YMMV / Afterimage

• Captain Obvious Reveal: Ifree's real identity as a Goliath of Pyro is repeatedly and heavily foreshadowed all throughout the story and dialogue, you'll have it coming way ahead before it's formally revealed. It doesn't help that the foreshadowing is not that subtle at all; especially the bits where Ifree suspiciously interrupts the conversation if another character identifies him as a Pyro Goliath or is about to call him by his real name. Even the name Ifree is a major clue considering how often efreet appear in video games as fire demons.
• Cheese Strategy: Even if the Crystallized Wolf can spit a barrage of ice crystals that are difficult to avoid in most cases, the Anemogrim's insane attack speed with its "Anemoslash" skill makes it so easy for you to deflect all those crystals back to constantly damage the boss instead.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Blowingfeathers. Unlike their other two elemental-based counterparts that are easy to dispatch, their attacks are less predictable. They can quickly dive unto Renee then summon razor winds as a follow-up. Another thing that makes them harder to deal with though is their ability to teleport away. It's understandable that their speed embodies the wind element Anemo, though in practice, this means the player needs to be quick against them as well.
  • Pyro Sentinels and Pyro Assassins will make you hate the Field of Pyro where they're found. If the former are left unchecked, they'll spam magma spheres near you all over the place, even if they're off-screen. The latter are very agile, have a far-reaching Sword Beam, and are usually fought in cramped corridors with little room for evasion.
• Fridge Brilliance: The "Midas Touch" spell given by the Scroll of Pillage is classified as a "Soul" damage (as indicated by its purple damage number), which is the equivalent of the typical darkness element in many fantasy settings that incorporate Elemental Powers. Because the Greek myth of King Midas it takes inspiration from is mostly about the sin of greed, "darkness" makes sense to represent something sinful.
• Funny Moments:
  • You have to break a collapsed rock to give Tark a way out in the Field of Geo, despite his insistence that said rock is a precious item worth a lot of Dews. After it's broken, he and Ifree will then both say "That's a lot of Dews lost".
  • Halfway through the game onwards, the story places great emphasis on a spell that could enter one's subconscious; their "Soulfield", or their dreams (such as in the case of the Anemo Goliath Atmous, whom you have to subdue the nightmares of). A hidden Echo in the Halcyon Veins reveals that Se, the sleepyhead fairy, created the dream-travelling spell just for the Mundane Utility of being able to sleep while working!
  • Along with "The Essential" ending, defeating Red Renee in the Sunken Sanctum also rewards you the "Outfit – 0001" which changes Renee's color palette to that of Red Renee (basically, you'd be wearing the latter's clothes). Its Flavor Text however is unique as it mocks Red Renee, which is completely different from the descriptions of most other outfits that instead imply the existence of alternate selves.
    A well-kept cloak that once belonged to a certain paranoid red-haired girl. Now that her insolent behavior is gone, perhaps you could try it on?
• Game-Breaker: Bloodbath is a blade weapon that inflicts the Bleeding Status Ailment after hitting the enemy multiple times, but it's essentially a complete package of mechanics that easily trivialize many encounters. Damage Over Time status ailments like Bleeding, Burn, Shock, and Poison require constantly hitting the target for the debuff to persist. Other weapons (such as Thunderfall, Ember, and Scythe of Contagion) that inflict lingering ailments have necessary drawbacks innate to their weapon type, such as having slower attack speed, or shorter range. Bloodbath doesn't have such significant drawbacks because it's a blade-type weapon; its basic aerial attack hits several times with just a single button press, has a decent range, and is easily spammable (more so if jump cancelling is applied). Bloodbath is also broken by the fact that all enemies, including bosses, aren't immune to Bleeding. The weapon also passively boosts Critical Damage, which is essential for offensive builds that rely on dealing critical hits.
  • The Daggers in general break the game in half. They deal obscene damage for their speed, and have movement options to make up for their lack of reach. The thing that really breaks them, though, is the dagger throw. It can be spammed for a while, suspends you in the air for ages if you’re fast enough with it, and it keeps you at a safe distance and an angle most boss attacks aren’t able to punish you for. They got a Nerf in the boss rush mode, but they can still utterly decimate the base game.
