Lirai: Heir of Darkness - A Preview of a New Post-Apocalyptic Dark Fantasy

Lirai Heir of Darkness is one of those productions you discover somewhat by chance, and which certainly doesn't enjoy a convincing media buzz. This seems quite obvious, especially in a market so saturated with video game titles that it doesn't allow us to always keep up with every "new release" (even for those in the industry, don't think otherwise).

And then Lirai pops up, a title that starts with interesting premises and could deliver an enjoyable adventure overall. The use of the conditional tense is no accident, especially after trying a very first trial version that left us with more doubts than certainties.

Cryorbis Studios' title seemed a bit unpolished, forced, and perhaps too sprawling in its general concept. Successfully mixing multiple genres convincingly is not easy, and the risk of failing is just around the corner. It's certainly too early to judge, but we've formed some ideas and we wonder: isn't the post-apocalyptic theme becoming too redundant in video games?

What exactly is Lirai: Heir of Darkness?

We're talking about a third-person action game, somewhat in the vein of a Devil May Cry, in which we'll take on the role of a swordsman knight named Brian, one of the world's last hopes (a rather recurring trope). The path ahead will not be easy for our hero: saving all that (however little) remains of humanity.

Beyond that, we don't know what event triggered this relentless apocalypse which, in addition to devastation, has populated the world with demons and zombies—perhaps too many for one person to face. But our hero will certainly not be discouraged and will have to use every trick and uncover every secret to ensure a future for humanity itself.

A simple plot, some would say already seen, and probably a bit too "exploited." However, we won't necessarily define it as a bad thing, unless the whole is supported by satisfying and fun gameplay. It's too early to jump to conclusions, to make definitive judgments: we will only convey our feelings after 45 minutes of gameplay with Lirai: Heir of Darkness.

Upon first launch, you find yourself in the classic "tutorial area," pure and simple corridors vaguely reminiscent of the training areas in classic fighting games. And in this phase, we will be given the first lessons, which is to say, an introduction to the controls we will use throughout the adventure, or rather, the demo. And let's face it, these are very simple: Brian can sprint, skillfully dodge, and, of course, plunge his blades into the flesh of the unfortunate (zombie) of the moment.

An extremely easy gameplay to master where most combos, mostly automatic, will be performed with a simple button press. As if that weren't enough, "our hope for the future" can stealthily approach villains from behind and perform a stealth elimination: and this vaguely recalls productions like The Last of Us or one of the more common Assassin's Creed.

Brian can also activate switches, collect items to solve puzzles, pocket some shiny cash, and climb ledges. The demo's time limit didn't allow us to fully understand the true depth of the gameplay, which, at least from this first test, seemed bare, rather patched together, and decidedly mechanical. The slashes, the speed of action, the reactivity of opponents, and the polygonal models are anchored to several generations ago: certainly not a product in line with current-generation consoles or PCs.

Lirai: Heir of Darkness and its "Little Problems"

We are aware of the problems afflicting this trial version; after all, the developers themselves included an announcement in the game's main menu, but the issues we encountered were numerous. The first was one that should have been "fixed" immediately, concerning running: as we moved from one area to another, the hero of humanity literally slid on the floor, as if he were wearing shoes with soap incorporated. The only solution to this problem was to perform a small dash to see the "dandy" regain control of his body.

Incidentally, bugs are frequent in trial versions, but not when they compromise the overall experience, such as the absence on screen of the button to press for a certain action: we fumbled around until we discovered the corresponding one on the keyboard. And speaking of the keyboard: the Lirai: Heir of Darkness demo does not support controller use, or at least we couldn't get it to work.

This is no small problem, because we believe that such a "frenetic" game should support a controller even in a demo, even in an alpha version. To overcome this problem, we "mapped" the Xbox controller with external software: at least we managed to complete everything "smoothly." Well, smoothly is perhaps not exactly the right term, given that the many problems slowed us down on more than one occasion, making us see the game over screen several times (especially when Brian got stuck in too much scaffolding).

What we were able to experience with Lirai: Heir of Darkness, we believe, does not represent the final quality of the production, given that the events were specifically stitched together for this trial version. Unfortunately, we understood too little about both the plot and the gameplay itself. We also wondered: why are there zombies and dinosaur-shaped monsters (or something similar) in a post-apocalyptic world, which are also very poorly balanced and placed on the scenario so randomly?

Something Needs Fixing

The game world of the demo closely reminded us of The Last of Us: we found ourselves on an abandoned highway where cars created a decidedly inspired decaying atmosphere. But this is not enough to create a reactive and exciting adventure. There are many doubts, and furthermore, inserting stealth into a video game of this genre seemed like a major forced inclusion, considering that killing in this manner does not guarantee any kind of advantage.

Apparently, Brian will gain experience as he progresses on his journey, but we couldn't understand how effective these power-ups might be and how much they will impact the overall experience. Everything seemed so accelerated, with small glimpses of gameplay that didn't quite convince us.

In the full game, we should have gameplay based on timing and frenzy, with unique abilities, mechanics, and spells (and we hope so!). At the moment, Lirai: Heir of Darkness is a confusing game that, at least from this trial version, seemed to lack depth.

However, if they manage to correct the course on certain aspects, the small team at Cryorbis Studios could pull a mystical and dark fantasy experience with interesting tones out of the hat. As they say: time will tell!