No Place for Bravery Critic Reviews

A fantasy adventure with tough-but-fair combat, a well crafted story and a punchy pixel art aesthetic, No Place For Bravery is the next ‘must play’ game in the 2D/dungeon-crawler renaissance. While it’s still not perfect, the game is much more stable now that it has received a patch and despite a few spotty frame rates, this is an easy title to recommend.

No Place For Brave is an incredible top-down adventure that tells a touching story about the lengths one will go for family. Its weighty combat is challenging but fair which makes each battle a thrill. Although I did encounter the occasional bug which stifled the pace, this didn’t hinder what was a wonderful and touching experience.

No Place for Bravery is another stellar soulslike for genre fans to add to their library on the Switch. By taking the best elements from Sekiro and translating those into a fast-paced, isometric ARPG with deep world-building and compelling narrative hooks, No Place for Bravery does more than enough to provide a title that stands out amidst a sea of samey competition.

Technical issues may mean that doesn’t like up to the standards of the games it’s trying to emulate, but even so, there’s a lot of good stuff going on here, and if you can look past those issues (or even wait for some patches), there’s definitely something here worth playing.

No Place for Bravery is a promising gory action soulslike with Sekiro-esque combats and some pretty good chunks of gameplay but also balancing issues and some annoying bugs.

An action-RPG with brawling and brutal soul, but also weighed down by a few too many edges concerning the general cleanliness of the code.

A visually brilliant and fascinating action RPG, but also with several structural problems.

No Place for Bravery—an action/adventure RPG from Ysbryd Games and Glitch Factory—does have some issues; the retro graphics aren’t the best, and they still produce some frame rate problems. The intriguing (mature) story and interesting environments, however, result in a good title worth checking out.

No Place For Bravery it’s a great action-souls adventure with fun and challenging combat, but its technical issues can be very frustrating and ruin the experience for some players.

No Place for Bravery has a lot of heart, but its stilted combat holds it back from being great.

It's a shame that No Place for Bravery crumbles under the weight of its ambition. Should the performance and technical issues be fixed, it would become something I could easily recommend. The music, story, and visuals are all wonderfully crafted, and it would be unfortunate if this version ended the final product. Fortunately, it does seem like patches are in the works, but it remains to be seen how much of the above issues are fixed by them. Ultimately, No Place for Bravery is a promising title that may be able to live up to its aspirations with a little more work under the hood.

In the end, No Place for Bravery lives or dies based on the strength of its combat system. Other aspects like its graphics, music, and storytelling are passable without being outright noteworthy, but an action RPG must nail its combat, and here the game falters. With multiple issues all undermining the core battle mechanics, the game’s overall lasting impression is easily soured. Just like its protagonist, No Place for Bravery attempts to swoop in for the kill but ends up getting routinely smacked in the face instead.