In Celebration of Violence Review Summary

Fun and entertaining with satisfying combat, but slow movement, unfair difficulty, missing Chinese localization and a proper tutorial hold it back.

Fun and entertaining gameplay: Players consistently describe the game as fun, entertaining, and addictive, especially praising its roguelike elements. It is considered worth the price.

Satisfying combat system: The combat system is frequently highlighted as amazing, satisfying, and challenging, with tight controls, parry, dodge, and weapon variety. It offers a high skill ceiling.

Good value for price: Multiple players affirm the game is well worth the full price, offering good value for money. It is considered a worthwhile purchase.

Dark and atmospheric setting: The game is noted for its dark and grim atmosphere, drawing comparisons to Dark Souls and Binding of Isaac. This style appeals to fans of those games.

Deep and interesting lore: The lore is deep and interesting, reminiscent of Dark Souls storytelling. The game is considered good overall, with a promising feel.

Combat and movement too slow: Combat and movement are repeatedly described as very slow and deliberate, with wind-ups that take too long and enemy attacks that are much faster. This makes encounters feel tedious and unbalanced, as players feel limited to basic attacks while enemies use combos.

Unfair enemy difficulty: Enemy AI, speed, and difficulty spikes are criticized, with archers too fast, bosses reliant on luck, and regular enemies becoming as tough as bosses. This creates unfair and unbalanced encounters.

Missing Chinese localization: Multiple reviews highlight the lack of official Chinese translation or localization, requiring players to rely on mods or fan patches. This creates a significant barrier for Chinese-speaking players and has persisted for years.

Missing proper tutorial: The game hides many mechanics and lacks a proper tutorial, leaving players confused about core systems. Levels feel cluttered with random items and lack linear focus.

Vague item descriptions: Item descriptions are often unclear, unlock one letter at a time, or mousing over tools does not explain their use. This vagueness makes early game confusing and forces players to examine everything closely.

Souls-like combat difficulty: The game combines Souls-like mechanics such as stamina, parry, and dodge with Dark Souls-inspired difficulty. This fusion creates a deliberate, hardcore combat experience that prioritizes boss-oriented progress and precision.

Top-down roguelike action: The game is identified as a top-down roguelike action RPG with deliberate, slow-paced combat and minimal explanation. It blends rogue-lite progression with sword-fighting elements, offering a methodical dungeon-crawling experience.

Metaprogression with crystals: A metaprogression system uses crystal currency for upgrades and stat allocation, with permadeath but permanent stat boosts from experience points and special items. Players can collect diamonds and allocate stat points to develop their character between runs.

Achievement-based class unlocks: Achievements unlock diverse classes such as Blacksmith, Pariah, Ranger, and more, with specific unlocking conditions like destroying 5 weapons for the Blacksmith. This incentivizes exploration of different playstyles.

Diverse weapons and spells: Players note a wide variety of melee weapons, ranged weapons, spells, passive abilities, potions, and magical accessories. This variety allows for diverse combat strategies and build customization.

Blood and XP lag: Excessive blood or XP on screen causes severe performance drops, sometimes to sub-frame-a-second levels or 1 frame per 10 seconds. This is a critical performance issue affecting gameplay.

Crash on startup: The game crashes at startup, requiring users to disconnect from the internet to stop the crashing. This is a blocking issue for affected players.

Good value for price: Feedback frequently states the game is worth its price, especially during sales, and offers strong value. Many reviewers specifically mention getting their money's worth.

Highly recommended overall: The majority of feedback strongly recommends the game, with many calling it a worthwhile purchase. This is the dominant sentiment across many clusters.

Challenging and rewarding gameplay: Players who enjoy difficulty and trial-and-error discovery highly recommend the game. The challenge is seen as a positive feature for the right audience.

Not for casual players: Some feedback warns that the game's slow pace, high difficulty, and lack of explanation make it unsuitable for casual players. Patience is required.

Worth sharing with friends: Some reviewers suggest buying the game for friends or telling others about it, indicating strong enthusiasm and word-of-mouth potential.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $20.00.

Game completion: 100.0h.

Story completion: 16.0h.

Session length: 1.0h.

The game has a steep early learning curve with punishing slow combat and minimal tutorial, but becomes deeply rewarding once the combat systems and weapon mechanics are understood.

Friction: steep learning curve; lack of proper tutorial; slow-paced deliberate combat; punishing death (souls-like); vague progression goals.

Unlock drivers: mastering weapon mechanics; learning parry and dodge timing; understanding meta-progression systems; looking up guides or wiki.

Souls-like Enthusiast: Slow, methodical, focusing on timing, parrying, dodging, and learning enemy patterns. Motivation: Mastery of deliberate, punishing combat and exploration. Stance: buy.

Roguelike Enthusiast: Iterative, learning from deaths, adapting builds, experimenting with weapons and upgrades. Motivation: Replayability, meta-progression, and stacking difficulty through multiple runs. Stance: buy.

Completionist Grinder: Focused on long-term goals, efficient farming, and methodical progression. Motivation: Unlocking all achievements and overcoming grindy meta-progression. Stance: sale.