Une ambiance glauque et mystérieuse, avec des environnements surprenants, Les animations sont parfois approximatives mais n'entravent en rien le gameplay. La structure du monde n'est pas du tout linéaire et donne la part belle à l'exploration. On débloque de nombreux pouvoir, et de nombreux équipements au fil de notre progression et on observe une véritable montée en puissance. La diversité des environnements se fait parfois en dépit de la cohérence artistique mais donne également son charme au jeu. Un petit défaut pour ceux qui souhaitent débloquer les meilleurs armures du jeu, il est nécessaire de farmer certains boss optionnels qu'il est possible d'affronter à volonté car ces derniers drops aléatoirement leurs pièces d'équipement. Une aventure qui m'a marqué et un univers dont l'ambiance me hante encore.

Interesting art style and premise, but the gameplay is way too janky, unresponsive and doesn't feel good.
Dodging and attacking aren't responsive or smooth enough for this type of game. The game world has weird edges and pieces don't fit together properly so you're sometimes unsure of what exactly you're looking at and what path you can take. The same holds true of large enemies, where you can literally stand inside their model and be safe from getting hit, but then be hit by the back of their claw or something and take damage. Having to hold UP to grab ledges while platforming feels bad man. Finally, having to reload a save upon death in a Dark Soul's-like is a cardinal sin against humanity.
I was gonna shelve it for maybe a return later on, but I don't think I'll pick it up again. Which is a shame because I actually liked the world that was presented and the multiple ongoing quests and levelling system.

The best way I can describe this game is "What if Bloodborne was a 2D metroidvania?" Bloodborne is my favorite game of all time and Castlevania is my 2nd favorite series so it's only natural that I loved this game a lot too and I love this game so much that it has quickly become one of my all time favorite metroidvanias and I've played far too many metroidvania games to count in my 20+ years of gaming experience.

The combat is very enjoyable and has more depth to it than most Soulsvania style games I've played. You have 4 basic types of weapons which are one-handed swords, two-handed axes, dual daggers and bows. Due to some nice skill trees you can unlock many moves and attack combos for each weapon type, also there's a lot of unique weapons of each type that you can find which have powerful special attacks that you can do by inputting a fighting game like button combo ala up, down, square etc. Also the stamina management system is pretty unique seeing as how you basically have 2 full stamina bars, when you deplete the blue one you deal less damage and take more damage, but you don't fully suffer from exhaustion and a small stun lock until you deplete the yellow bar and I barely ever had that happen to me. It's a very fair system.

The story is fairly straightforward, you play as Leila, a Vigilant and the last of her order which is tasked with stopping an ancient curse plaguing the land. While this in itself is a simple premise, all the things happening in the background and the lore you can find detailing many events and mysteries is what really makes the story interesting and let's just say that things get very dark and Lovecraftian. There are also many side quests to do for characters in the main town hub which are worth completing due to giving actual story content and dialogue which fleshed out the world or characters more, there's even a quest that's a big tribute to Salt and Sanctuary

The level design is top notch with tons of little secret areas and items to discover and tons of variety in the design with everything from flooded towns to vast forests, underground catacombs and everything in between. I have to mention I love the overall art and monster design as well.

One of the biggest reasons this game was put on my radar in the first place was due to the music being composed by Jouni Valjakka, the guitarist/vocalist of the Finnish melodic death metal band Whispered, one of my personal favorite bands and I can say the OST did not disappoint in the slightest. A lot of it is very mystical and atmospheric sounding which is very befitting of a horror themed metroidvania, but there are a few times, especially near the end that the music gets quite upbeat and adds some melodic electric guitar metal flavoring which is just as amazing as it sounds and the whole OST in general sounds like it wouldn't be too out of place among Michiru Yamane's discography which is about one of the best compliments I can give anything.

All in all Vigil is a game that wears its influences and inspirations proudly on its sleeve, but it wears them well and just as great as the games it is influenced and inspired by and really all I can say is if you're a fan of Castlevania, Bloodborne, Lovecraft, Dark Souls, Salt and Sanctuary or all of the above you'd be a fool to miss out on this game.

FYI: This game is currently not available for purchase on any platform because the publisher NEON DOCTRINE removed it without the developers consent.

