Just when I thought it couldn't get any better...
First off, I must say that I am a HUGE fan of the Armed With Wings series. Everything from the music and dialogue to the combat system is simply beautiful. Just when I thought the gameplay and story couldn't get any better after the second installment, you far exceed my expectations with this masterpiece of gaming art.
I'll break this down into the fine points.
Graphics: I couldn't help but stare at the seemingly simple monochrome landscape and characters and wonder why I found them so appealing. I've played many games with a similar artwork style and for some reason I just can't explain, I love them. I guess it's partially because of the whole 'I like it, but I don't know why' aspect that just leads to the appeal. The animations were absolutely wonderful and I found that no matter what combination of attacks I did, they always seemed to 'work' together; blending seamlessly no matter how I did them. However, I did notice a rather glaring glitch in a certain area on Chapter 4. I died after completing this big elaborate puzzle by the large group of enemies that ambushed me afterwords. However, when I respawned at the beginning of the room, I noticed that certain textures were missing even though the actual 'surfaces' were still there. It just looked like I was walking on air. That might be something to watch out for in the future. It didn't effect my progress any, but it was rather awkward, and persisted even after I died a second time.
Gameplay: I love how you revamped and improved the combat system from Armed With Wings 2. First of all, you fixed the annoying jumping physics of from the previous game which was always something that got on my nerves with that one. The different styles of combat, customizable stats, and number of special abilities gave a good level of flexibility with playstyle. The only thing I found wrong with it is the fact that you can't combine melee attacks and swordplay into mixed combos. Yes, they LOOK like they go together when you do it, but it's obvious that they don't as you're left wide open to attack whenever it switches to the other style. I would have like to see a mixture of the moves like you could do in AWW2. I know that would require alot of effort and testing to perfect, but if you did it, I know the response would be positive.
Storyline: Ah, the story. One of the fundamental aspects of any game in my opinion and this series' story is exceptional. I've mentioned on a review of one the previous installments how much I love the way you gave a level of backstory to the monochrome graphics with the idea of 'Blackmist' and then created the deific representation of Blackmist at the end of AWW2. Now, you've actually gone and created his hellish counterpart in Network. I also like how you shifted focus away from the two original main characters, the Original Armed With Wings, and Vandheer Lorde while not completely throwing them aside. The climax was incredible, but I won't go into detail about it so to not spoil any other players.
Sound: The music and sound effects are just great. Most of the music has a really 'feudal-Japanese' like feel to it which is fitting for the game, and I also noticed a song that sounded like something of a 'rock-a-fied' African folk song which I really liked. No voice acting like in Red Moon but it really doesn't NEED it, considering that the game really succeeds in delivering the emotion without it.
Long story short; amazing game. Definitely the best one yet despite a couple of flaws that keep it from being a perfect 10. However, now that this game has concluded I'm simply left to wonder 'what's next?'. We've seen a rebellion rise and fall, the revelation of a god, and now the revelation of demon... but considering the nature of these things I have to wonder if there will be more to the series. I definitely don't want it to end, but I simply can't see where it could possibly go from here. All I can hope for is that you think of something, Daniel and give us more of this series to enjoy.
Very well done. 9/10 and 5/5