This review contains spoilers
I LOVED this game and it's one of my favorite games I played this year! A cute, hand-drawn and short Metroidvania sounded right up my alley. The combat, while basic was tight and engaging, and exploring never felt like a chore with all the different areas, backgrounds and enemies. The characters, like Snoot, GreyBird and Goba were witty and funny and brought a smile to my face whenever I saw them. The OST is incredible and catchy and i would buy it in a heartbeat if it ever came to Steam or SoundCloud (I have been listening to it on YouTube though). The art is gorgeous, bright and colorful.
The only minor grievances that I have are that the story and lore could have been a bit deeper and some more things could have been explained, and I wish the characters showed up more often. They were a bit of wasted potential. In some boss fights I expected GreyBird to help out, that would have been cool. I also felt like the ending could have been better, it felt VERY rushed.
There is little to no buildup to GutGhoul's bossfight or any implication that they were the leader of the three great beasts. In the bossfight it seemed like random bosses were picked to use the attacks of. I thought that GutGhoul was going to possess GreyBird or Snoot and hold them hostage until the fight where they fight against you, something cool like that. Something felt off about the supposed sad "Iko gives up for some reason until Goba deus ex machinas" scene. I don't know, there wasn't really a struggle and it failed to impact me emotionally.
It was wayyy too easy to destroy GutGhoul's core. It would have been cool if the core was the final final boss fight and all your friends helped out (I know I keep bringing this up but it's a good idea. It would also ease Snoot's weird "okay I actually look up to you" change by maybe having him refuse to help out at first but starts fighting after cheers from GreyBird and Goba).
Overall, the ending felt very rushed and underwhelming. I wish it was grander.
However, I don't think all of that distracts from the great parts of the game too much. I can't get enough of Kyle's games. I'm going to play Sheepo after this game and then excitedly wait for Crypt Custodian. Speaking of Crypt Custodian, I noticed that one of the boss fights looks strangely similar to Pluto, the main protagonist of Crypt. I don't think that's a coincidence... :)
The only minor grievances that I have are that the story and lore could have been a bit deeper and some more things could have been explained, and I wish the characters showed up more often. They were a bit of wasted potential. In some boss fights I expected GreyBird to help out, that would have been cool. I also felt like the ending could have been better, it felt VERY rushed.
There is little to no buildup to GutGhoul's bossfight or any implication that they were the leader of the three great beasts. In the bossfight it seemed like random bosses were picked to use the attacks of. I thought that GutGhoul was going to possess GreyBird or Snoot and hold them hostage until the fight where they fight against you, something cool like that. Something felt off about the supposed sad "Iko gives up for some reason until Goba deus ex machinas" scene. I don't know, there wasn't really a struggle and it failed to impact me emotionally.
It was wayyy too easy to destroy GutGhoul's core. It would have been cool if the core was the final final boss fight and all your friends helped out (I know I keep bringing this up but it's a good idea. It would also ease Snoot's weird "okay I actually look up to you" change by maybe having him refuse to help out at first but starts fighting after cheers from GreyBird and Goba).
Overall, the ending felt very rushed and underwhelming. I wish it was grander.
However, I don't think all of that distracts from the great parts of the game too much. I can't get enough of Kyle's games. I'm going to play Sheepo after this game and then excitedly wait for Crypt Custodian. Speaking of Crypt Custodian, I noticed that one of the boss fights looks strangely similar to Pluto, the main protagonist of Crypt. I don't think that's a coincidence... :)
This game is great. It is made from 1 man and composed by his brother (I guess its his brother because they both have same last name). In the game has put so much effort and I can not believe how great it is. I have so much fun with it and also I recommend it strongly.
Islets is a neat indie metroidvania that needs more recognition. The main island has been shattered into 5 pieces and it is your quest to be the next hero to rebuild these islands into one. There are some quirky characters along with some mysteries of the land. As far a metroidvanias go, the story and lore is as good as it gets and quite like it.
The level design, although quite large and easy to get lost I found to be well made. Especailly how you can explore some older areas when you bind the worlds in progression.
The difficulty overall is fine, I died a few times in the main world but nothing was too challenging.
The problem I have would be that the world is a little too big and can be confusing on where to go. My main issue is the bosses seem to have too much health causing them to be 'bullet sponges'. The bosses mechanics and difficulty of the bosses is fine, just a few less hits would balance better.
The game took about 9 hours to go though and was a relaxing experience.
The level design, although quite large and easy to get lost I found to be well made. Especailly how you can explore some older areas when you bind the worlds in progression.
The difficulty overall is fine, I died a few times in the main world but nothing was too challenging.
