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Exploring its gorgeous, colorful world drenched with magical realism and sadness brings forth a wealth of strong emotions. Navigating the rooms of sprawling forests and dark dungeons in first person makes you appreciate the same strong sense of style that was drenched all over Guacamelee!. But Severed really shines when you enter an encounter, which is where the game implements some of the most intuitive, yet deepest use of touch-screen functionality that I’ve ever seen on a Vita.The gist of it plays out like the weirdly-entrancing love child of Punch-Out!!, Grandia, and Fruit Ninja. When facing an enemy, you have to watch its movements, wait for its attack tell, and swipe against the grain in order stagger them. Once staggered enough, a weak point is shown, allowing you to swipe against it and cause actual damage. Miss the tell, and you’ll take a beating. Hit an enemy before they’re vulnerable, and you’ll be staggered and lose a bit of your special meter. That last part is important, because filling it up allows you to stop time and slice off a monster’s appendages one-by-one.Shortly into the demo, enemies begin encircling you at a nerve-wracking pace. This is where the Grandia part kicks in. You have to pay attention to each one’s timer, and manage your parries, attacks, and sever-ings accordingly. Encounters quickly become incredibly tense, and require you to keep a sharp eye on all corners of the battlefield. This becomes especially tricky when you're up against multiple enemies, each of which have different tells and weaknesses. Knowing who you need to focus on and who you can forgot about for a moment is key to surviving the tough battles.What impressed me most about Severed’s combat was how it constantly doled out new and interesting ideas, all of which focused on the Vita’s touch screen. New enemies were introduced at a rapid-fire pace, each of which presented fresh and interesting puzzle-like encounters. Spoils of war could be picked up and used to upgrade various stats and abilities. And the slow reveal of the game’s mysterious story made me want to keep venturing forward and fighting in order to see just what the hell was going to happen next.Past where the PSX demo ended, I got to see how the combat is pushed even further as you progress through Severed’s four major dungeons and absorb the powers of each one’s boss, Mega Man-style. For example, one ability allows you to steal the buff of a given enemy and transfer it to yourself. By snatching haste from a giant spider, you can slow down the attack meters of each enemy on screen, making encounters with a slew of nasties much more manageable. Another skill froze a given enemy in place for a limited amount of time. This helped clear out the smaller minions in a room before focusing on your biggest threat.Playing 20 minutes of Severed immediately made it the PlayStation Vita game I'm looking forward to most in 2015. I want to explore more of its beautiful world. I want to unravel the mysteries of its melancholy story. I want to dive deep into its interesting combat mechanics. But most of all, I just want to hack off some fools' appendages.

Marty Sliva is an Editor at IGN. He cannot wait to play more Severed. Follow him on Twitter @McBiggitty