Proxy Blade Zero

Proxy Blade Zero
N/A
Metacritic
77
Steam
56.916
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$3.99
Release date
28 July 2014
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
77 (130 votes)

Proxy Blade Zero is a hardcore 3D action game with technical combat. Play as Fenrir, an advanced battle android, against the armies of King Anima.

Show detailed description

Proxy Blade Zero system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows Vista or superior
  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5750 1GB or Nvidia GTS 250 1GB
  • DirectX: Version 10
  • Storage: 1 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: Xbox gamepad recommended for optimal play

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
Similar games
Popularity
Reviews
Write a new review
shoggofu (Satanovich)
shoggofu (Sata…

I find this game really really hard. But I think it's good.

http://youtu.be/0-vnPIHXpyM
http://youtu.be/T80pxMECUfo
For me the experience of this game was as described, the difficulty is pretty hardcore. You have to be able to react instantly in order to block attacks, with certain enemies there is only a specific window of opportunity during which you are able to damage them. You only have a relatively small amount of health which does not regenerate and you seldom come across extra health. The first boss encounter was hard for me, but it's sequence of attacks appeared to be very scripted. So you can basically learn when to parry and when to attack by rote, but that obviously can take a lot of trial and error which it did for me. I died a lot using that method lol. Another reason that this game was hard for me was simply because I kept pressing parry instead of attack and vice versa. I need to play more to get used to the controls and I'm also probably just not used to the Xbox 360 control. As well as that this is not a game that's ideally played when you aren't fully alert e.g. not after just getting up like I was when I first played. I don't think it helped that I extra slow witted instead of my regular slow witted today lol. Anyway I've actually kept playing and now I've got the hang of the game, it helped to put it on easy difficulty. I got to the last boss which is pretty damn hard. I got him down to like 25% health but then it became even more difficult! I came close to the end but I think it'll take me another full session just to beat the last part of the game! And that is in easy difficulty... One little thing to mention I think that boss is supposed to be able to know you off the platform where the battle takes place. However when my character was knocked out of it he just stood in midair instead of falling. It was an amusing moment =)

I thought the game looked not just decent but good. Yes the models are made up of basic looking polygons and it's not 'AAA' graphics. But I looked up the developer DragonSix and apparently it is a one person team and that this is their first completed title. So I think they've done a pretty good job. My favourite thing was seeing the projectiles that the final boss shoots at you flying past.

I think that the gameplay itself is solid.To me personally fancy (best word I can think of right now lol) graphics just do not matter to me. So I recommend this game.

Click here for my YouTube gaming channel

Box
Box

It's not the prettiest game by any means but it's definitely one of the more fun games to come out of Greenlight. Played til the first boss and had to stop because other things distracted me. Definitely can appreciate a game that goes by the better "Gameplay over Graphics" that too many newer games take by releasing steaming piles of shit and especially since the developer is just a single guy, mad respect. 10/10 Would dash again.

Mark447
Mark447

If you put Killer is Dead into a cyberpunk setting, this would be the result... Fun game!

Summer Laverdure
Summer Laverdure

Who needs consoles? This game is really fun, good music. Graphics arent the best, but it's the dude's own custom engine, give him a break, have YOU made your own full 3D graphics engine? Even with the bare aesthetics, you get a vague sense of anime, its nifty. :3

The gameplay is excellent 3rd -person slashem up with blocks and dashes and L-targeting, I LOVE these kinds of games! I played with a gamepad and reccomend you do too, it doesnt seem like it would be fun on keyboard and mouse.

For some reason it reminds me a bit of Bungie's Oni - take that as you will, I know some people hated it but I loved that game.

I would reccomend this to a friend who's looking for an action game, or someone transitioning from consoles to Steam.

guy? toilet seat
guy? toilet seat

Proxy Blade Zero is a simple yet satisfying robot swordfighting game that rewards quick reaction times and knowing when your attack opportunities are open (this aspect feels similar to melee combat in the Souls games - at least for me - as most of the time you can't just run in and mash the attack button). The combat feels good and pulling off a good string of attacks/dodges without being hit is challenging, yet fun. New enemy types have appeared frequently, enemy groups are nicely varied and it doesn't pull many cheap tricks either. Music is great, fits the tone of the gameplay very well and the visuals are done well too. It's not the most detailed look in the world but the animations are good, the robots look good and the lighting/attack effects have a bright, vivid design. If you think this game isn't worth $7 ($5.60 on sale) because of the way it looks then you're a baby, in a big budget cinematic game it's fine to expect top of the line visuals because the story and graphics have to make up for the linear, rote gameplay. This isn't one of those, it's a gameplay focused game. There's no filler, it's just you and the other robots trying to kill you. The only negative I can really think of is the length. Granted there is hard mode and the combat could warrant another playthrough so you'll definitely get your money's worth. Also there are too many pointless achievements (beat a mandatory level, kill 50 of X enemy, dodge 100 times etc).

Addendum:
I'm sort of disappointed in the amount of boss battles but it's nothing big, it's just that with how fun they were I would have loved to see more of them. Loved the voice acting and filters though, they fit perfectly, weren't too cheesy or trying to be funny and gave the bosses some personality. I'd personally buy a sequel or expansion with more stuff day one if that ever came about.

Last edit:
I played this on an f310 controller, I can't comment on how it plays with kb+m.

2016 edit: It actually seems to play better with mouse and keyboard, feels more direct and makes fighting without locking on more viable (faster camera movement etc).

VBadwolf
VBadwolf

A big mecha/robots fan... I really enjoyed this game, one of this robot remind me of Virtual On and Zone Of The Enders. The Controller's a little hard and all difficutly levels aren't easy. If you love mecha and playing in hardcore level, go to buy it.

xaekin
xaekin

This game doesn't quite feel like it's a finished game, just yet. I'm uncertain if the developer understood what kind of combat system they were making.

See, while the greenlight page and the developer's blog both made suggestions that it's a similar breed of game to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, it really isn't. The gameplay ends up being a balance closer to Ninja Gaiden, where one spends much of their time kiting enemies to leave one vulnerable enough to actually deal some damage. Between the wide area attacks, and large enemies with uncounterable (though not unblockable, as I first thought) attacks, and projectile attacks, almost every enemy in the game encourages the player to stay away as defense. This in of itself isn't a bad thing; it can lead to hit and run tactics, which I had initially tried, only to realize that it's near impossible to do so.

Except, the tools the player has aren't built for kiting, or for hit and run. They're built for dueling. One on one fights against enemies with complex patterns. The parry/counter system is actually fairly well implemented. The player has full ability to defend against melee attacks, and end a batch of them with a counter attack to reverse momentum a bit. It still needs some fine-tuning, because the larger enemies (such as the hammer guys, or the gun-type's melee attack) seem to have the parry window mistimed. No, where the game actually starts to fall apart is the dashing. It's unresponsive, with what feels like a 5-10f startup, it has a limited duration, and because it has a "special attack" associated with it, The player can't use it to reengage with an enemy. Especially since the dash attacks are the only attacks you have that can't be canceled with a parry. What this means is that the attack the player is supposed to be using defensively, to wear down enemy armor, is only useful AFTER the shields are down. The player can't dash in and out of range, because the startup is so long that the player will not have moved out of the way by the time the attack lands, assuming they're dodging from reaction, and not trying to predict when the enemy is going to counterattack. It means that the grenades end up being far more dangerous than they should be with the huge window you have, because the player can't use the only way to escape its range in time.

