1348 Ex Voto – Game Review

1348 Ex Voto – Right from the beginning of 2026, the gaming market was already bustling not only with attractive titles like Nioh 3 , Resident Evil Requiem , Slay the Spire II , or Crimson Desert … but also with some 'bombshells' like Code Violet , Code Vein 2 , Highguard , High on Life 2 , or a game that caused many people to fall into 'depression' no less: 1348 Ex Voto .

2025 saw the incredible success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 , along with Jennifer English winning the Best Actress award, which led to 1348 Ex Voto attracting considerable attention from fans of the actress, as she also starred in this project. 

However, right from the initial glimpses, 1348 Ex Voto blatantly revealed its "diversity and inclusion" agenda, with the game's marketing team constantly emphasizing the concept of innovation (modern agenda) through numerous posts on social media platforms.

Understandably, many predict the game will likely face a 'disaster' upon release!

And those predictions, unfortunately, have come true. tipsplay.net has… wasted '6 hours of your life' with 1348 Ex Voto so you wouldn't have to do it!

YOU WILL HATE

NAIVE, CLUMSY, SILLY

To be honest, I was quite expecting something exciting when I saw the trailer for 1348 Ex Voto . It could be an epic medieval Italian setting, a new combat system different from the 'Souls-like' trend flooding the market, or at least a heroic storyline that evokes some childhood memories from Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc.

But no! 1348 Ex Voto has none of that. It's so basic it's ridiculous, and even that basicness is expressed in an incredibly clumsy and absurd way.

The story of 1348 Ex Voto revolves around a somewhat 'creepy' relationship between two 'queer' characters – meaning you don't need to worry about their gender, as that element plays no role in the overall story of the game (and ideally, these two characters shouldn't represent anyone in society anyway).

Aeta was born into a noble family but harbored a naive dream of a world filled with knights and princesses; while Bianca, though of humble origins as a maid, possessed a somewhat edgy, practical personality with bold (or so it seems) perspectives.

Their lives took an early turn when their hometown was attacked by a mysterious force. They wiped out everyone in the village, but strangely, they kidnapped Bianca, a maid. This didn't faze Aeta, as she was busy making her knightly vow, promising to… save Bianca (instead of avenging her parents and hometown), and conveniently fulfilling her earlier 'fairy tale ideal'.

Furthermore, the story of 1348 Ex Voto isn't told in a conventional way; Sedleo – the studio behind the game – seems to be trying too hard to turn it into a cinematic work by using rather artistic camera angles. But alas, the writer often found himself laughing because this half-hearted seriousness and artistry were ruined by the game's incredibly outdated motion capture. 

Bianca was incredibly impressive with her perpetually pouting mouth from beginning to end, combined with eyes that sometimes rolled back like someone with rabies, and other times looked dazed like someone high on drugs. As for Aeta, her childish face, combined with her spiky haircut like a "city boy," and her overly dramatic tone during moments of intense emotion, honestly, she looked no different than a three-year-old child upset about being bullied by her neighborhood friends.

This hilariously absurd humor is further amplified by a plethora of close-up camera shots (presumably borrowed from the Hellblade series ), making 1348 Ex Voto feel more like a physical comedy than a story that requires player empathy.

Each interaction between the characters is expressed through vague, vacant gazes and dialogue so awkward it feels empty, like the void inside the screenwriter's skull. To make it easier to visualize, think of two mannequins in a gravity-defying pose, mouthing words and trying to connect their souls via Bluetooth.

But that's not all; if you've ever played the Hellblade series , you'll easily recognize Aeta as a 'flawed version' of Senua. You'll have to play a character who is childish, naive, delusional, and schizophrenic all at once. Aeta doesn't have multiple personalities, but she's heavily 'obsessed' with her friend Bianca.

Unlike the empathy and curiosity I felt playing Senua in Hellblade , I just felt… sickened by Aeta's constant muttering of meaningless phrases. Even worse, 9 out of 10 of those mumbled phrases would mention Bianca. 'Bianca, Biaca…!' Aeta was like a crazy fan suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, making the player truly frustrated. I think Sedleo should have named the game 'Bianca and the Lesbian Simp'; it might have been more relevant to the storyline than the title 1348 Ex Voto .

Not only are the characters poorly developed, but the situations that allow players to feel the emotional connection between the two characters are also very shallow. Therefore, even if you play to the end of the game and understand why Aeta is "crazy" about Bianca, the game's storyline remains a "disaster" in many aspects.

Terrible motion capture and an overly exaggerated message, characters that struggle to empathize with due to their 'grotesque' nature, a choppy plot with abrupt cuts that feel like they're instantly transported to another game, and tons of pointless camera angles (for example, constantly focusing on the core of an apple during dialogue). 

Even if you play to the end of the game and understand why Aeta is so obsessed with Bianca, the game's storyline remains a disaster in many respects.

STUNTED AND BACKWARD

Besides the naive and absurd storyline, the combat system of 1348 Ex Voto is another forgettable 'disaster'.

Despite being advertised as being inspired by real historical fencing techniques, it's actually more rudimentary than those kids' videos on YouTube.

It's flawed, it's monotonous, it's even more boring than role-playing games from… 25 years ago.

