[Review] Hindsight 20/20 - Nintendo Switch

Developed and Published By: Triple I Games
Categories: Action
Release Date: 09.09.21

They always do say Hindsight is 20/20, right? If you could do something different, say something different, would you? In Hindsight 20/20 – Wrath of the Raakshasa, you’ll probably have these feelings.

How so? Well, this game is a mix of action adventure and those choices you get in RPGs. You left your town long ago, only to return filled with regret once news of a violent uprising has happened. You’re given the choice to use non-lethal or lethal techniques to fight enemies. This upfront is something I really enjoy. I’m going to do these non-lethal playthroughs because I want to challenge myself. This does affect story and how you play outside of fights however. Early one, you meet the man who killed your father. He begs for forgiveness, is he being earnest? Do you give him mercy? You can fight him if you feel the need, if you lust for revenge.

You run into your friend. He’s on the edge, he knows he’s going to turn. Turn into this abomination, like so many people have and perhaps will. He’s going to jump, but can you talk him out of it? I couldn’t, though I tried. I did have thoughts of “What if I chose different things to say, could have I helped?” It’s too late for that though, we must move on.

In town, you can and most likely should help out the people around. Of course, you can be a major dinkhead and not, or just insult them when they ask for help, but I don’t like playing games like that. So I decide to help a woman, her kids are being imprisoned because there is suspicion of her set of kids turning into monsters, like your friend was fearing. She knows her kids aren’t however, so you help her out. Lets call what comes next an action sequence.

So in areas not in that (remotely) calm town with people, you’ll have a Zelda like dungeon. Puzzles, collectables like lore scrolls, fights, new abilities. The real meat of the game. I mentioned that fights can be fought lethally and non-lethally. Red and Blue color coded. Keep this in mind for abilities. Combat has you doing combos, a six hit combo is the goal, since that does a great multi enemy hit. You’ll make combos by just hitting a new enemy each hit. You would think the game would want you to time your hits, but I had much more success just mashing the attack button. Getting those big combos can raise your special meter and earn back some lost morale(non lethal health) or health too.

Simple enough, but you can get more abilities like countering, nice dashes, and other moves to spice up combat. There’s even a Devil Trigger esqe mode to really go nuts. Outside of bosses, which you won’t fight normally, I didn’t use these moves too often, but it really did feel good to let loose.

I like the look, the designs, all of that. The main character looks like Hotsuma from Shinobi and that immediately puts it at a good place in my book. Parts of Hindsight and purposefully dull or drab, but it makes the colorful parts stand out more and there are some nice colors.

All and all, this means a lot of replayability. I’m going to replay this plenty of times, do things different, fight lethally. You know, I do have hindsight now.