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REVIEW -- F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch

F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch is a 2021 metroidvania video game developed by TiGames and published by Bilibili. It was released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on September 7, 2021, followed by a Windows port on October 3, 2021. The game launched on the Nintendo Switch in July 2022. It also released for Xbox Series X/S in June 2023. The game follows Rayton, an anthropomorphic rabbit and former ace pilot who, using a giant mechanical fist, rises up against the robotic Legion that has invaded Torch City in an effort to liberate it from its oppressors. The game received positive reviews from critics, citing its graphics, world and gameplay.

Premise

Six years ago, the Legion invaded Torch City, where animals had been living after the Resistance was defeated. Torch City had fallen; its citizens have struggled to survive under the Legion's oppressive rule after that fateful day.

The former elite soldier of the Resistance, Rayton, was also living in seclusion in the city.

The Legion's rule, however, grew increasingly brutal and peace could not last long. When Rayton's friend, Urso, was arrested, he had no choice but to put on his Fist and embark on a journey to save his best friend. The battle against the Legion is about to begin.

The underground forces in the city, the remnants of the Resistance outside of the city, and the familiar figure standing at the top of the Legion's force, involved Ryaton in an even bigger conspiracy. Rayton realized that he must uncover all of these secrets of Torch City and put an end to all of the injustices.

Characters

Rayton

A former Resistance fighter who is unable to prevent the invasion of the Robotic Legion and lives a quiet life on the outskirts of the city. The memory of his defeat still leaves a deep scar on Rayton's heart. However, in the face of increasingly strict domination from Robotic Legion, he equips his fist and rekindles his soul as a battlefield hero.

Urso

Rayton's remaining best friend after the war. An optimistic and friendly mechanical engineer, Urso was always cheering Rayton on while repairing fists. After repairing Rayton's Iron Fist that had been sealed for many years, he was caught by the Robotic Legion.

Bovi

Former captain of the Resistance Army. To accommodate the people of Torch City, who are suffering from the robotic Legion, he withdrew out of the city with the survivors, then set up a new base in the snow-covered mountains of the West, the Western Range.

Duke

Duke, the rat, was once a sniper standing by Rayton and Cicero's side in the army. After being seriously wounded in the resistance war, he retired and took over the family business, becoming the godfather of the rat mafia. In his wheelchair, he directs his species to ensure the animals' essential quality of life under the rule of the Machine Legion.

Cicero

Rayton's former fellow brother-in-arms in the Resistance and best friend turned cyborg and appointed leader of the Machine Legion. Cicero serves as the primary antagonist for this game.

Lady Q

Lady Q is the only cat seen in this world who inexplicably works for Duke, the godfather of the rat mafia. Though sometimes she shows her friendliness to Rayton, she, on the other time, obstructs him from completing his mission, which makes Rayton confused but can't help putting his eyes on her.

The Verdict:

This game dropped quietly in 2022 and even one year later, there's little to no information outside of chatter on Reddit and few short reviews online with little to no in-depth walkthroughs, strategy guides, or general information about the game as a whole. I found that very odd to say that this game has gotten generally favorable reviews all around but there's not that much information about this game as a whole. I had my eye on this ever since it was previewed during E3 during the COVID-19 pandemic and kept a watchful eye on its development until its release. I wanted to pick up a physical copy on PlayStation 4, but I'm still waiting for the price to go down until I saw a sale for it on Epic Games (I missed out on when it was a freebie during the holidays at the end of 2022) a few months ago. On PC I haven't ran into any performance issues in terms of gameplay nor visuals.

This is a gorgeous looking game, from the character models to the stunning locales. Every corner of Torch City is ripe with emotion and personality. The populated areas where the very few anamorphic citizens reside has lots of color and live while the areas dominated by the mechanical Legion is devoid mostly of color and replaced with mostly darker hues to really hit the point home that they want to replace all life with machines.

