I picked up Tiger Blade a few days ago. It's 50% off with PS+ bringing it to $12.50 usd.
It is a total blast. There's some VR games we can easily describe "makes you feel like _____". Like Pistol Whip comparisons to John Wick, etc. Tiger Blade makes you feel like... a Korean sword assassin (I don't know if there's an accurate 1-word word haha).
(Unsurprisingly) I have NO clue how to fight with a sword but I sure as hell immediately at least pretend I do, taking on a stance and everything. The game just begs it with the aesthetic, the whooshing slice sfx and vfx when you slice through the air...
The game itself is short and CHALLENGING. You can beat the whole thing in under an hour I think... if you're good enough... and if you have the stamina (I sure don't. I have to stop after a few stages each time). I think at the sale price it's totally worth it even if you just play through once.
But definitely a core idea of the design is getting you to replay levels. They are fast-paced and super replayable, and you will absolutely have a lot to get better at. The challenge gets pretty intense quite fast.
The mechanics of it are quite brilliant I think. You have a sword and gun that swap in the same hand just by holding grip. It's very intuitive and feels good. Meanwhile your off-hand has a kind of grapple-pull, sometimes it's used to pull yourself to the next area, sometimes you'll use it to snag a makeshift shield from the environment, or some enemies will need you to utilize it.
You don't need much swing force to hit but you do need to aim your swings and blocks, as well as your shield position if you have one. It's a lot of coordination when you're in the heat of it and very challenging. The enemies are designed really well with an organic-feeling colour/design coding that gives you essential information about how the enemy will attack you. Not all bullets need to be blocked, and the ones that do need to be blocked are visually distinct. Some enemies will rarely shoot an 'on-target' bullet, while other enemies will always shoot an 'on-target' bullet. So you must learn to be aware and prioritize. And in the later levels you really have to learn the stage if you want to be rewarded with a clean score.
The movement mechanic is also incredibly effective. Fitting the style perfectly, rather than walk around you move in a determined (but engaging from a level design perspective) path through actions. Sometimes that action is dealing the killing slash on an enemy with your sword, other times it's using your grapple. It feels great and fluid.
And it's such a fluid game, and that flow is only really hindered by the intentional challenge that will kill you many times. The biggest reward for replaying - more than snagging a high score - is the satisfaction of maintaining fluidity through the whole stage. It's such a great feeling (I've so far only done it on the easiest level!).
The music is also great fun to my taste, and the story is simple but engaging and totally does what it needs to do.
The are a few minor flaws, some things that could improve,
The game visually looks great and is crisp but the resolution is a bit low. Not that low, don't get the wrong idea. It's a great looking game and the resolution is good enough that you won't think about it once you're immersed. But would definitely be nice to see some it reach its full visual potential!
I think maybe the swings should require just a little more swing before it registers a hit. There's a couple times where I move my sword and I don't intend it to be a swing but it still hits - this never 'hurts' me, but it does feel a bit odd when it happens, and almost like cheating. I wonder if either they could require a bit more swing, or have a sensitivity slider for the player to customize it.
I feel like the shields could maybe be just a bit bigger to reduce the challenge a little. And it sometimes feels like the shield will block hits that my sword was positioned to block. Maybe the shield is in front of my sword without me realizing, but either way I think it could be a bit more forgiving in that vein and check if your sword is positioned for the block, and if so, then not use the shield (the shield can take a specific number of hits before it breaks).
That's all I can think of at the moment! Definitely nothing that keeps this game from being a 'hidden gem' and blast to play, to my taste.
Actually I still haven't beaten the last level! Had to take another break, but wanted to write this up!
Highly recommend Tiger Blade.