I have other minor gripes with the combat, such as not being able to parry from the counter animation, which means that seemingly open windows for counter attack are actually just a chance to get wrecked. The player can parry from the parry's cooldown, but it can't parry from the counterattack. The overdrive system doesn't actually require variety. It's VERY easy to max it out using only the normal attacks, which I'd eventually resorted to, for reasons I've already stated. Lastly, the game has some minor issues communicating thus far. I didn't realize the grenadier enemies were different from the first enemies I fought until I saw both in the same fight. They have the same animations, and since both the initial weak enemy and the grenadiers have red heads, they look identical. The only visual difference they have blends into the background. The range of a grenade is illustrated by the red circle that initially appears around it, but when it explodes, the game shows nothing, except the player getting flung away. Only the player is thrown away, I should add. I presume it's an attempt to keep the player from using grenades against the enemies that threw them, except that similar tactics are specifically designed for use against the gun enemies when they appear.

Dragonsix, or Ben L. Grauer, whichever you would prefer: Redo how dashing works, or Rebalance the enemies for the combat system you actually have. Now, I'm far from an expert, and I can't very well crack open the code and see how well the changes I'd make would work in practice, but I do play enough action games to have some sense of what works and what doesn't, and why. Make the dash FAR more responsive by letting the player cancel into it. Maybe not let them immediately cancel out of it, but at the option to at least cancel into the dash would mean that a surprise grenade can be dealt with in time. In fact, you might very well be able to make the window tighter without interfering with the gameplay. Either remove the dash attack, or make its supposed anti-shield properties far more drastic. The player shouldn't have to worry about accidentally doing a dash attack and being unable to parry because of it. Don't punish the player for being risky, punish them for failing to take advantage of near misses. Other reviews have made suggestions of being able to parry the lasers from the gun enemies, and while that sounds pretty awesome, being able to dash in and out of the line of fire sounds far cooler. Take your pick. Tweak the overdrive system so that it actually requires variety, while you're at it.

tl;dr - Either let the player cancel into the dash so that they can take advantage of it in short bursts, or tighten up the parry system. I'd recommend the former, so you aren't wasting the mechanics you have. Tweak your visual designs so they communicate better. This game does NOT feel finished, just yet.

gperrin
gperrin

the game is defenately a well thought out game in design. the fighting mechanics lead well into combos and skill based gameplay. Where the game falls very short is level design. the first stage, the game starts out well designed. the enemies and encounters teach you how to approach each enemy so that you get into the rhythem the game wants, but then the game starts throwing in 3 to 4 different kind of enemies at the same time and suddenly no strategy works. guy with a shield? block and destroy shield. what's that? can't do it? guy with giant hammer next to him at all times? the two never leave each other's side? guess you just use dash to run around until something works, because that's all you end up doing since the grenade throwers never let you stand in one place, which is what you need to do to kill every other enemy besides them. i think the game might be better if these 3 things were changed or added: 1. more checkpoints so you don't have to fight 20 super hard fights without dying more than 4 times before having to repeat it all. 2. think more about what it means to put enemies together, so that you don't have someone who counters every strategy for every guy. 3. add some powers that allow people to overcome being surrounded and mobbed.

William Shakesman
William Shakesman

In the neon post-cyberpocalyptic future one robot will swordfight a bunch of other robots to save the world from the robotic scourge.

PBZ absolutely does not waste your time. No dialog, no cutscenes, no stupid physics puzzles or jumping, what it DOES offer is a solid challenging action combat system of parries, jetting about like a madman (madrobot), and overall striking at enemies where they are weak and you won't take a robotic fist to the robotic face for your trouble. The parry window is generous, so you don't have to be a royal guard nutter to apply but you absolutely must fight smart.

It looks a little rough, yes, and is certainly not flashy, but if you watch the videos or get the demo on XBLIG you will certainly taste the craft and effort that went into the combat. There's a real, honest, though-out combat system here and I daresay that it certainly manages to be more interesting on a purely combat-systematic level than Metal Gear Rising. (Not to knock MGR, I love it dearly and it wins out on glamor, satisfaction, excitement, and bosses, but... really, the mook combat in that game was parry parry parry parry slash at giant HP soak enemies parry slice QTE. PBZ is much more grounded but the enemies just do so many more interesting things here in a gameplay sense. Enemies have reasonable health bars and each requires a slightly different approach.)

Wandering Trader
Wandering Trader

The price on this isn't bad, but unfortunately the game is. It doesn't feel finished and is full of outdated ideas like 1ups.

http://youtu.be/KNmnWj9WODE

KD97
KD97

Very Challenging. This game surprisingly requires skill o.o

Makes you ragequit/10

Donut Steel My Eyes
Donut Steel My Eyes

Much of this game is lacking, from the combat that it touts to the graphics and music. The combat in in itself is very tedious, with only about six attacks in the game and no real way to string them in interesting fashions. The parry mechanic isn't as fleshed out as it should be, with many of the multi-hitting strings of enemies being invincible to the counter attack, as well as the boost not being a real asset, more as just a glorified sprint button. There is an absurd amount of recovery on each move as well as enemies taking huge bites out of your life, this game promotes a very hit and run style of play unlike Devil May Cry or other bastions in the genre. While, being made by one man, this is an incredible feat to be sure, I cannot recommend this game to the average consumer. I hope he finds work because of his skill, but this is clearly a game with a lot of care put into it just without the amount of staff on deck to give it the love and care it deserved.

Azure
Azure

What can I say about this game? It's hard and unforgiving. I enjoyed this game, I really did, but most people probably won't. The game has a good difficulty climb, everytime they introduce a new enemy, you fight it 1v1 before you fight it in a group. you have about 3 melee attacks, a boost, and a parry, not a block, a parry, so you have to time it right. The graphics aren't anything special, but nothing bad. This game requires good tactics and strategy of pure hack and slash which keeps it from getting boring. The game is divided into to "chapters" and if you get a gameover, you have to start the whole chapter all over again, which can get annoying, luckily, bosses have their own chapter. The bosses are actually the easiest part of the game and it's REALLY short. I can't recommend this game to most players because it's hard and you will die A LOT, but if you're someone that feels like you're trapped in a world of cake-walks, this game is for you.

Tigerhawk71
Tigerhawk71

Do yourself a huge favor - Play it on Critical from the get-go, especially if you've ever played reactive combat games before.

Two button combo system + a parry and a dodge+sprint.
Lives system - so no zerging. You need to have some degree of skill, but that's what makes it fun.
Decent music.
Visuals are basic but get the job done. If you're someone who can't enjoy a game under a specific polygon count, move on.
Bosses could use less voice acting - and that's just the first one.
Enemies or attack types are introduced in a single fight, then become part of groups.
Probably going to be a bit short for $7 - so again, play it on Critical first.

R4NC1D
R4NC1D

Whew...whoa...that end boss...

Thos game is a tough as nails hack n slash that requires an amount of strategy and reaction time. The game's shortness is more than made up for in difficulty. Craaaazy fun. Worth 7$ I like to think. Amzing.

Papa Saffron
Papa Saffron

Fun yet challenging, almost like a better version of DMC. Graphics aren't built to impress, but the play is simple to learn. With the additional addon of multiple enemies that make you scream "WHAT THE F**K." And to top it all off, the game is no larger than 400mb.

Green
Green

Easy to learn, but hard to master.

The combat system is fairly basic but has a lot of depth. The game has no cutscenes, and almost no story. It just throws you right into the action after a basic tutorial.

Very short but satisfying game. My only complaint is there's only two boss fights. An extra one would have done wonders for this game.

Metrolovic
Metrolovic

Obnoxious yet fun, aggrivated yet addicting. i havent played a game that challenged my morale in a long time. Proxy blade will literaly make you want to punch the developers however, in the end you will realise the game was great and i was happy to find something actully challenging.

Matt³
Matt³

Challenging Fun Game, Reminds Me A Little Bit Of Gundam, Combat System Is Easy To Learn But Difficult To Use Against Those Evil, Evil Bots, I Highly Recommend It I Give It A 8/10, And Be Prepared, Even On Easy Mode.

