Shadow of the Orient Review: Fun isn’t Expensive!

Shadow of the Orient is already live on mobile, released on Steam in October 2024, and has finally been released on the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch consoles. If you’re in the market for pixel art or are even remotely excited about platformers, you simply can’t overlook this title.

Shadow of the Orient was developed by Dolores Entertainment and is already live on mobile. It was released on Steam in October 2024 and has finally been released on the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch consoles. If you’re in the market for pixel art or are even remotely excited about platformers, you simply can’t overlook this title.

Here’s our official review of the Shadow of the Orient at Gameffine.

A Warrior with Grit

The storyline for this game is pretty straightforward. You play as Xiaolang, a young warrior who takes on anyone in his path using Martial Arts. While he lets his fist do most of the talking, he often uses various tools and equipment to aid his journey.

Xialong is a true hero, as his search is based on rescuing kidnapped children. And all of them have been hidden well across the journey. While Xialong will face various samurai, demons, flying creatures, witches, and many more, his true enemy – the dark lord eagerly awaits the final battle.

While fighting may be one of the most important parts that drives the game, the puzzle platforming hooks you into the game because of how unforgiving it can be. The entire arena feels like a 2D sousliks game, but the respawn and checkpoints make it a much easier experience to go through.

The Grind is Real

The mechanics of Shadow of the Orient are good, but aren’t good instantly. You start with basic fists, limited health, unforgiving enemie,s and platforming, which are together extremely tough to go with. And hey, the flying enemies are going to be a big headache for a long time. But once you get a grip on the game and know the enemy pattern, the experience gets much better.

While many other factors keep the gameplay loop interesting, the weapons make it much more fun to play the game. Each weapon has a different range, but all of them are equally devastating to play with. The powerups, flaming punches, and fire shields are some of the more popular upgrades you collect by finding chests or defeating enemies that can help you push forward without any fear.

The gameplay experience can be even more enhanced through the progression shop, where you can exchange the crystals found inside the game. But the pacing is very unfair. You can complete ACT 1, but still not collect enough gems to unlock more than three upgrades at once. Therefore, the game insists on a grind to get better upgrades and items.

This could’ve been easily fixed by simply having an XP system, where I could focus more of my time defeating enemies, instead of having to find the right coloured collectible. The game has some excellent features,but the way of procuring or unlocking them is just an unfair barrier for a straightforward beat-em-up platformer.

Apart from this, the exploration is just mindblowing. The maps are extremely detailed, and the children are hidden quite well, along with the tasks of locating the switch. The tutorial should’ve included a demo of how to save a child and what a switch looks like, but it doesn’t become a much bigger problem as you start saving them from the start.

The entire map is loaded with danger. The skies have dragons, the waters are deadly, there are spikes in every platform, and enemies who thirst for your blood. Overall, the presentation of all levels and the perfect increase in difficulty make it an absolute carnage of an experience, and anyone who appreciates a challenge will love Shadow of the Orient.

However, the grind and essential features like the dash being locked away seem unnecessary. The fire shield auto-deploying on pick-up also doesn’t make sense. Once you’re set with using weapons that you unlock later or pick up limited-use weapons inside the game, you soon realise that using fists is just tedious and not as fun.

The Serene Visuals

Shadow of the Orient has a very nostalgic OST, that puts you right into the arcade era of the earlier generation of consoles when Ninja Gaiden was canon and the major talk of the town.

Shadow of the Orient also absolutely nails the art. The pixel graphics genre continues to thrive in this generation because of how well it has been executed. The attention to detail on the map designs, backdrops, and especially the enemies is insane.

The performance on Nintendo Switch is also very smooth. We didn’t encounter any bugs, or performance issues throughout the gameplay time.

Real Talk

Shadow of the Orient simply smashes it out of the park for being a challenging platformer, especially for the price. While having a good narrative or a well-planned progression system might not be what the game focused on, it still delivers an excellent platformer while having well-built fighting mechanics. The grind is there and is easily fixable by a patch, but until then, you’ll have to spend some time before the game can get really good.