Sonokuni has got to be one of the weirdest games I’ve ever played.  You are Takeru, a female Japanese warrior and you must fight your way through a biopunk Japanese hip-hop landscape.  Whatever that is.  View the action in an overhead perspective with trippy visuals and a crazy soundtrack.  Sonokuni is available for Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

Between the stages you’ll do a short side scrolling segment and talk with people to advance the story, which I have to say isn’t very engaging.  Then in the levels you view the action in top down perspective.  The levels look like house floor plans that a hyperactive five year old got a hold of and dumped an art set on.  But when you enter a room, you’ll encounter enemies and have a split second to react before you get killed.  You can swing a weapon around and reflect some shots.  You can also slow down time, which is very handy since you’ll die if you blink, and another button lets you shield against other projectiles.  You must figure out the best way to quickly react to whatever is in your way.

Some may find the graphics artistic, and I couldn’t blame them for that.  But I just found them garish and headache inducing, personally.  The music is also just weird.  But my main problem with the game is that it’s just way too hard.  But if you have crazy reflexes and like trippy Japanese visuals, you might enjoy this one.

Kid Factor:
Sonokuni is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Blood and Violence.  You fight all sorts of enemies that splatter on the ground when defeated, but the blood is multicolored and looks like everyone drank a lot of florescent Kool-Aid.  Really the best reason why this one is best for older gamers is the high difficulty.

Tags: Game Reviews