‘Lysfanga’ is what happens when hack-and-slash meets tactical time travel

engadget.com:

Lysfanga’s isometric views may conjure up memories of Hades, but this is a different kind of game. While you’ll still be slicing and dicing monsters and enemies, protagonist Imë combines her spells and weapon combos with the ability to revert time and do it all over again, differently. The second time around, her shadow from the previous timeline will continue to rush into the enemies. If you remember the faded-out ghosts in racing games like Mario Kart and Gran Turismo, it’s a little like those, but in a collaborative, not competitive, way.

The aim is to complete separated combat levels within a single ‘run’, with only a finite number of ghost-Imës to get the job done. Naturally, things are further complicated by enemies that can’t be defeated from the front, or paired monsters that have to be killed almost simultaneously or they’ll respawn each other. Another Engadget editor said it reminded them of Transistor – the game rewards careful planning of your moves. While I was able to rush some of the early encounters without too much thinking, later levels demanded careful route planning, with doors that would lock and unlock when my character (or her ghosts) rushed through them, exploding enemies that could be punted into other enemies and a constant countdown that meant, sometimes, there wasn’t enough time to think.

Fortunately, Lysfanga's short levels – most can be completed in under two minutes – can be restarted. (Sometimes I knew I messed up, seconds into a level.) Imë also has an array of spells and special attacks with cooldown timers, to add further fight options. Controls are relatively simple, with two melee attack buttons that can be comboed together, a button to launch spells, a dash button that works for