A streamer I keep up with had retweeted this small indie game's announcement post, and with how cheap it is and how cute it looked... an impulse purchase may have occurred.
Now something important to note: I do not usually enjoy platformers, in fact before I played this game the only other one I can confidently say I enjoyed was A Hat in Time. On top of that I have never beaten a metroidvania due to my habit of falling into analysis paralysis and also getting lost or confused easily, and to rub salt in that wound, this game doesn't even have any kind of map. With all of this in mind I would think this is a recipe for disaster, maybe just another game for the backlog, but once I actually got into the game, I was pleasantly surprised.
This game is in absolutely no rush to explain anything to you, there are zero cutscenes and the closest thing you get to a tutorial is a pop up every time you gain a new ability or upgrade. At first I felt uneasy, while I do not need my hand held I always appreciate something to act as a guiding light forward, due to the aforementioned attention issues. The closest thing you get to that in this game is a small note in the equipment menu that boils down to "Collect 5 keys and beat the game," and that's all. Combining all of this with the lack of a map I spent my first hour or two bumbling around lost and unsure if I was making progress.
Once I got to a point where the areas I had been exploring started to properly connect I was able to understand the layout of everything. Doorways leading into new areas were decorated in such a way that they were memorable and these entrances all had a bright heavenly glow, as opposed to standard ones that are just dark fog. Eventually I reached a point where it was no longer forcing myself to remember every detail of how to get around and it and it simply became a matter of time til I reached my destination. The games level design is great at grabbing your attention and making everything memorable in such a way that even I do not think the game is in (serious) need of a map.
These levels and areas are boosted a significant amount thanks to the games absolutely incredible movement, it is downright addicting and a highlight of the game, I did not even mind not knowing where to go next because I would just challenge myself with all kinds of jumps and parkour. If you want a form of movement this game has got it, wall kicks, wall runs, ground pound boosted jumps, back flips, slides, slide jumps that enhance your other movement options, and that is not even mentioning environmental things that assist in movement like bubbles that grant you an air dash and hold you in the air. The movement grants so much freedom that you can get away with stuff that I doubt was intentional. This is some of the most fun movement I have experienced in my limited catalogue of games completed.
Something else worth lots of love is the games graphics and sense of style, the game maintains a certain amount of ambience that is alluring but also concerning. The game is deliberately styled to look exactly like a Nintendo 64 game with the low res textures, heavy amount of polygons, and its use of fog to hide structures far in the distance. I have never been a stickler for graphics and would always prefer a game chase its own look rather than everything try to go hyper realistic like triple A games, this games look is incredibly refreshing and works well with the feelings it is trying to invoke. The music is also incredibly catchy while also having this odd sense of mysticality, it is relaxing and invigorating and I find it hard to explain, it would be best to just experience it along your adventure.
The only thing I struggle to praise is the story... Moreso the complete lack of one. The only cutscene you get is one at the end which is just a few textboxes on a pure white background. There are some npcs you can talk to, ones you meet early on speak super ominously but as you go on they mainly are used for gags. There is a chance I might be missing something, I have heard that small blank pieces of paper or hard to find npcs might allude to the games story, but it is still easy to miss out on and not exactly present. Maybe it is just me but this is not an entirely bad thing, this is not a game I would want to be overloaded with cutscenes and text boxes, and the games ambiance is much more enticing without all of that bogging it down.
The game may only be a few hours long, not even half a day, but I still spent so long on it just trying to parkour my way around the games levels and finding secrets or weird areas to look down from.
In the end I am so happy I went through with playing this and let the game grab me, with how cheap it is this is honestly something I would recommend to anyone, with the experience I got from this game 6 bucks is an absolute steal. If this game can make me love something that plays out in such a "vague" way, then this must be an even better challenge for people already well versed in similar genres while being a great entry point for people like me who lack experience with them. I promise that you will not be disappointed.
also goat thighs kek
Now something important to note: I do not usually enjoy platformers, in fact before I played this game the only other one I can confidently say I enjoyed was A Hat in Time. On top of that I have never beaten a metroidvania due to my habit of falling into analysis paralysis and also getting lost or confused easily, and to rub salt in that wound, this game doesn't even have any kind of map. With all of this in mind I would think this is a recipe for disaster, maybe just another game for the backlog, but once I actually got into the game, I was pleasantly surprised.
This game is in absolutely no rush to explain anything to you, there are zero cutscenes and the closest thing you get to a tutorial is a pop up every time you gain a new ability or upgrade. At first I felt uneasy, while I do not need my hand held I always appreciate something to act as a guiding light forward, due to the aforementioned attention issues. The closest thing you get to that in this game is a small note in the equipment menu that boils down to "Collect 5 keys and beat the game," and that's all. Combining all of this with the lack of a map I spent my first hour or two bumbling around lost and unsure if I was making progress.
Once I got to a point where the areas I had been exploring started to properly connect I was able to understand the layout of everything. Doorways leading into new areas were decorated in such a way that they were memorable and these entrances all had a bright heavenly glow, as opposed to standard ones that are just dark fog. Eventually I reached a point where it was no longer forcing myself to remember every detail of how to get around and it and it simply became a matter of time til I reached my destination. The games level design is great at grabbing your attention and making everything memorable in such a way that even I do not think the game is in (serious) need of a map.
These levels and areas are boosted a significant amount thanks to the games absolutely incredible movement, it is downright addicting and a highlight of the game, I did not even mind not knowing where to go next because I would just challenge myself with all kinds of jumps and parkour. If you want a form of movement this game has got it, wall kicks, wall runs, ground pound boosted jumps, back flips, slides, slide jumps that enhance your other movement options, and that is not even mentioning environmental things that assist in movement like bubbles that grant you an air dash and hold you in the air. The movement grants so much freedom that you can get away with stuff that I doubt was intentional. This is some of the most fun movement I have experienced in my limited catalogue of games completed.
Something else worth lots of love is the games graphics and sense of style, the game maintains a certain amount of ambience that is alluring but also concerning. The game is deliberately styled to look exactly like a Nintendo 64 game with the low res textures, heavy amount of polygons, and its use of fog to hide structures far in the distance. I have never been a stickler for graphics and would always prefer a game chase its own look rather than everything try to go hyper realistic like triple A games, this games look is incredibly refreshing and works well with the feelings it is trying to invoke. The music is also incredibly catchy while also having this odd sense of mysticality, it is relaxing and invigorating and I find it hard to explain, it would be best to just experience it along your adventure.
The only thing I struggle to praise is the story... Moreso the complete lack of one. The only cutscene you get is one at the end which is just a few textboxes on a pure white background. There are some npcs you can talk to, ones you meet early on speak super ominously but as you go on they mainly are used for gags. There is a chance I might be missing something, I have heard that small blank pieces of paper or hard to find npcs might allude to the games story, but it is still easy to miss out on and not exactly present. Maybe it is just me but this is not an entirely bad thing, this is not a game I would want to be overloaded with cutscenes and text boxes, and the games ambiance is much more enticing without all of that bogging it down.
The game may only be a few hours long, not even half a day, but I still spent so long on it just trying to parkour my way around the games levels and finding secrets or weird areas to look down from.
In the end I am so happy I went through with playing this and let the game grab me, with how cheap it is this is honestly something I would recommend to anyone, with the experience I got from this game 6 bucks is an absolute steal. If this game can make me love something that plays out in such a "vague" way, then this must be an even better challenge for people already well versed in similar genres while being a great entry point for people like me who lack experience with them. I promise that you will not be disappointed.
also goat thighs kek