Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace PlayStation 4 Pro Review

Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace has a lot of promise, offering a versatile combat system and varied environments with challenging enemies. Then the issues begin to weigh in such as poor voice-acting, a poor story, and cheap deaths. Each new victory in Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace felt like a vexing toil and reaching the end didn't make the frustrating grind worth it.

Set in 737 A.D. during the Chinese Tang Dynasty Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace stars a warrior named Lu. After suffering fatal wounds Lu escapes a prison without any memory of what happened to him. Slowly he regains his memory learning about a secret organization called YAO who performed experiments on him, granting Lu secret powers and allowing him to fight against YAO. The story attempts to tie together revenge and twists to make the narrative more interesting but the poor voice-acting and terrible lip-syncing made it hard to care about anything that was happening.

Graphically Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace is impressive. The 3D graphics mix well with the 2D gameplay and the character designs are well-done. Animations are fluid, especially in combat, with each avatar moving with grace.

Combat fairs much better with Lu having access to 8 swords, 6 daggers, and 4 outfits over the course of the game. Mixing together 3D environments and 2D action various types of enemies ranging from common close-range fighters to heavy damage dealers that prevent you from advancing. Each type of enemy has a specific fighting pattern and weakness to exploit such as an exposed back or vulnerability after teleporting or weak back armor. Like other beat-em-ups, most enemy types repeat themselves with varying types of health based on who you're fighting.  

Lu has an array of offensive options to defeat his opponent on his quests. A combination of strong and quick attacks make up most of his combo arsenal. Throwing daggers help stun enemies and hit from afar while a grappling hook can pull weaker enemies towards Lu. The only defense Lu has is a evade technique that can only be used if his acrobatic meter has enough stamina. You cannot cancel out of attacks which leaves Lu vulnerable. At first, this encouraged me to be precise with my attacks and time each blow but considering the speed at which most of my enemies attack this felt more like a handicap. 

While you can stun-lock enemies using specific combos some enemies have a defense to prevent this exploit. When enemies flash gold they cannot be stunned and will act normally even when attacked. This indicator only appears when your attack makes contact, which can lead to annoying battles where the enemy can deal heavy damage of their own after realizing your attack did nothing.

You will die, a lot, in Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace. The game has a decent checkpoint system that returns you to an adequate location after death with the items and health you had during that quick save. However, a lot of the deaths will feel cheap as certain levels are peppered with instant death pits and traps. During the third chapter, many of my deaths were attributed to touching boulders and falling down pits.

Environments are varied and change up the gameplay mechanics. Underwater swimming, platforming sections, and puzzles litter each level and break up the action periodically. These minor distractions do add another layer of gameplay and extend the levels. There are also additional collectables for those seeking another platinum trophy for their collection. 

Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace varied enemy designs and combo system provides challenging situations. The boss encounters can be entertaining but the overall experience is hampered due to loads of deaths the player will experience during the adventure. The story itself is bland and uninteresting and the voice-acting removed any interest I had in interesting into the game's lore. Hidden Dragon Legend: Shadow Trace doesn't have enough redeeming elements to look past the frustration the adventure will cause during the campaign.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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