Thank you CE-Asia for providing us with a review code!

AI Limit takes place in the distant future where plant life is extinct and humanity is not too far behind. The remaining people cling to the legend of Elysium (afterlife) and make their way to the last standing city of Havenswell as part of their pilgrimage. The planet is a wasteland and the mud has mutated and monsters have been emerging from it. Your character, Arrisa, also materializes from the mud. She is a warrior-like being called a blader who is tasked with purging the foul monsters while restoring the withering tree branches. When a branch is restored, it will heal Arrisa, and serve as a checkpoint to return to if she dies. Teleporting between branches is possible and saves a lot of time. Like other Souls inspired titles, all previously defeated enemies (except for bosses) will respawn when a branch is activated.

AI Limit does not have any difficulty settings other than “git gud”. You’ll have to learn and adapt to enemy attack patterns in order to survive. Arrisa can hold onto a few mud balls which will slowly regenerate her health upon consuming them (yuck!), but with the limited inventory you won’t be able to rely on those alone. In the beginning of the game, Arrisa will be given three life dew which are an instant healing mechanism. They are also reusable and will be replenished when visiting a branch.

When you kill enemies you’ll earn crystals. Upon resurrecting you’ll lose crystals and the enemies that kicked your butt will be waiting for you to try again. Crystals are the main currency for buying items at kiosks/traders and for leveling up your character stats. Enhancing your weapons and seals also requires crystals along with other precious metals.

There are many different weapon types ranging from single-handed to dual wielding armaments. Weapons have minimum requirements when it comes to your strength and technique attributes. Towards the end of the game, you’ll meet a spell trader who can sell you powerful spells that will require a high spirit attribute. Increasing your vitality is a good idea if you want to be a little more durable.

Synchronization is an interesting fighting mechanic in AI Limit. As your attacks connect with enemies, your synchronization rate will go up along with your attack power. If you spam attacks that miss the enemy, your synchronization rate and offensive power will decrease. How fast you synchronize and how much energy you absorb from enemies is determined by Arrisa’s equipped nucleus which can be swapped out for ones dropped by bosses throughout the game.

Defeated bosses will also typically leave behind weapons and outfits too. Arrisa can wear some silly outfits including a maid and a bunny one if desired. Some of the outfits really show off Arrisa’s cleavage. As she climbs up ladders you’ll get to see some under-skirt views and thankfully she’s always wearing underwear.

There are gods that you’ll eventually have to fight. One of them appears to be naked but you only get to see his backside. Other moral issues worth noting are blood, violence, and language including words like d*mn and b*stard.

AI Limit ran great on my desktop but I experienced some stuttering on my 4090 powered gaming laptop. I think the stuttering is due to thermal throttling. When I first launched AI limit from my laptop (2nd device) the Steam cloud save brought over my data but for some reason the language was set to Chinese. After fumbling through the menu a bit and accidentally starting a new game save, I was able to get the language set back to English. When playing the game back on my desktop the resolution was set to my laptop’s which is lower. All things considered this game ran well and I’m happy to see that the developers are actively patching it to address players' concerns. Although AI Limit is reported as unknown on the SteamDeck it runs great after changing my menu text back to English from Chinese again.

Graphically, I was impressed with how AI Limit looked. Granted it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world so the environment is intentionally bland. The world is vast and there’s plenty of room to explore different routes and it pays to travel off of the beaten path for better loot. In fact, there are times where a section seems impossible to get through, but if you look around a little, you’ll find a side route that will save you from a lot of pain and suffering. Not every big bad robot boss needs to be taken down head on!

The background music is fitting and pleasant to listen to. Arrisa doesn’t talk much, but the voice acting is good in this game. I like the character development and interactions between Arrisa and a young pilgrim named Shirley who tries to convert Arrisa to her faith.

In total, AI Limit has three possible endings and seven NPC quest lines. I got the ending where I had to face doomsday with the humans. For $35 there’s a lot of replay value here. If you enjoy challenging Souls-like games, you’ll want to add AI Limit to your Wishlist.