Jonok
Jonok

I recommended it for those people who want just a challenging action game whit awesome music.

with a more detalied comment i had fun while playing it but it seemed more like a tech demo. There is no plot, no particular art style and is really short. The game doesn't offer replay value, that could be improved by upgrade or a simply a score board. the enemy pattern is too simple and easy to predict, and when you choose a different difficulty the gameplay doesn't give different feeling, only enemy damage and HP are changed, that in critical seems only a way to have a cheap death.

tl;dr: is a good game but is short.

Darth Butt
Darth Butt

This game is awesome. Hard, but awesome.

Runa
Runa

Really nice once you get past the tutorial. (Hint: to get out of the tutorial, press enter then escape.) The graphics are perfect for the feel of the game, and the gameplay is great. A great game all round. (Exept for the tutorial.)

the horni jail cumeth
the horni jail…

This is dark souls/metal gear rising albeit with no money, if that doesn't get you moist I don't know what will. I thoroughly enjoyed this game!

tacomaster571
tacomaster571

Fun, difficult, easy to play hard to master. i bought it because i was in the mood for mechs and this did not dissapoint. made me think of dark souls tho, if it had a tutorial.

Kakashi Okazaki
Kakashi Okazaki

Its a fun game however it also doesn't seem like its for everyone and definitely has a learning curve. All in all not bad especially for being made by a one man team.

Prince Silvermane
Prince Silvermane

6/10, A great indie hack n' slash more along the lines of Ninja Gaiden in difficulty. The gameplay is just good and solid despite other shortcomings.

GOOD

The gameplay is basic, but solid. There's no RPG elements, upgradable weapons, or anything else besides what you start with. It's structured more like an older game than a new one where the only improvement there is in how well YOU play the game. And boy there is A LOT of improvement you can do in this game. There's also no 'mission control' which is great, you can just focus on the enemies. You'll need it because each enemy has it's own strengths and will use them liberally. The difficulty pacing is just about right. New enemies are introduced slowly at first, giving you time to get used to them, then pairing them up against old foes in new situations.

BAD

Despite hitting right in so many areas it drops the ball in some others... Let's get this out of the way first. The graphics are bad. The player and enemies are all low polygon, reminicant of early PS2, or maybe even an N64 game. Textures look basic, and environments are uninspired. It all basically just serves as an arena for you to fight all the enemies. The controls while fine, feel a little loose in some areas. Specifically blocking and boosting. When you block you can only go straight into a counter. Sometimes this works against you, and sometimes the counter won't hit at all. It seems like it's programmed to only counter hit when you SHOULD be counter hitting despite what the animation looks like. Enemies have a great degree of tracking so boosting ends up being either useless or a necessity. There's also a lack of a jump button which is a bit weird in a hack n' slash but it's made around that fact. The camera lockon and the way the combat system works seems to encourage 1v1 fights, but the vast majority of the game will be mob battles. There's really only two real bosses. Which is extremely disappointing. Both are pretty basic though still difficult because of input speed required.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

More bosses! Gameplay like this thrives in boss battles. They could be more interesting instead of using re-used assets from other enemies. A jump might make level design more interesting, but only if the jump physics were done right.

7 4 17 0 17 _twelvetwenty-one
7 4 17 0 17 _t…

"Proxy Blade Zero is a hardcore action game with technical combat."
Truer words have never been spoken.

I mean this as the highest compliment: This game would have been right at home on the PlayStation 2.

As this game was on the 360 first, and the start-up urges you to use a controller, I will speak in such terms.
Y is your Attack. X is your Parry. Right Trigger is your glide (a "dodge" that isn't, but which is used AS a dodge, if that makes sense). That's pretty much it (and then there is a Lock-on with Left Trigger and another button that cycles your targets, but I never use it).

Any enemy that has a Shield can attack while being attacked. A button-masher this is not; you must be discerning in when you do what. Most actions can be cancelled into other ones - still, the game is very hardcore and very punishing of the slightest mistake.

When you encounter a new sort of enemy, the first battle with them is a 1v1 so that you might learn of their techniques. Very quickly, the rooms will mix and match the squads; each battle is challenging in its own way (to be clear, there is no randomness factor, except in the drops). You will die. A lot.
You start with 3 lives. Every time you enter a new room, that is where you will respawn. Enemies can drop Health and Lives - don't count on it. Once your lives are exhausted, you start the entire mission over.

Every aspect of the game is so simple - the main point of the game, the combat, is so rewarding once you can get into the groove of things. It's pretty amazing: Proxy Blade Zero is built around a methodical approach to combat, yet everything about it is so hectic; from watching your Battery Power (used while Gliding) to the stance of the enemy you're focusing on, to rushing to spin the camera around so that you can get a better feel for what you're facing, all while having to react within fractions of a second... I am hard-pressed to think of another game that utilizes its minimalism in such an effective way.

I absolutely recommend this game.

EDIT: The game is short though. That changes nothing, but it's good to know.

Humanoid Typhoon
Humanoid Typhoon

Fun hack & slash thats easy to pick up & play but hard to master. Controls r simple, u got 2 attack buttons, a block, target enemy, and a jetpack button. The challenging part of the game is that u have to deal with every enemy in a different way. Some cant be attacked unless u counter. Some shoot stuff or throw bombs. Others have an attack pattern and u have to look for an opening. If u like hack & slash & mechs u should pick this up if u catch it on sale. I got it for a dollar.

Director Bison
Director Bison

short but pretty freaking sweet

the combat flows really well and rewards you for doing well by makeing your attacks faster and stronger

challengeing in the best way possible

for a game with almost no story the last boss has a ton of character with what few lines he has and the fight was really badass

i really enjoyed my time with Proxy Blade Zero and would love to see more some day

Fishy
Fishy

It's a good game. Very fun and it's so exciting and makes you feel like a badass. But when it comes down to that part where you're at the end of the level with one more fight left, and then you get game over and have to start over the level. That part kinda killed it for me. I mean it's fair that you'd have to restart the level, for the sake of lives, but "normal" difficulty, can seem like impossible difficulty in about 80% of this game so far for me.

Xonot
Xonot

Before we begin, I'd like to inform everyone that Proxy Blade Zero is not your conventional hack and slash. Rather than killing enemies stylishly, the main draw of the game is your ability to weave between enemies, block, dash, and counter. In other words, it is more focused on how well you can avoid damage rather than how well you can deal it, creating a relatively intense and novel experience.

Pros:
- No filler. There aren't any annoying puzzles (simple things like activate these 3 switches in 3 adjacent rooms), backtracking is minimal, no convoluted rooms, etc.
- Controls. Controls are responsive and work pretty well with either mouse and keyboard or a controller. I would like to note though that transitioning between the two is a bit awkward.
- Enemy Variety. There are quite a few enemies that you encounter that you develop specific ways to handle, each with their own behavior. Then the developer decides to mash up the composition of each group of enemies you fight, multiplying the types of combat situations you can find yourself in.
-Combat. Combat is very streamlined with only the bare essentials. You have a block, a directional dash, and 3 attack combos whose moves you can go to regardless of the combo you are in. The different combos have different effects with different trade offs between damage, mobility, and animation time. While most attacks are blockable, a few are not and require the player to dash out of the way. Mistiming a block or failing to do a dash can be punished with damage.

Cons:
- Length. While my first run took roughly 3 hours, it would now probably take less than an hour now. It's a very short game with no new game bonuses (as far as I know).
- Graphics. It doesn't look very pretty with very few textures and models that have very few polygons.
- Difficulty. While fair, it has a high skill curve and floor. The game expects you to fully understand the block/dodge timings for an enemy only after the first time you see the enemy. Furthermore, difficulty is very simplistic and only fiddles with numbers like how much damage an enemy deals rather than change enemy behavior.
- Occasional AI issues. While very infrequent, sometimes enemies go into a "stupid" loop where they just move in circles and soak damage for no reason, killing the intense pacing of the game.
- Jumping. There is no jumping. It's by no means a necessary mechanic but it seems weird to not have it in a third person game.
- Bosses. Kinda underwhelming to fight one predictable opponent after you fight a horde of unpredictable opponents.

