max hp upgrades focus upgrades which of course is used to slow time in combat to make it easier to deal with large groups or brutes and you can even use these currencies to unlock different finisher animations now in my view the only element of these systems that's even remotely interesting is the ability to use the d-pad to select what you want to be rewarded with at the end of a finisher you can choose between four options so if you need to regain health because you're running low you can switch to that payout complete the finisher and reap the hp reward or if you're getting swarmed by brutes you might select to regenerate focus which you can then use immediately to slow time to better juggle the opponents in effect it reminded me of the ghost of tsushima stance system but instead of changing stances to take on different enemies you're changing stances to change how you're rewarded for completing combat tasks which is an interesting idea but unfortunately even this system is painfully dumbed down likely due to the constant shifts in gameplay direction and that the game enjoyed during its development you see you can change your payout at pretty much any time at all even during a finisher so there really is no strategizing here even if you get low health you just start a finisher which remember you can't actually fail during which you're also invulnerable and before it completes you just select the hp payout and you'll be healed up in no time again it's interesting enough as a gameplay design idea but it is totally ruined by their lack of confidence in developing the system itself if they had confidently implemented the system it would be much less forgiving allowing you to select the payout for specific encounters for instance in effect requiring the player to strategize over the long term for what the payout was going to be for an entire arena fight but instead we have this system that results in a painfully easy game over the course of its very short run time now furthermore there are many scenes where you're firing ballistas commanding troops and taking on a tortoise formation to push through enemy lines that archers guard and while these moments are visually stimulating they are mind-numbingly tedious and unfun and this is the tale of ryze son of rome it's a game with some fantastic moments some visually striking set pieces and some serviceable gameplay systems that initially present themselves very well but once any stress or weight is pressed upon them they collapse immediately these moments may be visually interesting but after you've seen the same cool set piece redone five times in the span of a few hours it loses its punch same with the finisher moves during the first NUMBER_TOKEN minutes of the game i was thoroughly impressed that they were able to match all of these things up dynamically even including amputations and beheadings in the movesets something which is unbelievably difficult to pull off in a cinematic game like this but when the second NUMBER_TOKEN minutes came around i realized that this was all the game had to offer there wasn't much variety they simply had a few cool systems and concepts that they spent seven years developing and reiterating upon ad nauseam it's far from what's required to make a good game and then we come to the discussion of the game's length and this is perhaps the best thing about it it's
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