GRAND DESIGNS

Behind the industry curtain, market research firms offer up best practice guides, laying out the features that tend to go down well with press and players alike. That, we assume, is behind Yaiba’s XP levelling system, which powers a skill tree packed with pointless upgrades. Things start well enough, with new combos and moves, but before long you’re ploughing skill points into reducing the impact of status effects and making QTEs easier. The box-ticking continues elsewhere with collectible diary entries (sample line: “I bet you think I’m overreacting about Yaiba and the magnitude of my fuckedness”) that are imaginatively titled Story Pieces, while a medal ranking system is a laughable inclusion in a game that isn’t even worth finishing.