Overall experience:
The game tests you constantly. "Barely finished a group? Here, let me see you handle some from that group and some from this group." As a result, every time you succeed, it delivers little packets of euphoria every time you master how to respond to an opponent, every time you dive into a horde of enemies while perfectly counterattacking everything, every time you barely eek out of a mission, every time you whoosh around picking off enemies one by one, etc. It has this sense of elegance and precision as you need to actually understand each mechanic before progressing. This game rewards you not with score, not with experience and levels, but by changing you, the player, from a clumsy fool to a dancing, robot killing expert.

All in all, while this game suffers from the fact that it was made by 1 person, I'd recommend any fighting game/beat 'em up fan to pick this up especially if it's on sale.

Solenya
Solenya

This game is only for hardcore gamers. I could write here about horrible graphic or about painful soundtrack. I even could write here about no plot and short game play but difficult of this game compensates this. I thought i am experienced player but this game show me how wrong i was.

Locke
Locke

I've never found myself particularly good at spectacle fighters, but I do rather enjoy them. I'm usually not able to get myself to the top of the leaderboard with crazy combos, but I can manage to muddle through on Easy at least and have fun bashing a lot of guys around. Proxy Blade Zero looked like a fun romp despite the safely budget graphics, but then I tried to play it.

The options are rather bare, and in a launcher at that. But okay, indie dev porting a game off XBIG, could live with it if at least I could enjoy the game. Unfortunately I can't. From the very start I have trouble performing the moves the tutorial wants me to. Trying to chain B and Y into some sort of smooth combo just isn't working no matter how I press the buttons and adjust the timing. Holding Right Trigger and Y is awkward and I can't really tell if it's working or not. The timing on the parry is weird, which will become an issue later. And Left Trigger and Left Button at the same time? That just doesn't work. I'm not going to hold the trigger down with my middle finger the whole time just to be able to use the target switching button, and trying to transition my finger up to hit the button while also holding the trigger is slow and likely to drop you out of lock anyway. A lot of my issues with the game are subjective, but that one is an objective flaw with the (un-rebindable) controls; most people don't use the controller with two fingers on the top buttons, and the game can't be played adequately without doing so.

Anyway, played through the first level, but combat feels slow and stilted. There's a certain flow to it the game is expecting me to find, and I can't find it. I also can't get out of the way of enemy attacks very well. That's usually what I do in these games, rather than use the dodge, block, etc. mechanic, but the game is clearly pointing me to use parry or I'm going to get hit. This becomes even more apparent when I come up to the boss. Some moves are literally impossible to avoid without parrying, but I still just can't use it; it feel like I've always mistimed it one direction or the other, though mostly too late for its large wind-up time. So I die. And I die. And I fall through the world at one point, though thankfully I do not die, then I die at the hands of the boss again. I just keep dying because I can't reliably block. Getting a combo working on him is also capricious, sometimes I'll just keep hitting him and sometimes I'll only hit him once and I have no idea why. And I need to use this combo system I can't get to work because I can't just run around and chip at his health, it literally doesn't hurt him. The game uses this battle to force you to take on its mechanics its way...and frankly I just could figure it out. I gave it all four of my lives running my face into the boss trying to figure it out and I couldn't do it. So I gave up right there.

If you're really good at spectacle fighters and can forgive the technical faults of poor console port, Proxy Blade Zero might be a fun game. Dunno. Couldn't tell you myself. If you're a casual fan of spectacle fighter who just likes to push buttons and see stuff blow up you should probably stay away from this game because it demands more of you than that.

H4zelnut
H4zelnut

hard and short but very fun.
graphics are quite good and music is good too.
I had no problems with running this game. Everything works good.
8/10
reccomend it.

Cinnamaldehyde
Cinnamaldehyde

This game is Crappy at best. You can't change the controls and the button set up isn't natural. there is a block system that is impossible to use and the characters and backgrounds are very bland. I am usualy half way decent at videogames, but I couldn't even manage to get past the first level on normal dificulty. The enimies with guns are immpossible to defeat without taking damage. all and all this game sucks.

Vuzenshi
Vuzenshi

A brilliant, short, somewhat challenging game for a low price. Definitely worthy of my pennies - 10/10

I would love the game even more if it had a difficulty harder than "Critical Mode" or if it had some really hard achievements that I could sweat for.

If you like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance; Bayonetta; Devil May Cry, or if you just like to challenge yourself, you will probably really like this hidden gem. I beat all the difficulties in 3 hours, so the game is certainly short, but you get way more than your money's worth. I had lots of fun during those 3 hours, and it cost me barely anything.

SwivelHipSmith
SwivelHipSmith

Im a vary big fan of hack and slash games but its hard to find many on steam that really give me the feel of a challange. This one has fantastic combat and great animation. For $5 its totally worth it.

Thraeg
Thraeg

This was a game I had heard nothing about but took a random flyer on it during the recent Steam sale because it looked interesting and was only $1, and it's been a very pleasant surprise. Created by a lone developer, it's stripped down to focus solely on the combat -- a couple paragraphs of story, simple but functional graphics reminiscent of an uprezzed Unreal, no need to unlock moves, no bloated combo lists, no puzzles to solve, no RPG elements, just room after room of different configurations of evil robots to hack to bits.

Fortunately, the combat system stands up to the weight placed on it. You play some sort of robotic samurai, and can use a mix of standard melee slashes, special moves that work well against unshielded enemies, and powered attacks that cut through shields better but drain an energy meter that you also need to use for rocket dashes. The rocket dashes are one of two main defensive options -- they give you a lot of speed and maneuverability, but no invincibility frames so you have to make sure you actually get clear of whatever's attacking you. The other defense is a parry that blocks any melee attack and chains into an EMP blast retaliation that breaks shields and stuns the attacker, but a missed parry leaves you stationary and vulnerable. There's no scoring system, but effective play has a nice satisfying flow to it, and using all the available tools to pick apart varied groups of enemies is quite fun. It's especially nice to feel yourself getting better at the game when a particular encounter has killed you a few times and you go back and wipe it out with ease (I probably had a dozen deaths on the final boss before going unscathed when I finally beat it).

My biggest complaint is the controls not being remappable -- they're functional for the most part, but have some odd choices that took a long time to get used to (lock-on on LT, parry on X, attack on Y). Besides that, some enemy configurations wind up a bit heavy on passively running in circles while waiting for an opening to go on the offensive.

It's a nice, tight 3 hours (for me at least, playing on normal and getting a few game overs during that time), and ends right when it's explored the combat system and before devolving into excessive repetition. A real steal at $1, a bit more of a gamble at the standard $5, but if it clicks for you it'll justify that price. If nothing else, I'd at least recommend putting it on a wishlist for the next sale or watching for it to show up in an indie bundle.

Mark
Mark

a very good looking and feeling hack and slash , i highly reccomend it!!! :3333

TheCornDoge
TheCornDoge

If you make a game in the hack and slash genre, it should generally be a fast pace, limb chopping, action filled good way to numb your senses. This game offered none of that. It all but requires an xbox controller to use, but it doesn't even make use of the few controls on the gamepad. A is select (that's it it opens doors) B gets your character in "technique" to attack, Y is the attack, and X block. The right trigger and bumper boost you, and the opposite lock target. Now while few controls may not be a bad thing, the lack of variations to attacks gives no flow to the game.

There are only two attack animations / patterns, and a boost attack which is a one swing move that does not a thing. The regular attack where you just mash Y over and over (which does fukall to your opponents health), and the "technique" attack (mashing B and Y consecutively, oh joy) which does some damage, but leaves you stuck going one direction. Oh, and you can do a little blip sort of "counter" to opponents you block but it's more of a hinderance to you than them. Both of these pattens are boring, and do little to invest your attention into the action. What little of it there is.