Gameplay

Being able to use and navigate through Torch City with the Map is a helpful tool to use to your full advantage in this adventure. Points of interest can be marked on your Map, similar to the one that I have raved about in the past from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD. The icons are useful in knowing what weapons or devices that you would need to have acquired before Rayton can access these areas or points of interest. Chests can only be opened with Skeleton Keys that can be purchased from the rat thief NPC on Joffre Street. Certain doors and obstacles cannot be unlocked nor interacted with until Rayton acquires all of the upgrades and weapons throughout the course of the game's narrative.

This is a world that I thoroughly enjoyed exploring, but man, did this game make traversing it a chore. It's already bad enough that Rayton's walk speed is slow as hell, but the two fast travel options in the game didn't do anything to remedy how slow paced is it to navigate between locations in this world. Sure, you have transporters scattered in each region that will take you to any other transporter that Rayton has encountered in his travels and the subway train system that will take you to most of the underground/underwater locations, but it's still a few loading screens away that rob you of precious time of action that could be spent doing something else.

Pro Tip: You can speed up Rayton's movement by doing the following. Use the Omni-Dash on the ground but jump before the end of the animation. Rayton will "jump-cancel" out of that animation and recover quicker than normal for you can use the Omni-Dash again in quick succession. Once you get the rhythm down, it's a MUCH faster method of moving around locations, especially for the longer stretches without any enemies in sight.

Rayton is able to swap weapons on the fly in combat, similar to other over-the-top action games, such as both the Devil May Cry and God of War series. This feature opens another layer of depth to the combat once Rayton acquires all of the available weapons in the game as mastery over this feature increases his destructive potential exponentially. Fortunately, there is a training space on Joffre Street that can be accessed by speaking with Master Wu. It is beneficial for players to complete his various training exercises/lessons too as they offer valuable lessons of how to use each of Rayton's weapons and examples of how to extend Rayton's combos in combat; not to mention that these trials offer rewards as well, such as valuable Data Disks that are used to purchase Skills. Keep in mind that these trials cannot be completed unless Rayton has acquired the associated skills to execute them.

Players skills are definitely put to the test throughout this adventure by normal enemies that Rayton encounters, as well as some challenging boss encounters peppered throughout these locales. Some of these bosses are tough as nails, but I always came back to them wanting more no matter how many times I died against them until I got that satisfying victory of a job well done.

There's one thing I have a major gripe about in terms of the combat in this game. It's in terms of the i-frames (read: invulnerability frames) or recovery frames after being hit by enemy attacks or while performing certain maneuvers and skills. Next to any of Rayton's moves have any iframes attached to them and these already frustratingly difficult enemies that you encounter in the tail end of this game have pinpoint precision and accuracy with their firearms and projectiles, but they have another bullet in the chamber in terms of having a reversals (knockback moves to break through your offense) that can completely ignore and super-armor (meaning no flinch nor hit stun reaction) through your attacks. This game does this a LOT to the point where it feels like it's trolling you with a lot of the late game enemies. Rayton can be knocked out any of his special attacks, including the ones that cost valuable SP to perform, with relative ease by his enemies. Sure, you can double jump or Omni-Dash through them to hope and pray that you avoid another incoming attack, but nine times out of ten you're getting hit by something else and getting juggled until your health is completely depleted.

For every annoying boss encounter, there's at least one unforgettable boss fight like this that makes up for it.

For everything that this game does right with the combat, there's still a few issues with it that could have used a little bit more polish but doesn't prevent the game from being enjoyable. For example, this game's combat shines the most in one-on-one encounters as Rayton's entire moveset thrives off being able to solo one adversary with his attacks. He has options for dealing with crowd-control and/or multiple enemies at once, but that doesn't mean that they are very good. His best options are slow at best and more times than not, players will find themselves getting hit by enemies off-screen with long-range attacks that Rayton can't do much about until very late into the game when you have acquired the Whip, and even that weapon isn't an end-all answer to all of your problems.