Here is the statement of the developer published on august 8 2023:

"Greetings,
We are Glass Heart Studio from Taiwan. Last month, our game "Vigil: The Longest Night" was unexpectedly removed from multiple platforms. We would like to provide an update on the situation:
1. This decision was not made on our part. The authority to publish on platforms is currently held by the former publisher, Neon Doctrine. As early as 2021, when we released an update for "ASOMROF," Neon Doctrine expressed concerns that the term "ASOMROF" was a reversal of "FORMOSA" and could potentially cross political red lines, particularly, China’s. They reported this to Steam, claiming that it contained elements of Taiwanese history which might violate China’s regulations, leading to the removal of the game from Steam's China region.
2. Vigil was a completely self-funded and original creation, with full control of the related content. During our crowdfunding campaign back in 2018, we unveiled our plan to create a "FORMOSA"-derived DLC named "ASOMROF, quite a while before reaching any contract or agreements with Neon Doctrine. This DLC was designed to encompass Taiwanese cultural elements, set against the backdrop of Fort Zeelandia, and offering a unique gaming experience. Our explanation of "ASOMROF" was shared multiple times in news articles and on social media, and Neon Doctrine acknowledged that their team member in Taiwan was aware of it.
3. Subsequently, Neon Doctrine escalated their actions without prior notice, withholding significant revenue, and removing our backend update access. These actions were even further elevated to unauthorized sales of game keys and merchandise on external platforms, including the China Phoenix platform, even when the game itself was removed from Steam China's region. When reported to the authorities and legal action was undertaken, Neon Doctrine’s response was to simply remove these products from the platforms without providing any reasonable explanations or compensations.
We initiated a lawsuit on October 14, 2021; legal victories on our part subsequently led to contract terminations and injunctions with Neon Doctrine, with separate courts overseeing the return of the game, yet ongoing appeals and investigations into unauthorized sales have further complicated the situation. We remain in the dark regarding the recent abrupt removal of the game from all platforms, and are yet to receive any explanation from Neon Doctrine.
Despite the uncertainty of the legal proceedings and their outcomes, we are resolute in exploring all avenues of recourse. Our struggle transcends borders, championing justice and creative freedom globally. While we acknowledge the potential legal ramifications of this statement, we stand by our convictions that gaming integrity and creativity must transcend political disparities and petty nationalism. We kindly request your assistance in spreading this message and would like to express our deepest gratitude for your support and understanding. We hope that one day we can bring "Vigil: The Longest Night" back to you."

Source:
https://www.facebook.com/VigilTheGame/posts/pfbid0rNUHZ7so7s33HX9QDSJxibmeRSETqTbuwFUDDrSmPciFVQryCAzTzdmJ1eF7SUEfl

UPDATE: Finally went back to this in my backlog and played it to completion. I had a lot more fun this time around, though I don't know that I could tell you why.

Exploration gets a little crazy with this game because the non-linearity of it and the ease of fast travel between locations can leave you missing out on entire sections of the game by complete accident. I kept trying to figure out how to get into the mines for the longest time and ended up doing the lake and mines right next to each other long after I was already so overpowered from exploring everywhere else by accident because I just missed some simple paths.

The bosses were still a mixed bag for me -- there's a huge difficulty spike toward the end of the game, but the game felt way too easy before that point.

In all, it ended up being a worthwhile venture and I'd say for the sheer amount of time you can spend with this with exploration alone, it's probably worth picking up at full price and definitely worth picking up on a sale. I finished the game just shy of 20 hours and that was while missing out on at least one extra boss and separate ending.

Previous review below:

----------------------------

Metroidvania taking some Souls-like elements and trying to cobble the best parts together to make a good game but accidentally making it worse (for me).

PROS:

--Whether intentional or not, you can go quite a bit non-linear in your exploration if you master the art of swinging an axe weapon multiple times at the top of an arc when jumping. You cover about double your single-jump distance when jumping left-to-right or vice versa. You also move slightly upward vertically on the first swing if timed right and this opens up access to some places you probably shouldn't be at first. But that's why we explore!

-- Once you get the double jump, jumping feels more enjoyable. More on that later.

-- There's some fun flavor in the item descriptions.

-- I appreciate that there isn't an encumbrance level in this game, though that might actually be why there's a bit of a problem for me with it, too. More on that later, as well.

CONS:

Metroidvanias have a lot of things to measure in order to feel good. Controls, interesting bosses, neat abilities for gating, a good soundtrack, etc. Vigil fails here for me, and here's why:

-- Regarding controls, there are two big issues I have with Vigil. The first is that the single jump feels raw and clunky. It's very off-putting and I had to try and enjoy the game in spite of the jump. Once I got the double jump, I noticed this significantly less.

