jackx

Not just you - I'm glad to see that FS is making a comeback as well.

Well, there could be more axes... but the bloodied spears will do nicely as well

And as always, Odoakris can be relied on for not only excellent cover artworks, but also for introducing us to great bands

Supernatural elements, some of which Conan has to outwit, and some which he can only beat through grudging recourse to other supernatural elements are fine and, IMHO, also quite in keeping with Howard's stories.

The usual fireball and lightning stuff obviously isn't, but hopefully it's a "power-up" gameplay device the use of which will not be necessary for completing the game, something like the "rune powers" in Rune - they'd let you finish a fight faster, but one could also quite easily do without them withouth the game really getting harder, it'd just take a bit longer. So basically a speedkill function for the impatient or (easily) bored player who wants to shorten the time he has to spend  on carving through the game's standard enemies.

Worst case, they'll be needed for "boss battles", which is bad not so much because it's magic, but because it's learn-the-trick-or-die, little-to-no replay value boss fights. Of course, one adapts one's fighting style to the enemy's behaviour, but that should feel natural, not forced. Not like having to use the soulcube to kill the cyberdemon, or the forced "speedkills" in the PoP:TTT boss fights.

The more realistic you get, the less diversity there is, particularly with weapons such as axes, polearms and the like - sure, it'd feel extra realistic, grim and brutal for the first 100 or so enemies you dispatch that way, but what about the next 10.000 you'll certainly face in a game like this?
However, lots of fancy combo moves, realistic or not, don't necessarily solve that problem if they are not well-balanced and have specific uses - and that's really what bothers me most about such a long list of "combos" or moves - the high amount of redundancy that is virtually bound to happen as a direct consequence.

Keeping the choice of attacks relatively limited, with a rather restrictive system like that of Severance:Blade of Darkness, which basically forces you to adapt your playing style to the weapons you currently have and your player level (which directly impacts how you use weapons due to level requirements for combos and special attacks, and stamina drain) works much better, imho, and nowadays you can always tack on the additional gratuitous violence through context-sensitive animations.


As for flying poleaxe boomerangs - after watching Azumi 2, I'm rather partial to them, I must say..