The problem I have would be that the world is a little too big and can be confusing on where to go. My main issue is the bosses seem to have too much health causing them to be 'bullet sponges'. The bosses mechanics and difficulty of the bosses is fine, just a few less hits would balance better.
The game took about 9 hours to go though and was a relaxing experience.
Pretty cute metroidvania with some jokes here and there. Loses a bit of score due to not having a way to heal yourself in battle at all, so you have to do some sections and all bosses in one shot.
- Nice metroidvania, not so harsh
- nice mechanics
- nice challenges
- nice mechanics
- nice challenges
DISCLAIMER:
This review is entirely for my own sake. You are welcome to read it but it may or may not contain spoilers for the whole game.
I went in expecting expecting a top-down metroidvania, but I got a side-scrolling metroidvania instead. That is my fault, though, as I mistook this game for Crypt Custodian, which is this developer's upcoming project.
I find this game's upgrade system very interesting. Every time you find an upgrade point hidden somewhere in the overworld you get to choose between three possible upgrades. This makes every secret equally as important and valuable, be it in the begining of the game or close to the end. The only problem I find with this system is that the pool of upgrades does not match the amount of upgrade points in the game. If I understand corrwectly, this is so that you can always prioritize upgrades for the abilities that you commonly use, and ignore the ones you rarely utilize. But going into the game without this knowledge, I assumed I would eventually have to get the upgrades I didn't care about, therefore wasting points I could have spent on base stat upgrades like health.
Additionally to these upgrade points, you can spend currency to buy base stat upgrades (health, sword damage, and arrow damage) which increase in price with each purchase. This makes sense until you realize that the prize also increases when you upgrade these stats with upgrade points, therefore making it more profitable to buy upgrades in the shop first and only THEN getting upgrade points rather than the other way around. These shop upgrades also seem to lack a ceiling. This means that the game always has a place to sink your currency and also allows you to farm currency in order to get stronger in case you are struggling against a boss. This would make for a great accesibility option, but it should be advertised as such, because in my case I bought these upgrades without thinking much about it and, despite playing in hard, I still ended up demolishing through bosses before they could even change into their second phase. This made later fights a bit of a disappointment. I could have refrained from attacking in order to experience the fights correctly, but I believe it shouldn't be on the player to balance their own experience.
Currency can also be used to buy a couple upgrades for your map, like markers. But once you buy all three of them (which are quite cheap) money can only be used on stats. The only other upgrades you can buy are for your airship, but these take no currency and instead use macguffins, so they end up working just as metroidvania gating mechanics.
The upgrades your character gets generally improve your movement, which might be this game's greatest asset. You also get two different types of arrows which are needed to get through certain sections. They are, however, very cumbersome to use and quite useless during combat. I see this as a missed opportunity since the airship upgrades are definitely necessary during bossfights and they make for great attack patterns.
Most bossfights had interesting attacks and having healthbars is appreciated. Minor enemies, though, felt just like annoyances during exploration. The world was well designed with secret paths abound, though the puzzles were a bit lacking. Having islands connect together creating new paths where there were only dead-ends made for a great "explore-get upgrade-connect island-more to explore" loop, particularly during the third and fourth islands.
The story was mediocre, though there might be more lore than what I managed to gleam; but the characters, on the other hand, were amazing. Each of them filled with personality, backstory and character arcs. A smile came to my face every time one of them showed up. I never manged to unpetrify that one character, I don't know what I missed, but I still feel bad about it.
Overall, despite my complaints I enjoyed this game quite a bit. I recommend it to all metroidvania fans, just go in with two things in mind: Try to keep your shop upgrades to a minimum in order to not have a completely unbalanced experience; and when getting upgrade points, always prioritize the ones you care about and ignore the ones you won't use.
This review is entirely for my own sake. You are welcome to read it but it may or may not contain spoilers for the whole game.
I went in expecting expecting a top-down metroidvania, but I got a side-scrolling metroidvania instead. That is my fault, though, as I mistook this game for Crypt Custodian, which is this developer's upcoming project.
I find this game's upgrade system very interesting. Every time you find an upgrade point hidden somewhere in the overworld you get to choose between three possible upgrades. This makes every secret equally as important and valuable, be it in the begining of the game or close to the end. The only problem I find with this system is that the pool of upgrades does not match the amount of upgrade points in the game. If I understand corrwectly, this is so that you can always prioritize upgrades for the abilities that you commonly use, and ignore the ones you rarely utilize. But going into the game without this knowledge, I assumed I would eventually have to get the upgrades I didn't care about, therefore wasting points I could have spent on base stat upgrades like health.