If I wasn't a fan and veteran of fighting games, I would have struggled more with the combo structure of Rayton's attacks more than casual players will with coming to grips with the timing and execution required to link his attacks together properly. The fact that some of Rayton's basic combos and juggles requires near-flawless precision inputs, familiarity with height restrictions and requirements, and timing is a bit much for a game like this. This game is supposed to be a Metroidvania, not a main stage grand finals match of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at Evolution Gaming Series.

Dust: An Elysian Tail was another Metroidvania that was skewed towards players who were familiar with fighting games, but it wasn't as hardcore as this game was in terms of knowing the in's and out's of fighting game mechanics in that game. I personally felt that game's combo structure and overall combat felt more liberating, but at the same time, you felt extremely over-powered by the end of that adventure, but the game still presented a reasonable challenge without enemy encounters feeling "cheap" or "unfair" in comparison to this game at times.

One thing I haven't talked about are the "executions" or finishers that Rayton can perform on most enemies once their health is down to certain threshold near-death that allows him to quickly finish them off. They always look pretty cool and bad-ass no matter what weapon Rayton has equipped, but there were several occasions throughout the game where the button input to activate them would overlap some of Rayton's other actions and special moves (such as the Whip's Grapple ability or trying to grab enemies with the Fist), causing the Execution maneuver not to come out at all.

Weapons

Fist

The Fist is Rayton's primary means of attack and default weapon that is at his disposal at the start of the game. The strikes are slow and methodical (not slower than the Drill's), but provides more power than one would expect from the surface. I think it shines the most from it's ability to launch enemies in the air and take fights up close and personal. The Fist can also grab and throw enemies as well. The Fist will be your go-to weapon for a lot of situations and encounters throughout the game.

It's charged attack (Power Punch) can break enemy shields and barriers, along with Yellow Doors with that unlockable skill after it is taught to Rayton by Master Wu.

Drill

This is the second weapon that Rayton acquires throughout the course of this adventure. It is a powerful piercing weapon that doubles as a pseudo-helicopter blade for Rayton that allows him to ride air currents in tandem with the Propeller ability and deal massive damage offensively with its buzzsaw-like wide-sweeping attacks.

The biggest drawback to this weapon as that while it's powerful, it takes a long time for Rayton to perform/execute these attacks due to their sluggish nature, so there's a lot of animation commitment to be had here. Faster enemies will have moved out of the way before you have even had the chance to touch them.

The Drill will also allow Rayton to open Red Doors.

Whip

Acquired after exploring deep within the Mines of the Western Range as part of the main story. It functions as a long whip that is charged with electricity. Rayton uses it as an extension of his own arm. I found this to be the most complicated weapon to learn and master, but once you get the hang of it, I found it to be one of the most versitile weapons out of Rayton's arsenal, providing him with both mobility AND crowd control potential. It is easily the fastest offensive weapon in Rayton's arsenal at the cost of each hit being significantly weaker than both the Drill and Fist, but that is a small price to pay when by this point of the game, you should be swapping between Rayton's weapons on the fly to castrotrophic results in combat.

The Whip is also tied to the Grapple ability that allows Rayton to grab onto an enemy or anchor point and pull himself towards that target.

Rayton can acquire the means to change/customize the color of his weapons by collecting posters scattered throughout Torch City and bringing them back to Urso, who then converts them to weapon skins to serve as "Weapon Coating" for Rayton's three main weapons. Weapon Coating can be applied only at Urso's shop and easily interchangeable and removable if you don't like the results.

I personally found the collectible posters entertaining as there's definitely a lot of callbacks and references to other Metroidvanias and popular video games and even anime to boot.

Players can customize the visuals/color scheme of Rayton's weapons as they see fit with Weapon Coating.

Devices (Subweapons/Tools)

These subweapons/tools or rather, secondary weapons, have limited usage which is tied to the amount of EP required to use them from Rayton's EP gauge. Run out and these weapons are unable to be used again until Rayton regains more EP. These weapons/tools can be upgraded to make their offensive, restorative, and/or defensive capabilities even more powerful.