The main mission flow of the game is to go through rooms and kill two, maybe three opponents each until you find a key to unlock the next set. That's all I have to say for the experience. Some enemys have shields, some don't. Oh and there are a few rediculously O enemys with huge laser cannons. They fail to inform you of there existance from the start. And while those opponents hit hard and require a little thought from your end to kill them, you really only have three attack patterns so...

All in all, I'd say that this game is the "tic-tac-toe" of slasher games. It does little to invest you in the combat, does not push graphics of any modern standard, and isn't much fun to play. Don't bother with it, Steam gives away coupons for it for a reason.

HawkFiction
HawkFiction

Excellent game. Short, yes, but the author knows this, as the game is only 5 dollars. The mechanics are simple, but contain a lot of depth in the enemies you fight and the great (but sparse) bosses. The game DEMANDS that you learn its mechanics and use them profeciently. Reminds me of old NES and SNES games that used its simple mechanics to squeeze every bit of stragety it can out of you. Worth a play or two.

Kazuuji
Kazuuji

Proxy = someone with authority.
Blade = you got a fricking blade that you can swing.
Zero = the actual sanity you'll have while you play it on the hardest difficulty.
There are 3 things in the title which are in the game as well. HL3 Confirmed??
Overall, the game is incredible for a cheap one and has a lot of combat mechanics for a slash'em up.
10/10

Kyōko Toshinō
Kyōko Toshinō

i dont know how to play this game with the PC controls
and my remote is broken ;n;
10/10
-pc controls ftw

Darkrow
Darkrow

Great burst of sword swinging fun. Simple controls but interesting fighting mechanics make combat feel really rewarding. The music was also pretty engaging and fun, and I don't usually notice music in games.

Encourage
Encourage

This game has fun, fast combat. It has a very responsive conrol system that lets you more-or-less do what you want even though the fights are fairly complex. The game introduces new enemies regularly, so you have to constantly apply new stratedgies to each room.

The graphics are extremely simple, although designers made good choices about how they used the resources they had. The animations are great, the colors are good, the robots and enviornemnts just don't have extremely detailed models or textures. The music definitely adds to the game at points.

I want to compare this game to Dark Souls titles a little--the combat is comparable in terms of the fight-stratedgy dynamic, as well as the twitchy melee combat with manual blocks and parries. You have a jet pack instead of the ability to roll. I would say the difficulty is about the same, espcially when it comes to learning bosses.

Overall this is an awesome game, exactly what you would hope to see from an indie studio--gameplay on par with the best AAA titles (with relatively simple graphics) at a fraction of the cost.

Jaseliara
Jaseliara

[table]

Points out of 10 Graphics 2 Story 1 Gameplay 10 Fun 9 Difficulty 8
HADUKEN
HADUKEN

Hands down a very satisfying hack and slash for me. Perfect difficulty level and game controls for me.
10/10

Box_Whiff_An_X
Box_Whiff_An_X

Robots
Swords
Combos
$1

Better than Any Coke-Cola I've ever had, Coke only has 1 of those

Scarlet
Scarlet

PBZ is unfortunately a bad game. It's too ugly and too hard and doesn't play well. Buy something else. :(

Trash Goblin
Trash Goblin

Pretty sick game for $1. The combat is hard as fuck though so good luck.

therailz
therailz

Fun little game, well worth the 97 cents I paid. It is a budget game no doubt, the graphics and animations are not near AAA levels, but the mechanics are fun and simple and it is more about personal skill than leveling up and learning moves, which is a thing more games need to do.

Eternal
Eternal

Very Interesting Game, Quite difficult to get the hanf#g of im still stuck on the first boss, But I shall defeat it, one Day

ChiggleWiggy
ChiggleWiggy

This game may be short, but it was money well worth it. It's simple to pick up but difficult to master, when facing tougher enemies, one does not get more powerful. You'll just have to get good! Although I would wait for a sale for this.

FusionJay
FusionJay

It's an okay game to pick up for a $1 or $2. Difficult at first but once your in the zone and understand the pattern things become easy and fun.

1) 6 levels- one of them being a boss level fight, no load times, a quick transition to a new level (2 or 3 hours length total).
2)No story/cutscene, a straight foward progression game.
3The normal and hard difficulty mode is an unfair, frustrating mess.

no replay value unless you feel the need to complete it in higher difficulty mode for masohist reason.

Trame
Trame

I love this game.

I recommend it to anyone with nostalgia for (good) early 3D games. There's no getting around that the graphics are pretty barebones, the environments are often empty and repetitive, the story is basically nonexistent despite being organized as a campaign, and the way you move around the level has a sort of "my first 3D game" feel (a series of disconnected rooms with non-animated "doors" that are essentially teleports). However, while these make the game feel a little unpolished, they don't make it bad. Many professionally-developed 3D games felt the same way, before developers had the experience, money, and tools required to make the kind of games we usually get today. And many of those early 3D games were still very good. This one is too.

What this game delivers is very simple and challenging reaction-based combat. You have only a handful of options - a dash, a parry/counter, and an attack button that can be modified in two different ways to create combos. There are no extraneous gameplay systems, and on top of that, there's no scoring or experience systems to let you know how well you're doing. Instead, enemies deal high damage and there's a limited lives system (rare, these days) so you'll know you're doing okay by the fact that you're not dying. Past that, the distinction between getting by (constantly running and taking potshots at the enemies) and playing well (using your combos as much as possible while perfectly countering your enemies or dashing just out of attack range) is immediately obvious, and playing well is so much more efficient and satisfying that there's rarely a need to try to cheese the AI until you're one hit from death.

The key design element that makes this game more than a simple combat engine - which otherwise would absolutely devolve into an endless series of boring fights - is the intelligent way the developers introduce and combine different enemy types. Very rarely do any two serious fights feel the same. While some threats are clearly bigger than others, enemy damage is so high that no enemy be completely ignored, and while you deal damage in a small area of effect, your ability to actually lock down groups of enemies that aren't all of the weakest type is virtually nonexistent (unlike some other games, your counter only staggers enemies that were actually attacking you, not all enemies in range). Therefore, you have to quickly and intelligently choose how to approach the group in front of you and which targets to take out first. Fighting a group of enemies that must all be countered is very different from fighting even one such enemy and an enemy that can stagger you when you try to counter, let alone fighting either group while also dealing with enemies that can counter your own attacks or attack from range.

Proxy Blade Zero isn't perfect, and probably has limited appeal for a big chunk of people on Steam. People who aren't used to this level of difficulty aren't going to like it, and people accustomed to the way the vast majority of modern games work - with multiple overlapping gameplay systems, well-managed checkpointing rather than lives, or expansive, cinematic storylines - are probably going to be confused by what anyone sees in it. But if you miss simple games designed by small teams to experiment with what you can do with a simple concept - and can handle the lack of polish that frequently accompanied that - Proxy Blade Zero does pretty much exactly what it sets out to do, and is easily worth the low asking price. I can't remember the last time I played a game like this; most developers can't resist at least throwing in leveling and loot systems, and while it's impossible for me to tell if they're only missing here for development reasons, I hope DragonSix keeps this basic design sensibility in mind if they ever make a sequel.

terry309
terry309

Proxy Blade Zero is a character action game (or hack n slash) which puts you in control of a humanoid robot named Fenrir a smaller version of Jehuty from Zone Of The Enders who can't fly but can dash. Seriously if you've played Zone Of The Enders you will find the combat very similar, just on a smaller scale. In fact that combat is actually more fun that Zone Of The Enders because it doesn't try too many things and keeps things simple.

Combat is the name of the game here. You have your parry button X (an odd choice) your attack button marked Y (Classic DMC style) and B is a delay which transforms your regular attacks with standard attacks. Using the right trigger allows you to dash and perform energy attacks.

The only problem I had with the combat were the controls, mostly the fact that X is the parry button. I'm serious when I say that this is the game's only flaw. Often you will mistake the X button for attack which will lead to many deaths. This game is hard and I died to the final boss just because I pressed Y to block, thinking I was playing Sleeping Dogs or something.