Additionally to these upgrade points, you can spend currency to buy base stat upgrades (health, sword damage, and arrow damage) which increase in price with each purchase. This makes sense until you realize that the prize also increases when you upgrade these stats with upgrade points, therefore making it more profitable to buy upgrades in the shop first and only THEN getting upgrade points rather than the other way around. These shop upgrades also seem to lack a ceiling. This means that the game always has a place to sink your currency and also allows you to farm currency in order to get stronger in case you are struggling against a boss. This would make for a great accesibility option, but it should be advertised as such, because in my case I bought these upgrades without thinking much about it and, despite playing in hard, I still ended up demolishing through bosses before they could even change into their second phase. This made later fights a bit of a disappointment. I could have refrained from attacking in order to experience the fights correctly, but I believe it shouldn't be on the player to balance their own experience.
Currency can also be used to buy a couple upgrades for your map, like markers. But once you buy all three of them (which are quite cheap) money can only be used on stats. The only other upgrades you can buy are for your airship, but these take no currency and instead use macguffins, so they end up working just as metroidvania gating mechanics.
The upgrades your character gets generally improve your movement, which might be this game's greatest asset. You also get two different types of arrows which are needed to get through certain sections. They are, however, very cumbersome to use and quite useless during combat. I see this as a missed opportunity since the airship upgrades are definitely necessary during bossfights and they make for great attack patterns.
Most bossfights had interesting attacks and having healthbars is appreciated. Minor enemies, though, felt just like annoyances during exploration. The world was well designed with secret paths abound, though the puzzles were a bit lacking. Having islands connect together creating new paths where there were only dead-ends made for a great "explore-get upgrade-connect island-more to explore" loop, particularly during the third and fourth islands.
The story was mediocre, though there might be more lore than what I managed to gleam; but the characters, on the other hand, were amazing. Each of them filled with personality, backstory and character arcs. A smile came to my face every time one of them showed up. I never manged to unpetrify that one character, I don't know what I missed, but I still feel bad about it.
Overall, despite my complaints I enjoyed this game quite a bit. I recommend it to all metroidvania fans, just go in with two things in mind: Try to keep your shop upgrades to a minimum in order to not have a completely unbalanced experience; and when getting upgrade points, always prioritize the ones you care about and ignore the ones you won't use.
é bonitinho e tem várias mecânicas diferentes
é simplesinho, no entanto. n sei
rende um entretenimento mindless
o ultimo boss me irritou deveras
é simplesinho, no entanto. n sei
rende um entretenimento mindless
o ultimo boss me irritou deveras
Metroidvania direto ao ponto, carismático e muito divertido. Por algum motivo parece ter passado desapercebido no lançamento, talvez o estilo de arte mais simples não tenha empolgado a galera.
Chill metroidvania.
Combat is fine, mostly there to break up exploration. You're very mobile, but the controls aren't super precise. Most enemies are a bit boring, but the bosses are fun to fight with a couple of exceptions. The moveset upgrades you get as you progress don't increase the complexity of combat, the abilities are mainly for traversal.
Level design is very simple as well, but has substantial variety between areas. There's some wasted space and rooms that could get cut down without sacrificing much, but altering those layouts would've probably messed with the game's gimmick of connecting entire levels together into one big map over time. Enemies should've repeated less between areas though.
I can't think of any issues with the other systems. QoL is fine, the upgrade system is inoffensive, the overworld flying sections are brief and pretty good, the game takes a very generous approach to checkpoints in that dying doesn't erase your progress and only relocates you to the last save point.
The presentation is very cute and the music is very good - some of it will probably end up on my sleeping aid playlist beside Ghost Song's OST.
Combat is fine, mostly there to break up exploration. You're very mobile, but the controls aren't super precise. Most enemies are a bit boring, but the bosses are fun to fight with a couple of exceptions. The moveset upgrades you get as you progress don't increase the complexity of combat, the abilities are mainly for traversal.
Level design is very simple as well, but has substantial variety between areas. There's some wasted space and rooms that could get cut down without sacrificing much, but altering those layouts would've probably messed with the game's gimmick of connecting entire levels together into one big map over time. Enemies should've repeated less between areas though.
I can't think of any issues with the other systems. QoL is fine, the upgrade system is inoffensive, the overworld flying sections are brief and pretty good, the game takes a very generous approach to checkpoints in that dying doesn't erase your progress and only relocates you to the last save point.
The presentation is very cute and the music is very good - some of it will probably end up on my sleeping aid playlist beside Ghost Song's OST.