Bright Memory: Infinite

My first reaction when the combat clicked in Bright Memory: Infinite was genuine disbelief that this came from what is effectively a one-person studio. Shelia Tan is handed an assault rifle and a light sword from the opening seconds, and the game immediately asks you to use both at the same time. Parry an enemy's bullets with the blade, launch them airborne, air-juggle them with sword swings, then finish with a shotgun blast on the way down. The game awards combo letter grades for creative kills, borrowing the DNA of character action games like Devil May Cry and injecting it into a first-person frame. Sliding, wall-running, and jump-boost movement keep the arena feel alive, and an Exo glove ability lets you hurl enemies into the air or rip weapons from their hands. The four firearms, including the assault rifle, shotgun, pistol, and sniper, each carry a secondary fire mode with some genuinely wild results; the sniper doubling as a sticky grenade launcher being a personal favourite moment of confusion and joy. The skill upgrade tree is light but purposeful, with unlockables such as energy beam sword swings and a brief time-stop ability that changes the rhythm of a fight noticeably. The world itself draws on Chinese folklore and architecture, set against a permanent rainstorm in a futuristic 2036. Environments shift from temple courtyards to the hull of a passenger aircraft spiralling into a black hole, and the art direction draws visible inspiration from Guangxi, the developer's own city, giving the backdrops a specificity that generic sci-fi cities rarely manage. RTX ray-tracing support is present, and the visual fidelity genuinely competes with games from far larger teams. If you are running an RTX card, this is one of the better showcases for the hardware at its price point. Here is where I have to be honest with you, because this is the Scout Team and not a press release. The runtime sits at roughly two to two-and-a-half hours on a first playthrough, and the campaign ends the moment you have developed a real feel for the tools. Enemy variety is thin enough that encounters stop evolving before the credits roll. The story follows an SRO agent investigating a supernatural black hole crisis and a militarised antagonist, but the narrative is so loosely assembled that calling it a plot feels generous. The English voice acting has issues with pacing and emphasis. A stealth segment and a driving section both feel undercooked compared to the core combat, and the AI for standard soldiers is basic. Boss fights range from satisfying sword-duel encounters to disappointingly passive arena soaks. Four difficulty tiers, including a locked Hell mode, and collectible relics that fund additional skills give the replay loop some shape, but most players will get two clean runs out of this before shelving it. What I keep returning to is the context. A single developer, learning Unreal Engine in spare time, building something that feels like Doom crossed with Bayonetta filtered through a Chinese sci-fi lens. The craft visible in the combat system, the environment art, and the sheer technical ambition of the lighting work is not something I can dismiss by pointing at the short runtime. If you carry any warmth at all for indie developers attempting things that exceed their resources, there is something genuinely moving about what FYQD-Studio produced here. The ceiling of the experience arrives too soon, but the ceiling itself is higher than most studios twice this size would dare to aim for.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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