This wouldn't be so bad if they offered you the ability to changed the controls. Remember my last blog talking about the importance of options in videogames? That applied here too. The option to customize your control layout is important for a game and I'm still baffled as to why Character action games still fail to do this.

The enemies you fight in the game are very punishing and you will have to learn them fast. Sometimes it's difficult to distinguish enemies from one another. Shielded enemies don't stagger. This isn't explained in game but you'll learn this soon enough. You can tell a shielded enemy from a non shielded enemy by the blue bar over their head. To remove a shield you can press Y after a successful block to perform an EMP blast which removed their shield and leaves them vulnerable to attack.

This can get pretty chaotic when there are multiple enemies as the animation for the emp blast keeps you still for a couple of seconds so you have to be very careful when to use it. One particular enemy I fought pushed me too far away to make use of the emp blast. As such I had to literally wait for it to run out of shields. You see shields and energy are the same, energy attacks used by the enemy are unblockable same can't be said for yours though so you have to dash away to avoid them. However dashing uses energy so you have to be tactical.

Proxy Blade Zero is a thinking mans hack n slash, kinda like a puzzle but which punishes those who don't think fast. As such I highly recommend playing on easy first to save yourself the punishment and learn the enemies. I cannot stress this enough. You will die a lot, health is dropped by enemies but in very small doses so you have to be very conservative with your health. Some situations will make you want to be more aggressive, others more defensive. You have to make quick judgement in this game.

Basically it's not like Devil May Cry where you just use any random attack string to KO enemies. In Proxy Blade Zero, each enemy has a set strategy on how to KO them. The challenge is to find their weak point and rinse and repeat. A concept that wouldn't work in most games but in Proxy Blade Zero, it works really well. Enemies are varied and you will have to change your tactics quick. You will also find some really difficult situations where you'll have to think outside the box.

Proxy Blade Zero isn't a reaction based hack n slash, parrying gives you a pretty comfortable time-frame which doesn't punish players for poor timing. This is ideal as it allows anyone to pick up and play this game which can only be a good thing. Proxy Blade Zero is all about quick thinking and dexterity and rewards players who can develop such skills.

As such if you're the sort of player who loves freedom in creativity, you've picked the wrong game in Proxy Blade Zero. It's a puzzle game with heavy emphasis on speed so if you dislike puzzle games you'll probably dislike this game. I personally feel that the game is just not for me despite the fact that I love the visuals and enjoy the music, the gameplay itself, though flashy just isn't my cup of tea personally. Just throwing that out there.

One system I like in particular though is the momentum system (can I call it that?). Every successful action increases an orange bar which enhances Fenrir's attack speed which allows you to chain even more combo's using both delay and energy attacks for a satisfying finisher. It may not be as varied and flashy as Devil May Cry but it's still a nice feature to have.

As for the rest of the game, the visuals are very Tron inspired which can only be a good thing. I personally like how the textures feel very crisp as does the nebula skybox. It feels like a universe that is cool (and isn't ruined by a "being inside a computer" plot point) and makes the world feel very technologically advanced. The levels look varied. There are many exterior sections, city-like sections and interior sections to spice things up.

The music accompanies it well enough and though it's not the most memorable soundtrack, it has a really nice techno feeling to enhance the ambiance. Honestly, this is a game which requires time to appreciate it's ambiance and is not just about being absorbed into the combat. There are some areas which look pretty nice, as if you want to explore more of it.

Sadly this is only a 2 hour long game with only 6 levels (I played on easy so it'll be longer on harder difficulties) but it's something you feel interested in despite it's basic concept. I think a sequel to this game would be really cool, maybe to fix the controls and add even more areas because I the tron style visuals just pulled me in.

All in all. Don't go into Proxy Blade Zero thinking you know what you're doing or it'll smack you hard. Play on easy, then normal and if you're really ballsy, critical. I think replaying the game will give you more value, there's achievements as well. In any case for a 1 man project, Proxy Blade Zero is a fantastic effort but I still have to point out the control issues as they were quite iffy. I did have a bit of fun though and the game didn't frustrate me too much (though it has it's rough bits) so I wouldn't consider it to be a game-breaker, moreso a nitpick. If you're looking for a puzzle based Hack N Slash that focuses more on thinking rather than comboing, this is the game for you. If you're looking for something which offers more freedom in combat then this game definitely isn't for you.

However as much as the gameplay frustrated me to a degree (often due to the controls), I can't help but give this game merit as it does what it does really well. The gameplay is fluid and though it requires a degree of finesse to master, it does feel satisfying once you have conquered it. If you're patient and are looking for a game with a difficult learning curve I'd say pick it up as it's only £4.00 on steam, plus you get to support a 1 man dev and I always encourage the support of small devs.

If you're easily frustrated, like me. You may want to wait till steam sales to try it and see if it's worth your investment. It's a short game so you don't have to invest too much time into it to learn it. Plus there are always steam refunds if you aren't happy with it. At the end of the day, it all depends on whether you're into this style of game or not. If you're not just skip it.

Mag.
Mag.

Fast paced third person fighting game featuring killer robots (including you). Somehow reminds me of the sword battles in Gundam. Overall, very good game. Highly recommended, especially for only $5.

ironjaw3d
ironjaw3d

decent gameplay but with brutally long and challenging levels there are no checkpoints. makes playind it frustrating

ScarfKat
ScarfKat

Bought it on the XBox Live Indie Game Arcade, loved it on there.
Saw it on Steam for a dollar and thought it was a great excuse to play it again.

The combat is simple to pick up but very hard to master. The best part of this game is that as the enemies "level up" you dont, you just have to "get gud". It's based on player skill and not how many things you've killed.

4/5 - Highly recommend

Knightsundere
Knightsundere

For it's price, this is a fairly entertaining game. Utter lack of story/motive/direction, save for moving door to door, but what you're buying here is a good combat game. Honestly, if I was to summarize my experience, I'd say this game is Metal Gear Solid Raiden Edition, but without the story or fancy graphics.

Good hack-and-slash for when you have some time to kill. Controls feel good, all around, worth my $1.99

SchizoCat
SchizoCat

Good game for it's price, (If bought on a massive sale.)
This game/franchise has potential, just needs an easier first boss.. Still can't get past him.

ZeDelta
ZeDelta

This is actually a great indie game. If i had any complaints at all it would be the difficulty of some levels but hey, we all need a challenge sometime. It's a hack-n-slash kind of game and mostly requires skill and timing. I would recommend to use an Xbox 360 Controller though, as keyboard may be more difficult. I would rank it 5/5.

Fish-Man
Fish-Man

Quick and to-the-point action, "technical combat" is no exaggeration. This game challenges you in a very classic way, if you can't keep up at the higher levels you run out of lives and start over again. Learn to position yourself, to read enemy behavior, to string together attacks, and then rethink it all when familiar threats appear in new combinations. Good music and atmosphere too.

Weeaboowasteofspace
Weeaboowasteofspace

would be great if added heavy attacks and multiplayerrr xddd

Ol' Uncle Sheo[Gurren]
Ol' Uncle Sheo…

Damn difficult game, but once you get into the groove it's hella fun.

Snazzy Seer
Snazzy Seer

Really solid character action game, can't argue with it costing the same as a bottle of Coke on sale. Even off sale, £4 is pretty reasonable for how well it plays. For a more detailed look at the combat systems, see below.

Story is sparse, graphics aren't the best (though the art direction is good given what they're working with). You don't get new abilities, there's no platforming, you start the game with the exact same character build you finish with. It's entirely streamlined around its combat systems, which is totally fine when they're so much fun.

You have a dash, parry (which cancels out of any move) and combo attacks by alternating between regular hits and 'stance' inputs. Parries will deflect physical attacks but not ranged ones, dashing runs off a limited power meter which recharges, and some enemies employ shielding which renders them immune to stagger until broken.

