Metroidvania based on the D&D inspired Record of Lodoss War, which I've never seen or read and know almost nothing about. Like the developer's previous game, Touhou Luna Nights, it's alright. Has a good focus on switching between a fire and wind spirit which can allow you to ignore the attacks of the same element while refilling your MP, getting kills or hits can quickly raise the level of the opposite spirit from 1-3 increasing the damage you do and once you hit level 3 gaining fairly rapid health regeneration, while taking a hit will lose your current spirit one level. So you're getting rewarded for avoiding damage and absorbing it in a bullet hell Ikaruga kind of way. Your wind spirit allows you to hold down jump to hover when you are over solid ground and allows you some flight control. You have a large variety of melee weapons and bows to use, although their is more limited variety in how they actual function, what they have that matters most is strength and speed stats and possibly different elemental effects that enemies can be strong or weak against. You can find magic attacks as well.
It has the same negatives as Touhou Luna Nights though. The level design isn't anything that interesting, exploring isn't that fun or intuitive as you are constantly backtracking because you were given 2-4 different ways to go when the game wants you going one way first, it's easy to pick the wrong way and miss the save or fast travel points (which are inconveniently separate things in different areas). The environment don't make much use of your spirit abilities or arsenal other than for a few simple navigation elements (walk through the fire beam with the fire spirit or shoot an arrow to turn a gear). Enemy designs are never that interesting and they have the same problem that is common in a lot of Castlevania inspired titles where they are so passive that you are getting through most of them with them barely getting to react to your presence. There can be too much going on when fighting bosses where it can be difficult to see what they are doing, your spirit will be flying around possible firing off spells, you can have your spells in effect, you will be attacking and it can become such a visual mess that trying to read what the enemy is about to do can be difficult, but the game tends to be so easy you can usually just tank their hits. I might not know much about Record of Lodoss War but I can't imagine people that play the game for the characters will find the story to be anything interesting.
A brisk and fairly enjoyable metroidvania with some interesting mechanics but never capitalizes on its strength enough or fixes common genre issues to become anything great
Screenshot: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1508015216004456449
Video: https://youtu.be/ROWFur9fCO0
It has the same negatives as Touhou Luna Nights though. The level design isn't anything that interesting, exploring isn't that fun or intuitive as you are constantly backtracking because you were given 2-4 different ways to go when the game wants you going one way first, it's easy to pick the wrong way and miss the save or fast travel points (which are inconveniently separate things in different areas). The environment don't make much use of your spirit abilities or arsenal other than for a few simple navigation elements (walk through the fire beam with the fire spirit or shoot an arrow to turn a gear). Enemy designs are never that interesting and they have the same problem that is common in a lot of Castlevania inspired titles where they are so passive that you are getting through most of them with them barely getting to react to your presence. There can be too much going on when fighting bosses where it can be difficult to see what they are doing, your spirit will be flying around possible firing off spells, you can have your spells in effect, you will be attacking and it can become such a visual mess that trying to read what the enemy is about to do can be difficult, but the game tends to be so easy you can usually just tank their hits. I might not know much about Record of Lodoss War but I can't imagine people that play the game for the characters will find the story to be anything interesting.
A brisk and fairly enjoyable metroidvania with some interesting mechanics but never capitalizes on its strength enough or fixes common genre issues to become anything great
Screenshot: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1508015216004456449
Video: https://youtu.be/ROWFur9fCO0