Carrot Juice: Allows Rayton to recover some HP. With the fluciating difficulty of this game, this item will be a saving grace and staple on your weapon wheel. One thing the game doesn't tell you that you can hold the button down to consume more Juice in one dosage than mashing on the button if you need to recover a LOT of health at once. That's a very helpful tactic during boss battles.

One thing to note is that Rayton can be knocked out of this animation before it finishes, thus preventing Rayton from recovering precious health.

Shock Baton: Can counter/parry incoming attacks. You can acquire this item as early as the Power Station section of the story to give Rayton a means to counter/parry enemy attacks MUCH earlier than when you acquire the Parry ability later in the game.

That being said, I personally found it to be not worth the effort and cost of EP to use/activate. That being said, this is one of the only defensive options in the entire game, so it's definitely well worth picking up early into the game.

Homing Missile: Rayton finds this firearm/launcher during the prison break section of the story and it serves as his only means of protecting himself until he regains his Fist and other equipment that was stripped away from him upon his capture. Once you reach the Western region, you will meet an NPC who offers to upgrade this device and make it more powerful. The only thing he asks in return is to find the blueprints for it scattered throughout the world.

Exploding Puppet: This device distracts enemies and draws their attention before exploding after a short amount of time.

This is the last device that can be acquired in the game. There are actually two different means to acquire it. One way is getting it for free for redeeming in Plant Seeds to the NPC named Pippin who is collecting them. He is found on Joffre Street after you have rescued him from the Prison. The other method is buying it from one of the NPC Shops by the Noodle Shop on Joffre Street.

Abilities

Unlike the Devices/subweapons, these abilities cannot be upgraded in any capacity, except for the Omni-Dash+ that adds another layer/dynamic to that existing ability.

Wall Jump: Pretty straight forward and standard fair in terms of this ability when compared to other Metroidvanias. This is one of the first abilities that Rayton acquires that allows him to scale, slide, and jump off of walls.

Double Jump: Much like the Wall Jump, it is another straight forward ability that allows Rayton to jump twice in the air in succession.

Very early into the game, this is one of your primary means of aiding in Rayton's exploration efforts, along with the Omni-Dash. It is also a godsend in terms of maneuvering around enemy attacks and avoiding being surrounded too in defensive combat maneuvers.

Propeller: While the Drill is active, this ability allows for Rayton to slow his descent to the ground, thus acting like a pseudo-gliding mechanic. The Propeller also allows Rayton to ride gusts of air to ascend upwards and continue riding the current as long as the Propeller is active. This ability reminds me a bit like Beck's ReXelection: Aviator acquired weapon/ability in Mighty No. 9, whereas you could perform similar feats in gusts of air.

Omni-Dash/Omni-Dash+: The standard Omni-Dash is a multi-directional dash that can be used both on the ground and mid-air. There's a bit of a cooldown period before it can be used again, thus preventing this ability to be used consecutively. There's a workaround for that though as you can jump cancel a dash at any point of the animation and dramatically reduce the cooldown/recovery time before you can use it again. This is an extremely helpful means to speed up your traversal between locations as Rayton's normal walk speed is almost a snail's pace. I can easily see speedrunners of this game opting to use that method to get around faster.

The Omni-Dash+ is the last ability that Rayton acquires in the game's story. It's the same as the previous version but adds the ability to pass through obstacles and enemy attacks.

Parry: Input the command at the last instant to parry most normal enemy attacks and expose their weaknesses in the process. Doesn't seem to work on projectiles outside of thrown items and other physical attacks.

This is a pivotal tool to have some sort of mastery over in the last quarter of this game, especially against several bosses and stronger enemy types where it's hard to get any openings to counterattack. I personally found it to be a tad finicky at times, reminding me of how unreliable that a similar technique in Cyber Shadow was.

Underwater Charge: While the Drill is active, this ability allows Rayton to charge it up to punch through obstacles underwater. This is another late game ability that will essentially round out all of Rayton's underwater issues and allow him to freely explore the underwater regions of the game.