-- Also regarding controls, the choice to set a dash ability as mapped to your analog movement stick isn't a great one. Worse still, is the decision to put in a significant time delay check for when those motions are executed. The end result is that quickly double-tapping analog left or right to dash just results in walking, while trying to ease Leila to the edge of a ledge can result in inadvertent dashing. Also, the fact that the dash can't be executed after a jump seems absurd, but that's just me. It would have been an easy choice to set item usage to one of the other three directional slots that wasn't healing and let your Circle/B button be dash or remappable.

-- Bosses...are okay. They have a few interesting abilities in some cases, but they most fail because of the nature of this game for achieving damage. More on this shortly.

-- Gating is fine in this game other than the dash ability (at least up to where I've played). Which is ten hours in, with the Mines and the top of the Depressing Forest as the next areas to check. This isn't really a negative, but I needed to talk about how much I hate the dash ability again based on how it was implemented, so here's me complaining some more.

-- The soundtrack starts and stops randomly. Like, REALLY randomly. At first, I thought it was tied to moving in or out of certain areas, but it will just suddenly cease for no reason. I had thought maybe non-combat music was significantly quieter than music when enemies were on-screen, but I eventually found that it would just stop while enemies were on-screen, as well. Weird.

-- Not a big deal, but there's some text issues where an editor proofreading would have been nice. Encountered at least two instances of "I heard from (missing name) that X happened."

-- The UI is really clunky, at times. This is one of the "less great" things that this game copped from the Souls series, because nothing is worse than thinking you've backed out of a menu as you start running only to try and jump and find yourself back in a menu. You can argue this is on the user, but with the menu being shoved all the way over on the side, it's not always apparent if you've left or not if you're just trying to get right back into the game. It's also not a colorful menu, so it's easy to miss when you have dark-on-dark.

-- Another minor issue, but sometimes you can walk way too far into a wall that has no secrets. Spent way too many times swinging at or sliding into pointless walls because it just seems like I should be able to get further in.

-- Monsters sometimes spawn in inaccessible areas off-screen and just die. This is really noticeable in the cult area that you return to later in the game, with some monsters that can poison trying to make attacks from off-screen, then just instantly dying and you getting currency and experience for it. Whoops.

-- The skill systems is broken in both directions. Part of this is because the poise system is so powerful that it makes using anything other than an axe/halberd pointless. If you can do enough poise damage, you smash through anything that isn't a boss.

-- Continuing on the skill system, some skills will have hardly any impact on things while others will straight-up break the game. Reflecting 100% of damage received if you strike an enemy within three seconds? Big impact. Increasing recoil on an enemy from an additional 0.1 seconds to 0.15 seconds? Not so much.

-- One more thing regarding the skill system is that there's no explanation of how some abilities work. With the halberd, I invested in an ability that gave me a finishing move after a "whirlwind attack". I had assumed it was just part of my regular swing combo until I realized there's no actual swing combo for the halberd...you just press Square/X over and over to keep wailing on enemies. Looked to see if I had unlocked another ability that was whirlwind attack -- nope.

-- Minor gripe and this might only be with the Smithy, but having EXACTLY 3000 gold on hand when going to enchant your weapon will cause you to not be able to enchant your weapon. I thought maybe I had not unlocked the actual ability to enchant things yet and ended up spending about 30 minutes online looking through threads to solve this before thinking about it and selling an arrow to bring myself up to 3003 gold, at which point it suddenly worked.

------------------
In conclusion, I might go back to this and finish it someday, but five or six bosses in with no real excitement beyond exploring and lots of little frustrations have kinda put this on the backburner for me. I've got too much backlog to focus on this at the moment. If you're going to pick it up, do it when it's on sale. Probably 50% off.

Pese a que en 2020 no ha habido demasiados metroidvanias que sean realmente destacables (con permiso de Ori and the Will of the Wisps, obviamente). Bastante con que salga uno que derroche calidad a raudales para considerar que ya ha sido un buen año para el género. Con Vigil: The Longest Night desde ya os puedo asegurar que es el caso y por méritos propios.

Y es que este título que nos llega de manos de Glass Heart Games (al que un servidor ya le tenía echado el ojo de hace tiempo) no ha parado de sorprenderme en ningún momento, desde el inicio, hasta su final, luego después de haber estado masacrando toda clase de criaturas durante más de 14 horas.

