I Paid For It

I knew I liked this game the moment the menu music loaded up.

It's fairly simple, once you grasp the mechanics: there are two meters, reminiscent of the hit point and special meters in fighting games. The first meter is Patience, and the stage ends when this runs out. Your normal attacks--as well as bonuses--are cast out of this bar, though it will also drain fairly rapidly just doing nothing. The second meter is Stress, and normal attacks add points to it. When you have enough points, you can cast a Special attack.

The damage you inflict is added to your score (besting a previous score earns a money bonus), and each hit has a chance to grant you money, which is used for upgrades. You can upgrade the maximums of both meters to 1000 Patience and 100 Stress, as well as critical and money chance to 50%, as well as buy bigger attacks, specials, and temporary bonuses.

The real draw, however, are the ability animations. Much care was put into the animation of all abilities, as they are very smooth and visually appealing. My favorites are the Lightsaber and Chain attacks, as well as Fire 2, Water 3.