Dinoblade

Jank is raised in 20% of all reviews and 41% of negative ones. Many mentions are passing ones, but the specifics pile up: getting stuck on small rocks, bosses clipping into terrain or wandering out of their arenas, attacks that launch the player into the sky, unloaded textures, and animation blending that looks rough on slopes and turns. The more serious reports involve lost progress: dying or failing a button prompt during a boss kill cutscene and having to refight the boss, a bug that sent players back to the tutorial after the first major boss, a softlock after the penultimate boss, corrupted saves, controller rebinding that broke the block button, and graphics settings that reset on every launch. Several reviewers note that patches arrived within days and fixed some of these, including the tutorial reset and the cutscene failure.

Performance is raised in 7.5% of reviews but in 22% of the negative ones, often by players who refunded in the first hour. Reports describe frame rate halving when abilities fire (the roar in particular), heavy drops in the foggy third area, the swamp and the snow area, and little difference between low and high settings. "Dinoblade can't maintain a consistent 20 FPS with every graphical setting turned down to the minimum on a machine that obliterates the recommended specs." A couple of players fixed crashes by launching with DirectX 11, and one reviewer says DLSS support was added after launch. Other players report smooth play at high settings, and Steam Deck and Linux reports range from unplayable to running well. One positive review lists FPS drops and stuttering among its cons and jokes, "Apparently optimization went extinct before the dinosaurs did."

Complaints about the final stretch appear in 5.5% of all reviews and 12% of negative ones. Players describe a sudden wall after an easy campaign: "this game does not have a difficulty curve this game has a difficulty right angle". Reviewers say the penultimate boss, Akai, disables an ability many of them had poured their limited boss points into, with no way to respec, and that its second phase has no checkpoint. "Tuned my 5 deaths run into 70." They also cite blinding visual effects, a small and fast opponent that is hard to track, and a final boss whose summons strike from off screen. "You will feel like a DS1 Character dealing with Sekiro Bosses at the end." Some players name these two fights as the best in the game, and one reviewer says the final boss's hitboxes were adjusted after launch.

Some players say they cannot see what is hitting them. Small enemies vanish behind the Spinosaurus's body and sail ("Spinosaurus... has way too fat of an ass."), and dark lighting in the canyon, swamp and forest blends brown enemies into brown terrain. "how do you expect me to parry a pixel on the screen?" Players also report that the lock-on engages even when switched off, drops target, locks through walls and spins wildly when fast bosses circle you. One player's tip is to "middle-click to toggle off the auto lock-on".

The levels alternate between narrow corridors and large open fields that players describe as empty, with a few bosses around the edges. There is no map, so finding missed swords and upgrades means wandering, and invisible walls block paths that look open while hidden routes sit where walls would be expected. "I'm not sure you can say level design has left the chat if it wasn't ever invited in the first place." Some players suggest the game would be better as a pure boss rush. Others enjoyed the vistas, especially the Great Lake area.

For a game about huge swords, hits feel light to some players. They ask for hitstop, louder impact sounds and execution audio, and note that many dinosaurs share the same roar. "a spinosaurus swinging a flaming greatsword should not have more subdued impact than your average pool noodle whack."

A handful of smaller complaints recur. Stamina refills so slowly that players wait out fights ("you need to stare at the boss for 5 business day before you can attempt something again."). Boss points cannot max every skill in one run and cannot be reassigned: "if you're gonna take a whole skill branch away at the final boss, let us respec the skills lmao". The interface feels placeholder ("UI is the most UI looking UI to ever UI"), there is no bar showing progress to the next level, and keyboard players cannot separate sprint from dodge.

After the credits, players can only refight the final boss or play Boss Rush. Some ask for New Game+ ("it is like a staple in any soulslike game"), and others for free roam after the ending, DLC or a sequel. These requests come almost entirely from players who recommend the game and wanted more of it.