• Genius Bonus: The eight Shenlong Glyphs that you collect in-game are the Bagua set of Chinese symbols.
• Goddamned Bats: Knellings and Shattered Knellings in the Sky Palace individually have low health and are highly likely to die from just one hit of your attacks by the time you reach this biome. They make up for it by usually appearing in swarms to overwhelm you. This is only compounded by how you'd often be fighting other types of enemies on the ground alongside them flying in mid-air. Shattered Knellings are harder to deal with though, as they explode upon death to deal significant damage; having a lot of them dying next to each other presents a risk of getting hurt a lot, especially if you're cornered.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: The visuals, presentation, fast-paced combat, and potential diversity in character builds are generally praised in reviews, yet the storytelling is also often criticized for being difficult to follow, or that it takes a lot of effort from the player to piece together the Story Breadcrumbs and Jigsaw Puzzle Plot just to understand the lore and worldbuilding. While such kind of storytelling techniques are common or prevalent within the Souls-like RPG genre (which Afterimage follows and belongs to), such criticism is very commonly, and specifically brought up when talking about this game.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The map screen's percent-based completion counter tracks how much of the biome's map have you filled up by exploring, and not how many treasures and important items have you found (The equippable Treasurescope of Se Afterimage does the latter instead). And even if you still rely on that percentage counter and want to increase it anyway, it's still too strict, as it may involve backtracking and reaching even the upper borders (as in the ceilings or literally the "skies") of every area possible with the late-game "super jump" ability of the Windwalker's Helmet.
• That One Attack:
  • Pale Shooters fire laser beams that can reach the far opposite end of the room. While you can simply crouch to avoid getting hit and there's a visual indication warning you before the laser is actually fired, the laser is hard to avoid in many cases where the corridor is filled with other enemies that you also have to fight or dodge, and such mistimed movements may cause Renee to get hit. Unfortunately, the laser deals massive damage upon each contact, and it lingers very long enough, presenting the risk of being hit multiple times with one beam even if the game offers a Mercy Invincibility.
  • The Sword Beam attack of a Pyro Assassin travels horizontally all across the screen, and up to a long distance if the screen scrolls towards their direction. Unfortunately, the cramped corridors where you usually fight them leaves little to no chances of evading the attack, let along jumping over it.
• That One Boss:
  • For a midgame encounter (at level 60), Valo, the First Knight not only has high HP and Attack stats, he is also extremely fast, has a high tendency to adjust or chain his combos depending on where Renee is, and many of his attacks reach far. Without strong equipment, stats, and proper strategy, he is already one of the toughest bosses to deal with. However, the other thing that makes him difficult is that he gains a second, stronger and more durable form after you deplete his first HP bar, turning an already tough boss into a Marathon Boss. When you do reach his second form, the only saving grace that alleviates these and gives you a fighting chance is his HP constantly draining on its own.
  • Alvess, the Everstorm is one of the few Lightning Bruiser bosses around the midgame that demand precision and proper dodging from the player (another is Valo, the First Knight). He is durable, moves really fast, and has a variety of attacks on the ground and on mid-air. There's little breathing room for you to land counter-hits on him as he often chains his attacks with each other. Among his attacks that are difficult to evade include a Shockwave Stomp and the ability to summon several diagonal pillars on the field (which deal Collision Damage).
  • Occult Prime of Anemo and Geo is essentially a Bullet Hell, throwing walls of projectiles at you while also summoning minions to help keep the pressure on. He also has a wind attack that keeps you locked to one side of the arena while you dodge his rock projectiles, and if any of the additional enemies are on screen when that starts, the chance of dodging everything that’s thrown your way is minimal.
• That One Level: Field of Pyro combines Platform Hell in the form of rotating fire hazards that require precise timing, while having at least two types of Demonic Spiders; Pyro Sentinels and Pyro Assassins. It is an endgame biome, so the enemies here are also made more difficult due to their high levels, HP, and damage output.