This game has a very unique style of movement and, on top of that, is a Metroidvania! All set up to be something I adored, and yet something was... wrong.
It's all so well put together, great looking pixel art and an ASTONISHING soundtrack. The movement is incredibly fluid and never got in the way of things I wanted to do. Still, there was a nagging feeling that something just wasn't clicking. I was never hooked, even if I was having fun throughout. It's hard to point out too many concrete issues with it, though there is one thing that bothered me immensely; the map is pretty terrible.
After playing Teslagrad 2, I feel as if a lot of Metroidvanias are going to struggle to match its brilliant map design, but I'd argue Dandara's was outright bad at times. I was getting lost frequently, following paths for ages that eventually reached dead ends that I lacked the abilities to clear, meaning there was tons of backtracking. This is usually alleviated in other games by good shortcuts or providing SOME sort of reward for going out of your way early, but oftentimes I was lead along for far too long just to feel like an idiot when I was stopped abruptly. It was so frustrating and not an issue I generally have within the genre.
Ability-wise, I didn't think anything was all too interesting. The game's general "feel" as well as the occasional fantastic area and boss were able to bring up my opinion on this greatly, it's just a shame then that it could have been outstanding.
It's all so well put together, great looking pixel art and an ASTONISHING soundtrack. The movement is incredibly fluid and never got in the way of things I wanted to do. Still, there was a nagging feeling that something just wasn't clicking. I was never hooked, even if I was having fun throughout. It's hard to point out too many concrete issues with it, though there is one thing that bothered me immensely; the map is pretty terrible.
After playing Teslagrad 2, I feel as if a lot of Metroidvanias are going to struggle to match its brilliant map design, but I'd argue Dandara's was outright bad at times. I was getting lost frequently, following paths for ages that eventually reached dead ends that I lacked the abilities to clear, meaning there was tons of backtracking. This is usually alleviated in other games by good shortcuts or providing SOME sort of reward for going out of your way early, but oftentimes I was lead along for far too long just to feel like an idiot when I was stopped abruptly. It was so frustrating and not an issue I generally have within the genre.
Ability-wise, I didn't think anything was all too interesting. The game's general "feel" as well as the occasional fantastic area and boss were able to bring up my opinion on this greatly, it's just a shame then that it could have been outstanding.