Oxygen Mask: Provides an infinite amount of oxygen for Rayton to freely explore underwater.

Until Rayton acquires this tool, your time underwater is limited due to the constantly depleting oxygen gauge. Once you acquire the Oxygen Mask, the oxygen gauge disappears completely while underwater, thus eliminating the anxiety and constant state of caution you would normally have keep an eye on.

Grapple: While the Whip is active, this ability works in tandem with it to target both anchor points and enemies and pull Rayton towards them. Rayton can use this to swing around hazardous environments or add another layer of maneuverability to his defensive and evasive tactics in combat.

Story

I thought the game's story was interesting, yet predicable for the most part, but my biggest question was why did the Legion allow Cicero to join them and insert him as their leader? Sure, he was one of the Resistance's greatest soldiers, but who was in charge of the Legion before he was inserted as their leader? It seems like there's a few questions that should have been answered in this story that would have prevented it from being easily forgettable after you complete this campaign. Why did the Resistance disband after Cicero saved Rayton's life and went off on his own? If the Resistance was still intact, Rayton wouldn't have had to fight his one-man war against the Legion seemingly alone for the duration of this adventure. There's some finer details that could have been smoothed out to make this story a little more cohesive.

Don't get me started on Lady Q "faking" her death either. I get that she wanted to keep the Spark hidden from any other further greedy individuals who may have wanted to exploit its power for their own selfish uses, but pretending to be dead wasn't really necessary unless she was using that as some cheap ploy to further motivate Rayton to continue fighting on her behalf. He was already convinced to continue fighting at that point, especially after finding out that Cicero had betrayed them all. The whole "avenge me" deal didn't make much sense. It's not like her and Rayton had formed some sort of a romantic relationship. He was leery of her from the start and sensed some sort of deception and was only along for the ride to prevent the Legion from completely taking over Torch City. Her deception just solidified how untrustworthy she was from the start.

Urso and Rayton meeting the mysterious "Lady Q" after she sprung them out of the Legion's prison.

Rayton's original mecha that his fist was a part of that he piloted while part of the Resistance.

(Shrugs) I don't know. In terms of the story, it was interesting enough to keep me playing from start to finish, but there's too many unanswered questions to leave an lasting impact on me.

By the end of the game, it was clear that this story was setting up Rayton and Cicero onto a collision course of a final battle was to be expected, but the finer details of the plot, especially concerning the Spark and those tied and/or after it, felt like they were brushed aside or rushed through just to get back to Rayton and Cicero's inevitable confrontation. How was Cicero and so many others were made privy of the Spark in the first place when it wasn't even supposed to be widespread knowledge and regarded as a legend/folklore to begin with? Plus, what does it say about Rayton when he defeated both Cicero and Duke when they were empowered by it?

Difficulty

I wouldn't dare say that this game is as difficult as a rogue-like, with the exception of the difficulty of some of the game's endgame boss fights, but this game does have it's fair share of difficulty spikes that will catch a lot of players off-guard. It's not enough of a spike to ruin the overall experience, but it's comparable to the spikes in progression in Strider (2014). I found it to be a welcome challenge and the difficulty spikes urges players to learn the in's and out's of the combat system and to experiment with all of the tools at Rayton's disposal. This is a game that you will NOT button-mash your way aimlessly without a coherent strategy from start to finish.

Originally, this game released with no difficulty settings/levels, but an Easy difficulty setting was added in post-launch update that addressed how brutal the Iron Dogs were from many players' gripes and concerns. The sheer amount of pinpoint accuracy from enemy projectiles in this game amazes me time and time again as I'm positive this game is reading and reacting to player button inputs.

Regardless, this is a game that is going to give you a ton of tough love in terms of difficulty. It's either you're going to learn how to play the game and learn how to adapt and apply the tools that you are given and made aware of or you're going to continue falling on your face until the game hammers it into your head. It's not quite as harsh as a roguelike or a SoulsBorne title, but it's a "fair" challenge for the most part. There's some frustrating and annoy parts in terms of some particular enemy encounters towards the end of the adventure (those "ninja frogs", samurai robots, snipers, and robots with the stun batons are the bane of my existence here...) and some brutal platforming sections that I could easily see turning a lot of casual players away and causing them to not want to return to finish this game.