It's fundamentally simple, but punishes mistakes quickly; your character gets staggered and left briefly unable to attack upon taking damage, and you don't have invincibility frames, meaning one hit in a group of enemies can lead to an entire health bar being wiped. To that end the game, particularly in the latter half, is very much focused on spacing - keep in as close to one-on-one engagements as you can, and dash away otherwise.

Most of the difficulty comes from reading enemies; most only have one or two telegraphed attacks, but keeping track of groups while parrying and dashing away from projectiles is frenetic, fast, and extremely satisfying when you get a flow going. Controls in fights feel fast and snappy, and deaths are typically down to an error that you committed, rather than unfairness.

It's not a long game by any means - my Normal difficulty run took about 50 minutes from start to end. The lives system means you get thrown back to the start of a stage upon losing all of them (losing a life with some left in stock just restarts you at the last room you entered), so runs with Game Overs would probably take a little longer, as I expect to discover when attempting Critical difficulty.

As long as you're not under illusions about length or story, Proxy Blade Zero is a great little character action game for the price. Just be prepared for a challenge/playing on easy to learn the ropes.

B_DOGX
B_DOGX

I love the difficulty of the game!

Raikuso
Raikuso

The game is very good. It's punishes you for making mistakes and you'll make a lot even if the combat is not very complex.

IMPERSONATED_STAFF
IMPERSONATED_STAFF

Proxy Blade Zero is an easy and fun game. It requires patients, not mindless button mashing- doing so will get you scooped by the most basic enemies. Instead you have to dodge, weave, and note your enemies- find their patterns and exploit them. A classic formula that's tough to mess up and delivers satisfying game play.

However, this exploratory mindset is offset by an archaic life system that instills false difficulty in the game. Most enemies and bosses can trash you in a few clean hits while you investigate what they're all about. Yet the game punishes you for doing so- after three strikes you have to start the stage all over again. Its just a hassle to do the same thing over and over just so you can get back to a certain spot to find out a new enemy or bosses move set. I've played, beaten, and mastered too many games with lives- its dull. Give me one life or infinite lives to beat a game. I'm playing on a computer, not an arcade machine.

However if you have the time to kill Proxy Blade Zero can scratch that itch for a game with a deep combat system. Otherwise, move on. In short, Proxy Blade Zero is a game with a nice idea but marred with a single poor choice on the developer's side. It's a sale or coupon kind of game with life span of 1 to 2 hours.

tsuki_shrimp
tsuki_shrimp

I can't see anyone getting past chapter 3. The game doesn't have a "git gud" mentality. The game is impossible and I highly recommend staying as far away from this game as possible. I get no enjoyment out of hard game so nobody else should edure the pain I had to go through.

Bane
Bane

Ok game. Challenging, but controls were annoying.

Kaztinka
Kaztinka

This is the coolest! a love letter to classics such as Zone of the Enders & DMC3
a bit short though, but quality triumph quantity
I found that each encounter was completely different than the ones before it & after it
the visuals were nice too, added a 90s vibe to it
would recommend to anyone

Brash Candicoot
Brash Candicoot

Can't change the controls and my controller is not working. Insta refund...

Phi Nozomu
Phi Nozomu

Great game, amazing graphics, brilliant music.....But holy HELL IS IT CHEAP, i played on easy and it was cheap, annoying and repetitive. I didn't even complete the game after i saw that there were only 6 chapters. i don't think i'd ever play this game again after completeing it, as there's nothing to collect, no upgrades, nada. Very dissapointing

★Samantha☆Rostova★
★Samantha☆Rostova★

Proxy for the war you'll be finding the devs to get your money back.
Blade for what I'm gonna cut this game in half with.
Zero for the amount of fun I had.

Hellspawn Al
Hellspawn Al

Pretty cheap. Get it on sale, unless you have tons to spend; just buy it.

SuperQix
SuperQix

I love this game! I have fun playing it.
But I have to agree with most of the criticism people give it.
It's short, same-y (repetitive), has little to no story (and no cutscenes or dialog), and the ending (what you get when you beat the final boss) is God AWFUL. Almost like an insult.
I WISH this game was so much more! This is what this game truly makes me feel.
I'm only giving it a thumbs up because I actually like playing it, despite its flaws. But God DAMN is it awful...
DragonSix! You better add more to this game!

MetAteM
MetAteM

This game is way better than it looks. I have played this for much longer than steam says I have and i've enjoyed it all. Very hard rewarding combat and nothing else. 100% pure. It has some flaws such as key prompts only showing xbox controlls even if you're using a kayboard and mouse but they generally don't detract from the game.

Easy_Bot_Mason
Easy_Bot_Mason

This game is good old classic hack and slash.

8/10

Mason Approved.

a_gamer_guy
a_gamer_guy

Someone has already said it better, but I'll re-iterate my own high lights on why I can't recommend this game. It's obviously inspired by japanese action games like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden, and does have some nice ideas, but it's player balance doesn't match it's enemy balance.

See, the player must get close and split apart the enemies and kite one away to properly fight it. However enemies are frequently in groups in small areas with little opportunity to fight. Even on easy, this poor balance made the game feel more difficult than DMC on hard. Every bit of the promise for fun is also marred by poor UI and indications. For instance, I reached chapter 3 on my save file (which I died twice in for extremely cheap reasons). When I returned to the title, there appeared no way to exit the game. So I selected my profile which showed no progress (read 0%) just to quit. I fortunately did have a controller to play, however the controller layout felt so awkward, as if the devs never played the games that inspired them. Also I didn't try keyboard and mouse, but according to others the support is non-existent.

The Bargain Bin Hobo
The Bargain Bin Hobo

This won't be a full review. I'll make one of those when I finish the game. But from what I have played this game is killer and worth a spot in your library. It's a hack and slash brawler with smooth controls and fun gameplay. Now I read a comment saying this game's graphics wouldn't measure up to the Genesis, and that's just not fair. This is WAY beyond what the Genesis is capable of. I'd peg the graphics around late PS1/Early PS2. While your computer won't be straining to pump the graphics out, it is nice to look at, but that's coming from a major PS2 sucker with thousands of hours sunk into his PS2, and yes, that number is still going up.

Now the game isn't the simple mash buttons until the game tells you to stop, there's a bit of strategy. The weakest of enemies let you get away with button mashing, don't get me wrong, but the stronger guys require a bit more planning and tactics. If I had any gripes with the game, the one that comes to mind now is that the button layout isn't what I like, but that's just nitpicking. The controls are very smooth and responsive once you get a feel for them.

Again, not a full review, I'll make one of those once I finish this game, but so far I love it and do not regret my purchase.

A.J. Blues
A.J. Blues

Good ideas and intentions marred by some odd choices. But worth trying once.

Pros:
+ Best optimization of any indie title I've played (FPS as high as 400-600)
+ Suitable music
+ Responsive controls
+ Well done animations
+ Pays an obvious homage to Ninja Gaiden whilst still having fun with it
+ Price tag is very appropriate for what it offers

Cons:
- Do not KB+M. Just don't
- Gamepad rebinding is nonexistent
- Intentional stiff movement and meter management feels more restrictive at times, rather than a good skill floor to handle
- Lock-on can be cumbersome in large groups
- Very Drab Environments
- Boring Aesthetics

Worth getting if you like hack n slash. Not great, but it's an admirable attempt.

Lintire
Lintire

Proxy Blade Zero is a hackity hack, slashity slash, made by a hackity hack- no I'm fooling, it's alright. You hack, you slash, you propel yourself through the air with your magical robot farts, you even get a block that might work if you've been a very good boy that morning. It is what it says on the tin.

When the mechanic's mechanics work, they're alright. You've got two buttons to alternate attacks with, that can be charged with your energy, a solid parry that will still get you killed on Critical because enemies can just blissfully hit you while you're pulling it off, and crowd control that kinda sucks. A lot of jogging in circles while enemies beeline for you.

