by: Michael Barnes

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is the kind of game that many critics and game players like to pat themselves on the back for liking, celebrating their discerning taste in games while lamenting that titles such as it languish while Call of Duty and Halo sell into the billions. With its unique visuals and a story inspired the Book of Enoch, a piece of esoteric Jewish scripture, the game certainly stands apart from the AAA crowd and it’s easy to understand why those looking for new concepts in gaming—myself included—would be drawn to it. Unfortunately, doe-eyed reverence for the game’s style tends to gloss over some ugly warts rooted deep in gameplay that are likely a good argument not to let art directors design games. In this case, the project was headed up by Takeyasu Sakewai, the character designer that produced some of the beloved figures from Okami and Devil May Cry.

The game is essentially a third-person brawler not entirely unlike the Devil May Cry games, but with practically all of the compelling complexity and versatility stripped away to a minimalist, one-button core and a three weapon armory. Some may argue that the simplicity belies a subtle depth, but the sad fact is that El Shaddai is a shallow button-masher wherein the player runs through a series of completely linear environments, busts a couple of pots, and fights the same four enemy types throughout the entire game.

Interspersed with the core action are some truly horrendous platforming sequences, including some 2D sections that are poisoned by sloppy controls, poor level design, and awkward (and unmovable) camera placement. Death is frequent, irritating, and often unfair.

So despite its unique look, the game isn’t really all that much more than another slightly weird Japanese beat ‘em up with crude mechanics and an opacity that’s almost spiteful. There’s barely an explanation for some of the pickups in the game, and there is no HUD to track basic information at all. Other than the visual cue of Enoch losing his armor until he’s running around shirtless in a pair of apparently very chic Edwin Jeans, it’s never even clear how many lives or retries you have—you’re supposed to just press the buttons to see if you can come back to life. A sort of new game plus option unlocks a HUD, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why this is an extra and not a feature. For all of its talk of angelic goings-on and visual frippery, it all turns out to be smoke and mirrors hiding a poorly designed game and really a quite terrible example of this particular genre. Haven’t these people played Bayonetta, for Pete’s sake?

Unlike Bayonetta’s baroque, glam-rocking mélange of over-heated melodrama, El Shaddai’s story is willfully oblique, threadbare, and disjointed. The rough cut is that Enoch, paired up with his handler Lucifel (who talks to God on a cellphone in an awfully chummy way), has to purify seven Fallen Angels before the Big Man orders the Great Flood to wipe out the Earth. It seems that the Fallen Angels have spent their time on Earth making babies with humans, producing half-human, half-angel offspring that are becoming a threat to both Heaven and Earth. Called the Nephilim, these creatures in the game in no way resemble the giant superhumans described in scripture. Instead, they’re cute, jellybean-like creatures that play with beach balls and frolic on swing sets. Talk about lost in translation.

Sure, it’s fascinating and potentially amazing that the developers chose such an unusual piece of source material in the Book of Enoch but the sum is little more than a list of proper names and some vaguely understood plot points. Effectively, El Shaddai’s story isn’t any more intelligent, insightful, or original than any other example of the sloppy narrative jibber-jabber and facile fascinations of other anime-influenced Japanese games. The story and characters may impress young gamers and Japanophiles but ultimately it’s empty-headed, trite, and without any sense of comment, analysis, or understanding.