The game's a bit of a mess, but in a mostly positive way. I found this game because I was searching for Metroidvanias, but let me be absolutely clear -- THIS IS NOT A METROIDVANIA, NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY.
Exploration of areas involves some really shoddy level design concepts in which some particular rooms are stitched together, but have no real identity to them and it seems like their presence is simply based on randomization for the given area. In those rooms, you'll usually have to defeat a bunch of enemies to move to the next room, and occasionally there's a hidden location you can check out to get some more free weapons and such.
You work your way through all those rooms and eventually you get to a boss and then you complete the chapter. Repeat four more times, more or less.
There's an upgrade system, but it's fairly rudimentary and some abilities are so much more apparent as useful than others.
Weapons and equipment vary drastically and are found in a loot system concept similar to most Diablo clones. The good news is that the weapons have a healthy variety to them in terms of gameplay and you can find yourself experimenting with a lot of stuff (with a limited inventory space) to try and find the piece of equipment that works best for you in each slot. Synthesis exists for trying to get more stuff you might want, but it's randomized, and crafting requires you to store items you might want to use for crafting ingredients later because your inventory space is just too shallow to hold onto them actively.
Bosses are a fun time and if you can do a little searching in a few levels, you might find some particularly difficult bosses in some side areas. It looks like I missed one of the areas, which is a shame, because this really is the high point of the game.
The story's okay, but falls apart if you start thinking about it too much. When your game is self-aware enough to refer to someone's speech as "just the villain's monologue", you probably shouldn't be expecting too much.
Soundtrack is strangely both solid and forgettable -- I remember liking certain tracks a lot when I was in some particular areas, but now that I try to recall what they sounded like and even which areas they were, it's eluding me.
There is a NG+ (and an achievement for beating NG+ twice), but I don't know anything about what's in NG+ beyond keeping whatever upgrades and equipment you already have.
The game's probably good for a dozen hours of time and at 15 bucks, you could definitely do worse. If the level design had actual connectivity (you can revisit chapter areas, but there's very little reason to unless you're going for collectibles or more resource grinding), the game would be an absolute recommendation but as it stands, it's a gameloaf that doesn't have a particularly strong identity in any direction, other than that it's good at providing some fun bosses to tackle. If that's what you're looking for, then maybe consider investing in the game to get some substantial experience. If not, definitely look elsewhere for better mash-ups of genres/subgenres.
Exploration of areas involves some really shoddy level design concepts in which some particular rooms are stitched together, but have no real identity to them and it seems like their presence is simply based on randomization for the given area. In those rooms, you'll usually have to defeat a bunch of enemies to move to the next room, and occasionally there's a hidden location you can check out to get some more free weapons and such.
You work your way through all those rooms and eventually you get to a boss and then you complete the chapter. Repeat four more times, more or less.
There's an upgrade system, but it's fairly rudimentary and some abilities are so much more apparent as useful than others.
Weapons and equipment vary drastically and are found in a loot system concept similar to most Diablo clones. The good news is that the weapons have a healthy variety to them in terms of gameplay and you can find yourself experimenting with a lot of stuff (with a limited inventory space) to try and find the piece of equipment that works best for you in each slot. Synthesis exists for trying to get more stuff you might want, but it's randomized, and crafting requires you to store items you might want to use for crafting ingredients later because your inventory space is just too shallow to hold onto them actively.
Bosses are a fun time and if you can do a little searching in a few levels, you might find some particularly difficult bosses in some side areas. It looks like I missed one of the areas, which is a shame, because this really is the high point of the game.
The story's okay, but falls apart if you start thinking about it too much. When your game is self-aware enough to refer to someone's speech as "just the villain's monologue", you probably shouldn't be expecting too much.
Soundtrack is strangely both solid and forgettable -- I remember liking certain tracks a lot when I was in some particular areas, but now that I try to recall what they sounded like and even which areas they were, it's eluding me.
There is a NG+ (and an achievement for beating NG+ twice), but I don't know anything about what's in NG+ beyond keeping whatever upgrades and equipment you already have.
The game's probably good for a dozen hours of time and at 15 bucks, you could definitely do worse. If the level design had actual connectivity (you can revisit chapter areas, but there's very little reason to unless you're going for collectibles or more resource grinding), the game would be an absolute recommendation but as it stands, it's a gameloaf that doesn't have a particularly strong identity in any direction, other than that it's good at providing some fun bosses to tackle. If that's what you're looking for, then maybe consider investing in the game to get some substantial experience. If not, definitely look elsewhere for better mash-ups of genres/subgenres.