En la piel de Leila deberemos hacer frente a una noche eterna que se cierne sobre su ciudad natal y los alrededores, mientras vamos descubriendo una oscura historia, en la que no faltarán tampoco muchos personajes con los que interactuar. La narrativa es sin lugar a dudas un componente muy importante en Vigil: The Longest Night. No en vano nos será imposible ver todo en una sola pasada, además de existir varios finales distintos, así como una buena cantidad de misiones e historias secundarias en las que podremos intervenir, o no... Dando como resultado que los acontecimientos en los compases finales del juego, vayan hacia una u otra conclusión. Por lo tanto, la profundidad argumental ya la tenemos en el título, de eso no hay duda.

¿Pero y qué tal es la jugabilidad? Pues otro sobresaliente para Glass Heart Games, así de claro. Todo, desde el movimiento por los escenarios, el plataformeo y el combate, está obsolutamente bien programado en Vigil. Nuestra protagonista se mueve de forma grácil y combate aún mejor si cabe. Tenemos a nuestra disposición nada menos que 5 árboles de habilidades bien diferenciados, con los que podremos especializarnos muy eficazmente en el manejo de 4 armas distintas, espadas, hachas, arcos o dagas, así como un quito árbol adicional para fortalezas pasivas (como más salud etc).

Una vez entramos en acción, resulta sorprendente como de los ataques básicos al comienzo, terminamos haciendo toda clase de combos con nuestras armas, al tiempo de que te percatas, que da igual por cual te decantes, todas son útiles, divertidas y muy efectivas. Es todo un placer despachar enemigos, mientras realizamos esquivas, bloqueos, combos o una mezcla entre ataques y objetos utilizables, como bombas, cuchillos arrojadizos y un largo etcétera. Y todo eso sin despegar el ojo de nuestra barra de resistencia para no quedarnos vendidos durante un pequeño tiempo, que puede ser la diferencia entre caer o salir victorioso (especialmente contra alguno de los muchos jefes finales).

Y hablando de jefes finales, cabe destacar que hay un buen número de ellos y que no nos lo van a poner nada fácil, con su amplio repertorio de ataques, fases y sobre todo, lo distintos que llegan a resultar unos de otros (además de ser espectaculares). Y lo mismo sucede con el bestiario general del juego, hay decenas de enemigos bien distintos según la zona en la que nos encontremos, todos ellos dispuestos a acabar con nosotros sin dudarlo un segundo.

Algo muy parecido también sucede con el equipamiento que podremos conseguir. Hay muchísimas armas y armaduras que podremos encontrar por los escenarios, todas ellas pensadas para según un estilo de juego u otro y que por supuesto podremos mejorar y encantar en el herrero para que siempre nos sean útiles durante la partida. Y a parte de todo eso, también existen ciertos objetos muy poderosos que nos otorgarán habilidades mágicas muy efectivas, como poder lanzar bolas de fuego, por poner solo un ejemplo.

Y ya por seguir con las cantidades, mencionar también que el mapeado del juego es enorme, con muchísimas zonas interconectadas (no faltarán los atajos a desbloquear, habilidades como doble salto a conseguir y los secretos ocultos) todas ellas variadísimas, pero sin desentonar, con sentido y por supuesto, con sus propios enemigos.

En cuanto al apartado audiovisual, también tenemos buenas noticias. Desde ya os digo que no os dejéis engañar por su estilo gráfico, el juego derrocha un diseño exquisito en absolutamente todo y las imágenes estáticas no le hacen para nada justicia. Todo, desde las animaciones de la protagonista, así como las del resto de enemigos, el diseño de los escenarios y la profundidad de estos, está a un nivel excelente, os lo puedo asegurar. Lo mismo sucede con el sonido, el cual está a altísimo nivel también, desde cualquier efecto (ya sea los pasos del personaje o cualquier gruñido enemigo) denota una gran calidad, aunque si algo me ha sorprendido especialmente en el sonido es sin duda la BSO, es magnífica y muy variada para cada zona del juego, sin duda la guinda del pastel y la única pega que le podría poner es que los personajes no tienen voz, limitándose las conversaciones solo a texto.

VALORACIÓN FINAL

Desde la distancia, Vigil: The Longest Night ya me llamó la atención, pero lo que no me esperaba para nada es que finalmente fuese un juego sobresaliente en todos sus apartados. Si os gustan los metroidvania tenéis aquí una compra imprescindible, que os va a brindar como poco 15 o 20 horas de juego al más alto nivel dentro del género. Lo único negativo que le puedo sacar es que no nos llegue traducido a español en el lanzamiento (aunque más adelante será traducido) y es una pena, porque el juego tiene un gran componente narrativo, con varios finales y muchos personajes con los que interactuar. Por lo demás, un título sobresaliente como ya digo y de lo mejor en el género en 2020.