Boss fights are described as a nightmare, with bosses constantly spamming combos and releasing endless skills. The difficulty is much higher than Sekiro, making fights frustrating.

Poor Translation and Localization: The translation is clumsy or broken, with the Italian localization being particularly bad, akin to a poor machine translation. This makes the plot and details incomprehensible.

Janky and Stiff Movement: Movement is clunky and animations are stiff, leading to a janky experience. This can be frustrating, especially during combat.

Severe Lock-On Issues: Lock-on frequently drops during boss fights, especially against teleporting bosses, and fails with multiple enemies. This is considered unacceptable by many players.

Sekiro-Inspired Combat Core: The game heavily imitates Sekiro's parry-focused combat, featuring deflections, posture bars, and mikiri counters. Many players describe it as a 'Sekiro-like' or 'Sekirolike' experience.

Boss Design and Variety: Bosses have distinct movesets, multiple phases, and creative designs. Some bosses are repeated with stat changes, and a few have unfair mechanics.

Abundant Boss Fights: The game features over 30 bosses and elite enemies, with many unique encounters. Boss fights are a major focus and are frequently cited as a highlight.

Posture and Parry Mechanics: Combat centers on breaking enemy posture through perfect blocks and parries. Posture does not recover over time, requiring aggressive play.

Skill and Upgrade Systems: Players can unlock skills, martial arts, and passive effects via skill trees. Offerings provide passive bonuses, and relics can be equipped at checkpoints.

Poor optimization and performance: Numerous reviews describe the game as poorly optimized, with low FPS even on high-end systems and settings. Performance issues significantly detract from the overall experience.

Widespread stuttering and frame drops: Many players report severe frame drops, stuttering, and unstable framerates during gameplay, including during combat and movement. This issue appears across a wide range of hardware configurations.

Crash and freeze issues: Some players experience crashes, freezes, and hangs, though others report that these issues have been resolved. The severity varies, with some encountering frequent crashes.

Stable performance on some systems: A number of players report stable performance with no crashes or technical issues, even on weaker hardware. This suggests the optimization issues are not universal.

Texture and graphical glitches: Players report texture pop-in, blurry visuals, and graphical glitches such as collision bugs causing teleportation. These issues impact visual quality and immersion.

Overall Positive Recommendation: Many users give a clear recommendation, often highlighting the game's strengths in combat and boss design. Some note it deserves a positive review despite flaws.

Strong Sekiro Fan Appeal: Many reviewers recommend the game specifically to fans of Sekiro, noting that it provides a similar parry-focused experience. Several explicitly say it is a must-play for those who enjoyed Sekiro.

Buy Only On Sale: A recurring recommendation is to purchase the game during a discount, as many feel it is not worth the full price. Reviewers often state it is a good budget pick or worth it only at a lower price point.

Mixed To Negative Reviews: A portion of players do not recommend the game, citing reasons such as unfinished state, poor movement, or unreasonable boss fights. Some are refunding or advising others to avoid it.

Worth The Price: Despite mixed opinions on full price, numerous reviewers find the game worth its cost, especially when discounted. Some even say they would have paid more.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $12.00.

Game completion: 30.0h.

Story completion: 8.6h.

Session length: 1.5h.

Some players report immediate fun and satisfying learning, but later progression becomes frustrating for others, supporting a fun-then-drops profile. Early friction includes a dragging tutorial, easy common enemies, poor technical performance, and limited traversal.

Friction: Tutorial section drags on too long; Common enemies are extremely easy and not innovative; Graphics are horrible and optimization is poor; Traversal is limited to a jump with no grappling hook.

Unlock drivers: Learning enemy attack patterns.

Sekiro Veteran / Deflection Purist: Fights aggressively around perfect blocks that break enemy stability, chaining parries into executions and punishing elite and boss patterns. Motivation: To relive the precise parry-and-deflect boss combat loop they loved in Sekiro and other deflection-based soulslikes. Stance: buy.

Achievement Hunter / Completionist: Plans routes and difficulty settings to hit achievement milestones, tracks hidden bosses and optional locations, and measures progress by completion percentage and hour counts. Motivation: To tick off every achievement and reach 100% completion efficiently rather than savor the story. Stance: buy.

Value-Conscious Bargain Hunter: Waits for discounts, weighs the game against other indies and AA/AAA titles at the same price, and only commits when the cost feels justified. Motivation: To get a decent soulslike experience without spending much, treating price relative to polish and content as the decisive factor. Stance: deep sale.

Strong Sekiro comparison: Players frequently compare this game to Sekiro, viewing it as a simpler or budget alternative. Many describe it as a spiritual successor or a smaller-scale Sekiro-like experience.

Part 1 of series: The game is only part 1 and ends abruptly, with a sequel teased. The store page does not clearly indicate this, and it is unclear if part 2 will be a separate purchase.

Small development team: The game was developed by a very small team, with credits listing only a few people or specifically eight members. This highlights the indie nature of the project.

Easier than other soulslikes: Players note that the game is easier compared to Sekiro and Wukong, though still challenging for veterans. It offers a comparable but less punishing difficulty.

Comparisons to multiple soulslikes: The game is often compared to a range of parry-focused soulslikes, including Nioh 2, Lies of P, and FromSoftware titles. This positions it within the broader soulslike genre.