Full review over on my website: https://www.nepikigaming.com/reviews/the-messenger/
''While The Messenger may look like your regular ”indie game inspired by the classics at first”, the complete package easily surpasses that expectation. This is mostly because the argument can be made that the game changes how it progresses halfway through. At first, it already satisfied me with a platformer that had fun level design, boss fights that kept getting better, and especially the smooth controls that feel satisfying to master. Upgrades to the kit of our ninja were relevant at all times, all working together to make cloud stepping work very well. And the game also gives you enough opportunity to master the mechanics, with minimal punishment on death and unlockable abilities that… may be a bit too helpful, and also very cheap to unlock with the in-game currency. Halfway through the game however, progression switches from a level-to-level basis to a 16-bit Metroidvania with time travel. This gave us the ability to revisit all of the levels but in our own desired order, which was generally fun to do as they hadn’t seen just a graphical upgrade, but entire layout changes. However, the Metroidvania aspect of the game isn’t very good, mostly due to the world being linear instead of interconnected, forcing us to go through entire stages just to reach a destination. It also didn’t really give much of an incentive to explore beyond the required story-locked upgrades that are only used in a specific part of the world. Granted, I did still have a lot of fun exploring these levels again, especially with the reward gained from the free DLC that, in its own right, was a fun experience for those looking for more content from this game.''
''While The Messenger may look like your regular ”indie game inspired by the classics at first”, the complete package easily surpasses that expectation. This is mostly because the argument can be made that the game changes how it progresses halfway through. At first, it already satisfied me with a platformer that had fun level design, boss fights that kept getting better, and especially the smooth controls that feel satisfying to master. Upgrades to the kit of our ninja were relevant at all times, all working together to make cloud stepping work very well. And the game also gives you enough opportunity to master the mechanics, with minimal punishment on death and unlockable abilities that… may be a bit too helpful, and also very cheap to unlock with the in-game currency. Halfway through the game however, progression switches from a level-to-level basis to a 16-bit Metroidvania with time travel. This gave us the ability to revisit all of the levels but in our own desired order, which was generally fun to do as they hadn’t seen just a graphical upgrade, but entire layout changes. However, the Metroidvania aspect of the game isn’t very good, mostly due to the world being linear instead of interconnected, forcing us to go through entire stages just to reach a destination. It also didn’t really give much of an incentive to explore beyond the required story-locked upgrades that are only used in a specific part of the world. Granted, I did still have a lot of fun exploring these levels again, especially with the reward gained from the free DLC that, in its own right, was a fun experience for those looking for more content from this game.''