Valfaris is an indie game made in the years between 2015-2XXX that is a 2D action-platformer without being some sort of metroidvania and/or roguelike. And it's pretty solid, making it even more of a rarity.
The game feels kinda like a combination between Contra and Ninja Gaiden (NES), with the frantic pace, above average difficulty, and emphasis on constant forward movement. There's some tricks of its own that the game pulls, like an interesting checkpoint system that can be tied to your HP/ammo gauges, and a parry system which can be finicky to use at first. Every level is generally well designed and telegraphed to the player, and if the player pays attention they'll see tons of subtle good design choices, like putting a more complicated enemy that you haven't faced in a while in a neutral area to refresh your memory before throwing lots of them in an upcoming platforming section.
There are some sloppily designed segments, mainly around the end, and for every boss that is a hit there's also another one that is underwhelming and/or annoying, but what I think holds back this game from being really good or even great is the actual variety in the level design. It's all of decent quality and gets progressively harder, but after about the first half of the game you've seen basically every enemy type and every obstacle and every object and they're not really mixed or shaken up much. It's fun, but how many times can the game make me climb a wall or grab onto a flying enemy while turrets are shooting at me before I notice?
If you're looking for a modern game that tests skills that are very different from its contemporaries, or if you're just missing games like the ones I described earlier, you can't go wrong with Valfaris. It provides a few hours of solid, pattern memorizing, violent fun, and if you're new to the genre it might even make you want to play the great ones.
The game feels kinda like a combination between Contra and Ninja Gaiden (NES), with the frantic pace, above average difficulty, and emphasis on constant forward movement. There's some tricks of its own that the game pulls, like an interesting checkpoint system that can be tied to your HP/ammo gauges, and a parry system which can be finicky to use at first. Every level is generally well designed and telegraphed to the player, and if the player pays attention they'll see tons of subtle good design choices, like putting a more complicated enemy that you haven't faced in a while in a neutral area to refresh your memory before throwing lots of them in an upcoming platforming section.
There are some sloppily designed segments, mainly around the end, and for every boss that is a hit there's also another one that is underwhelming and/or annoying, but what I think holds back this game from being really good or even great is the actual variety in the level design. It's all of decent quality and gets progressively harder, but after about the first half of the game you've seen basically every enemy type and every obstacle and every object and they're not really mixed or shaken up much. It's fun, but how many times can the game make me climb a wall or grab onto a flying enemy while turrets are shooting at me before I notice?
If you're looking for a modern game that tests skills that are very different from its contemporaries, or if you're just missing games like the ones I described earlier, you can't go wrong with Valfaris. It provides a few hours of solid, pattern memorizing, violent fun, and if you're new to the genre it might even make you want to play the great ones.