The animations for the combat are incredibly weak; both friend and foe's attacks look very feeble, the clash effects between melee weapons are unappealing, and the combat rhythm is stuck in a series of indiscriminate attack button spams, all just to try and deplete the enemy's defense bar. With this mechanism, once the player is surrounded by more than two enemies taking turns stabbing, Aeta will inevitably bleed, even if her defense bar is three times longer.

And if you can't continuously block attacks when surrounded, the 1348 Ex Voto also has a dodge mechanism, which is, of course, another frustrating feature. Instead of defending, you can actively dodge enemy attacks, but the distance for each dodge is only about… one step. The I-frame (damage-free moment) of each dodge is also very short, so when the enemy unleashes a combo of two or more attacks—just TWO attacks, mind you—even if you had wings, you wouldn't be able to dodge them all.

Furthermore, the button layout on the 1348 Ex Voto controller is… incredibly stupid. Using an Xbox controller, the game's button layout is as follows: attack with [right trigger – RT], block with [left trigger – LT], run with [left shoulder button – LB], and dodge with [right shoulder button – RB]. This means that with a standard controller grip, players can only use their two index fingers to perform all four actions: run, block, dodge, and attack. The D-pad and X, Y, A, B buttons, which are conveniently positioned for the player's thumbs, are completely… useless.

What's even more frustrating is that this dodge mechanism is crucial in the late game, when enemies are equipped with thick armor and have very high defense bars, always outnumbering each other, and their attack chains are extremely long, including dangerous attacks (which must be dodged). Players have no choice but to take hits and repeatedly press the attack button hoping to quickly eliminate as many enemies as possible.

And don't even think you can escape. Even if the door in front of you is wide open and you can avoid all the enemies chasing you, the game still won't let you go. Simply put, the game FORBIDS you from doing that cowardly thing. An invisible wall will block you, forcing you to fight off all the enemies before you can proceed.

The weapon and skill upgrade mechanics in 1348 Ex Voto are incredibly deep. It's unbelievable that in 2026, there's still a game with such an outdated skill tree and equipment upgrade system.

Besides the naive and absurd storyline, the combat system of 1348 Ex Voto is another forgettable 'disaster'.

The game gives you four 'skill trees,' each with only three upgrade options. Even more surprisingly, three of these four skill trees are… exactly the same!?!?! And do you know what those skills are? They're just a few extra moves added to your attack chain, meaning your attack 'spam' will become even longer and more monotonous. There are no special acrobatic moves, spinning sword swings, or high-level techniques. The combat system remains the same!

The player's weapon can be upgraded by collecting parts such as hilts, handles, blades, etc., scattered along the way. However, this doesn't really affect the upgrade much, because later on, the player will pick up an item capable of 'finishing off' enemies after breaking through their defenses.

Therefore, all previous weapon upgrades are essentially meaningless. If the player doesn't pick up the aforementioned item, they will likely struggle to complete the game, as the damage improvements from those upgrades are insignificant against heavily armored and shielded soldiers.

VAIN

The plot is silly, the gameplay is shallow, so what's so great about 1348 Ex Voto ? The graphics or the level design?

Unfortunately, that's also not the case!

What is presented to the player as a medieval Italy, at first glance, seems beautiful, but in reality it is empty, heavy, and not at all aesthetically pleasing compared to games with similar settings released many years earlier (the A Plague Tale: Innocence series , for example).

The level design of 1348 Ex Voto is simply super-linear. The player has only one task: to move forward. The only thing in your way is… a few soldiers. There are no chests to open, no locked doors to interact with, no challenging puzzles other than pulling a crate or pushing a cart… and nothing to collect or equip. Just one path, encounter someone, 'var' them, then continue, repeat… That's it!

Not only that, you'll never encounter an NPC along the way, even if you travel through several cities and towns, because they're all deserted. Not a single person, bird, butterfly, dog, cat, chicken, or pig exists in the game. Not even the trees are swaying or moving.

Even in the level where the game lets you go right into the enemy camp (while they're in the middle of a siege), the camp is practically empty except for a handful of soldiers huddled together, facing the wall. And the total number of soldiers in the entire camp probably doesn't even reach 15! And throughout that tedious journey, you have to listen to Aeta constantly muttering "Bianca, Bianca" without stopping!

In several sequences, Sedleo features quite a few impressive scenes with majestic panoramic views, beautiful lighting set during prime time, and magnificent castles. 

However, it seems Sedleo overused Quixel's Megascans library and threw it all into Unreal Engine 5 instead of actually 'drawing' and optimizing that graphical asset. As a result, 1348 Ex Voto performs quite poorly, with frequent frame rate drops, especially in areas with a lot of fire; other 'volumetric'-related animations are ugly and grainy; and the light and shadow areas are excessively blurry, causing players' eyesight to drop to 1/10 as they constantly grope around in pitch-black spaces even during the day.

For the final boss fight, I had to lower all the game's graphics settings and increase the brightness to the point of "fading colors" just to see the boss's movements clearly enough to dodge its attacks. This was probably the most tear-jerking boss fight I've ever experienced, not because it was emotional, but because it was as dark as. the life of Mrs. Dậu!

Sedleo even shamelessly sells a digital artbook of 1348 Ex Voto for $5, but frankly, the quality is probably only at the "knowing how to hold a pen" level. It seems Sedleo is overly confident in trying to prove how talented they are, instead of focusing on investing in making their game design better and more appealing.

The 1348 Ex Voto actually performs quite poorly, with frame rates frequently fluctuating.