An ancient evil has been set loose, and Jonathan cursed in the process. Jonathan must now collect seven holy grails from around all of Egypt to cleanse himself of the curse of Sehur the first. Be delighted by the quirky humor, charming characters, and the beautifully designed world, in Pharaoh Rebirth+!
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Hidden gem about finding hidden gems. If you love Cave Story, you'll like this
Better than you're favourite platformer you think no one knows about.
i couldn't tell if they were gay. i failed.
metroid game
Touhou Luna Nights is easily my favorite metroidvania ever, and one of my favorite games of all time, so needless to say I was pretty interested in who developed it. From what I can gather from the limited English resources on this subject, before Team Ladybug was formed, there was Krobon Station, a one-man developer who made almost every part of this game, Pharoah Rebirth. They made other games before this one, but this game's engine would be used going forward in Team Ladybug's games when he joined the team. Or maybe he formed Team Ladybug? Again, hard to find concrete information on this stuff, TV Tropes of all things is one of the main sources I have to go off of.
Anyway, all this preamble is to say that this game definitely delivers on a lot of the best qualities of Luna Nights and Synchronicity Prologue, except this time with an entirely original cast of characters and setting. Everything about the story here is super charming, it's like a really good action cartoon, and it also manages to be genuinely really funny in parts. I feel Luna Nights can occasionally have moments of questionable translation, but this game never hits moments like that. It's a very good localization, and it definitely feels like whoever did it was someone they didn't get back for Luna Nights.
Since this is the predecessor of Luna Nights, you can expect the usual impeccable pixel art and good as hell music, but what surprised me about this game was the structure. Rather than having the usual giant, interconnected map that I'm used to from this developer, this game consists of several levels structured like their own mini-metroidvanias. They have the usual "come back here when you have this power up from later in the game" sections and moments of backtracking and opening new paths, but now within their own levels, separated by a level select screen. This ends up being a really neat structure, because it allows for set pieces and sequences that most metroidvanias wouldn't be able to have due to their interconnected structure. One level is able to have a linear moving train section before getting into a giant abandoned train station, another involves going around the Nile river before entering a temple. It doesn't fall into the monotony that other metroidvanias I played do. Using individual levels allows the game to really keep things fresh and surprise the player. If there are any other games with this kind of structure, I would love to know.
I really only have two big gripes, my biggest being the fact that this game does not use the d-pad, analog stick only. I don't know if it's something I fucked up on my end, but from everything I tried (granted I didn't try much), you have to use the analog stick. For an entirely 2D game, that's pretty rough, but it's made worse by how sensitive the stick feels here as well. The slightest tilt up will make you do an upward attack instead of a forward, and the slightest tilt down will lead to moments of accidentally crouching when you meant to run. The options menu had something for adjusting dead zones, but I felt no difference in every setting.
My other complaint is one that I'm kind of conflicted on, and that is the fact that the game never provides you with a map for the levels. This isn't really a problem your first time around, for the most part, as the levels are small enough that you can tell where you've been and where you haven't, and the game also frequently gives you ways to backtrack quickly. But there are a lot of collectible to find, and doing it without a map to tell exactly where you haven't been is a real pain. I think it's really vital to be able to tell where to start looking, otherwise you end up playing through every level in its entirety again just rubbing up on every wall. It ends up making one of the key aspects of the metroidvania genre lose its appeal by the end of the game. Also there's a really bad minecart stage that does that thing where a collectible about 4/5ths into the level is right in front of a checkpoint and if you don't get it you have to start the entire level over again. Sorry, not going back for that one anytime soon.
Outside of these gripes, this is an extremely impressive and fun platformer, everything I've played from this group continues to deliver. The presentation is so incredibly on point, and it still feels real good once you get used to the quirks. I also can't oversell how endearing this story and cast is, I desperately want to see these characters again although I doubt it'll happen. And yeah like another review here said, I've never heard more jarring credits music in my life.
Anyway, all this preamble is to say that this game definitely delivers on a lot of the best qualities of Luna Nights and Synchronicity Prologue, except this time with an entirely original cast of characters and setting. Everything about the story here is super charming, it's like a really good action cartoon, and it also manages to be genuinely really funny in parts. I feel Luna Nights can occasionally have moments of questionable translation, but this game never hits moments like that. It's a very good localization, and it definitely feels like whoever did it was someone they didn't get back for Luna Nights.
Since this is the predecessor of Luna Nights, you can expect the usual impeccable pixel art and good as hell music, but what surprised me about this game was the structure. Rather than having the usual giant, interconnected map that I'm used to from this developer, this game consists of several levels structured like their own mini-metroidvanias. They have the usual "come back here when you have this power up from later in the game" sections and moments of backtracking and opening new paths, but now within their own levels, separated by a level select screen. This ends up being a really neat structure, because it allows for set pieces and sequences that most metroidvanias wouldn't be able to have due to their interconnected structure. One level is able to have a linear moving train section before getting into a giant abandoned train station, another involves going around the Nile river before entering a temple. It doesn't fall into the monotony that other metroidvanias I played do. Using individual levels allows the game to really keep things fresh and surprise the player. If there are any other games with this kind of structure, I would love to know.
I really only have two big gripes, my biggest being the fact that this game does not use the d-pad, analog stick only. I don't know if it's something I fucked up on my end, but from everything I tried (granted I didn't try much), you have to use the analog stick. For an entirely 2D game, that's pretty rough, but it's made worse by how sensitive the stick feels here as well. The slightest tilt up will make you do an upward attack instead of a forward, and the slightest tilt down will lead to moments of accidentally crouching when you meant to run. The options menu had something for adjusting dead zones, but I felt no difference in every setting.
My other complaint is one that I'm kind of conflicted on, and that is the fact that the game never provides you with a map for the levels. This isn't really a problem your first time around, for the most part, as the levels are small enough that you can tell where you've been and where you haven't, and the game also frequently gives you ways to backtrack quickly. But there are a lot of collectible to find, and doing it without a map to tell exactly where you haven't been is a real pain. I think it's really vital to be able to tell where to start looking, otherwise you end up playing through every level in its entirety again just rubbing up on every wall. It ends up making one of the key aspects of the metroidvania genre lose its appeal by the end of the game. Also there's a really bad minecart stage that does that thing where a collectible about 4/5ths into the level is right in front of a checkpoint and if you don't get it you have to start the entire level over again. Sorry, not going back for that one anytime soon.
Outside of these gripes, this is an extremely impressive and fun platformer, everything I've played from this group continues to deliver. The presentation is so incredibly on point, and it still feels real good once you get used to the quirks. I also can't oversell how endearing this story and cast is, I desperately want to see these characters again although I doubt it'll happen. And yeah like another review here said, I've never heard more jarring credits music in my life.
Really solid exploration platformer. I liked the level system (apparently it was released in parts originally) and the artwork was excellent. Good music, too. Not a big fan of one hit death spikes though! Bit too much talking as well.