Much like how your robot soft locks on the nearest target while throwing out piddly attacks, Proxy Blade Zero soft locks on the core concept.

If nothing else, ugly indie 3D games make me nostalgic for a time where asset stores weren't really a thing.

It works and the Blender-looking models are placed in actual levels, that you can sort of explore and do stuff in. 5 levels, and I think like 2 of those had multiple paths. 2 might also have just been the bosses.

Truth is I don't really remember a lot about Proxy Blade Zero. And I played it like two days ago. Not much happens in it. But it doesn't overstay its welcome, and while $10 is a bit on the generous side if you get on sale for like 80% off and set it to Critical Mode straight away, then you've got something worth playing.

It's not that memorable, but it's not that annoying either and the final boss is pretty good.

A lot of people have asked for a middle review option on Steam, like a side-thumb for middle-of the road reviews. I would prefer a poorly drawn version of the positive option. "You're functional, you're paced alright, there's nothing outright broken about you but truth is I'm going to play through you once then never think about you again."

Obligatory Plug:
I did a voiced review of this and Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae

Roy_Brewer
Roy_Brewer

This game is amazing it's been some time since I played something that required skill and some trial and error like this game. The way in which the addition of each new enemy type changes up the dynamic and you really have to focus on your playstyle and minimize your mistakes was really what I need to feel.

AwaySquad
AwaySquad

Proxy Blade Zero is a great title for cheap that is both challenging and entertaining.

I bought this awhile ago and completely forgot about it, or I failed to install it for some odd reason. I've come back to it recently and had a great time. The combat is simple, yet skill based. The Enemies are few in numbers, but can you as easily as a boss.

Pros:
-Very Simple Gameplay and Story
-Fun and Exciting Combat, with a mixture of a timed parry, some feints and flips, and EXPLOSIONS!
-Soundtrack of the gods
-Nostalgic feel

Cons:
-Missing a little bit of extra satisfaction. Would love enemies to separate into several pieces or at least in half. The knockdown and explosion is a little bit lame.
-Settings can only be changed before the game is launched. Not a big deal, but still inconvenient.

Overall, Proxy Blade Zero is a great title if you want some quick action!

Jage
Jage

I have pretty mixed feelings about this game. In the end the game was pretty enjoyable but it did lack some content and I think it had much more potential. Game could have had more bosses, more moves and definitely more enemies. Even simple skill leveling system would have brought much more depth to this game.

I guess I give this thumbs up but I doubt game will be entertaining for most players for very long so consider getting this from sales.

Daedalus
Daedalus

A basic but fun action game. Controls take some getting used to, but I'd recommend it.

Baker Doze
Baker Doze

It's a short, decent hack n' slash with a neat aesthetic and the occasional sword combos, parries and thruster dodging mixed in there. It's not as elaborate or as deep as other character action games, but it's fine fun for what it is.
There's a handful of enemy types that aren't that tough by themselves, but of course, the real difficulty comes when they're bunched together all trying to destroy you. They've got no qualms with shooting through each other to make sure you get hit, so watch out.

The electronic soundtrack helps to hype up certain chapters, too. Good hears on Soundcloud as well.

It took me a little over an hour to beat, and an extra hour for the rest of the achievements. Didn't realize just starting the game on Easy Mode was a hidden achievement, nice to know now.
I'd say either at full price or at a discount, if you're interested, give it a shot.

E.P.D. Gaffney
E.P.D. Gaffney

Feels like Vanquish if Vanquish were more about melee combat than shooting. It's excellent. Its major flaw is it's quite short, and its minor flaw is a couple of relatively minor bugs.

It has basically no story, but that doesn't bother me. Its graphics more or less PS2-like, which is great for performance and doesn't bother me at all visually.

I can't say enough good things about the balance and depth of the small number of seemingly simple mechanics at play here. The final boss is the epitome of hard but fair, and the game is the epitome of easy to learn but hard to master. If you want to enjoy a couple of hours of a fairly unique melee fighter, it's a great choice.

Bob the Dragon
Bob the Dragon

If a proxy blade is zero, does that mean you've hit something with your sword?

---

A indie hack and slash that very much looks and feels like one, but is pretty solid nonetheless. Pretty good for the price.

Zhelurix
Zhelurix

In the initial hour of gameplay, I thought this game was going to blow. It was a Greenlight project by one guy. You start with a tutorial of the controls. If you are using a keyboard you won’t know what the buttons are unless you look at the load window beforehand. Luckily, I went in blind and guessed them all because I have no life. You have a basic combo and 4 strong combos that also fill a “overdrive” meter that increases your attack power. You can dash, parry that stuns, and have an energy combo for breaking shields. That’s it. The controls seem clunky at first, but soon you can pick it up and get your hands in the rhythm.

There are 6 levels, 2 of which are solely boss fights. Why he didn’t add in a third to make it balanced, I’m not sure but the game is hard enough without a extra boss. The environments are a little dull but nice to look at it. There are about 6 enemy types with their own way of disposing of them. You can try other ways but I assure you that you will die and your options are limited anyway. The story you get at the beginning is an evil robot invaded a space station and he wants to do some bad stuff to some colonies. You have no name, and as far as I can decipher, you’re a robot whose helmet never got painted and you have no visor or eyes to speak of so I’m not sure how you can see. But that’s ok! It all seems so simple right?

Consider this game to be... a test of endurance and dexterity and it suddenly becomes more fun. It is challenging in the sense that it expects you to memorize enemy movements to the T. Because if you don’t, you will be punished. Enemies will give you little time to breath, and on the hard difficulty you will be kiting and using run and go tactics a lot. There are health and 1up drops and that’s all. A simple formula that almost antagonizes you mentally when you run out of lives and get a game over because of its simplicity. So, you get good. So good that the tougher fights have blood rushing to places you didn’t know exist in your body and your fingers become so tense you think you have frost bite.

I 100% completed this game in four hours, but man it felt like a life time. When I finished it, I literally had a genuine sense of accomplishment because I overcame something legitimately difficult. For 6.99 you get about 4 hours if you to have no life, or a lot of time on your hands. Personally, I bought this discounted for a dollar and would recommend picking it up at that price.

Cynical
Cynical

Proxy Blade Zero tries to be almost every single Platinum game at the same time, and fails at being any of them. In one game, you've got parries (they work more like Bayo than like MGR here), ever move being dodge-cancellable (with that dodge on a trigger, again like Bayo), and a limited hyper-speed battery, like Vanquish. Unfortunately, large pieces of the puzzle are missing -- the combos are limited to a simple 3-hit dial-a-combo, and there's no way to move while attacking (if ever there was a game that needed the ability to attack while dodging, it's this -- a surprising piece of the puzzle to miss, given how much Platinum games tend to value giving the player a way to do so), so very frequently fights come down to trying to draw one or two enemies away from others so that you can attack; since there's no air combos, there's no way to forcefully separate enemies. Making this worse are the enemies that appear in the final two "normal" levels that parry your attacks; against them, all you can do is sit there and wait for an opportunity to use your own parry, which is quite boring in itself, but they can also get between you and other enemies, meaning you can't attack *anything* until they move somewhere else. There's basically nothing here to recommend this game; get DMC 3, DMC 4 DMC 5, Vanquish, Bayonetta, Transformers: Devastation, or even Furi before even thinking of touching this.

Emuser
Emuser

Proxy Blade Zero is an older game that spawned from the now dead abyss that is Greenlight, and while it isn't a top caliber type of game it is competent enough as a hack and slash game that is not focused on story.

I personally would wait for a sale on this game, but it is challenging enough to where you need to pay attention and not screw around on tougher enemies in order to not lose. This game really feels like the scope of it is solely to be a budget title so do not look for anything beyond that when going into it. If you are concerned about quality and only want to chase the highest quality stuff, you should focus on other games that have been released since this game originally came out.