All of that being said, I'm sure that there will be controllers thrown at the final boss' gauntlet that you're forced to endure at the end of the game. My best advice is to have your parries and evasion game on point and lame it the hell out until you memorize his habits and patterns. This is a game where it doesn't hurt to take some time out of your adventuring to visit Master Wu on Joffre Street and practice your mastery over all of Rayton's three primary weapons with the various trials in the Training Mode.

Slum Fighter

While we're on the subject of difficulty, this extra mode MUST be talked about in sake of this review. It's secluded to a secret room that's easy to miss on the way to confronting the game's final boss, Cicero, and running the gauntlet to face him as Rayton fights his way through Torch Tower in the game's climax. This mode is found at an unique terminal to the left of the elevator (after defeating Cicero the first time) that takes you up to the final boss of the game. You will encounter a glowing green pipe that will open up and have the "Interact" prompt for Rayton can jump inside in the vein of Super Mario Bros. and warp to a secret, hidden room with a sole terminal.

This is the glowing green pipe that Rayton has to interact with to gain access to this boss rush-style mode.

Yes, Master Wu is an unlockable, hidden boss fight in this boss rush mode.

Surprised myself and actually cleared one of the tournament ladders as of this posting.

You cannot save, repair/restore Rayton's health, nor purchase skills at this terminal. Instead, this terminal allows Rayton to engage into a boss rush-sort of mode where he can fight any boss in the game 1-on-1 or in a tournament/survival mode-like setting that pits him against 4 bosses back-to-back. These battles will continue until either Rayton is defeated or he defeats all four opponents. There's no continues, but all of Rayton's acquired skills, tools, and weapons are available for use. Various handicaps can be set to add to the difficulty of this mode when it's already the most difficult challenge in the game to overcome. This mode includes "ultra" versions of some of the game's hardest bosses while offering exclusive, hidden bosses that you will not encounter anywhere else in the game.

I thought I was somewhat decent at this game until I tried my hand at this mode after clearing the game the first time and boy did I get my ass handed to me thoroughly here. These bosses are straight up relentless and will make short work of any player(s) who aren't coming into these battles with a solid game plan and their best combos ready to optimize every opening and opportunity to inflict the maximum amount of damage to these extremely lethal foes. If you're looking for the ultimate challenge in this game and want to put your combo mastery to the test, then this is the mode/side activity for you.

Play It or Don't Bother?

(Laughs) If you're a fan of furries, this game is an easy sell for you, especially with the scandalous curves of Lady Q on display at various points of the game.

In all seriousness though, F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch is a decent Metroidvania that well worth the time of fans of the genre playing through at least once. The story isn't going to get any awards nor stay with most players, but there's some rewarding moments of the gameplay and overall adventure that will definitely keep this game in the minds of many gamers for better or worse.

I do genuinely believe that more people should be talking about this game for what it does well and it sucks that this game quietly released and wasn't a blip on a lot of gamers' radars last year when Elden Ring and so many other AAA releases flooded the gaming landscape in 2022. It's still puzzling to me that there's not even a strategy guide nor many tips and tricks to help other gamers out from those who have completed it. I could understand if this game was completely unplayable or downright god-awful, but this was a (mostly) enjoyable experience from start to finish.

Last but not least, this game does get an extra bit of kudos from me personally for including a boss rush mode of sorts in the form of "Slum Fighter" since I think a lot of these Metroidvanias across the genre should allow players to revisit their favorite boss fights without having to play these games over entirely just to experience and/or practice strategies and different tactics against them. The fact that the developers of this game actually included that option in a post-launch update, much like MercurySteam did with Metroid: Dread, should be applauded (despite the steep difficulty of said mode) too.

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