An excellent metroidvania in just about every way. Tells a light story, with mystery and intrigue that will keep you curiously engaged until you've seen the finale. NameBrand.
Picked this up lately because I realized my experience in the metroidvania genre was almost exclusive to the Metroid games, which I adore, but I was pleasantly surprised by this game! The collectible weapons and items were fun to use and interesting, the areas were unique in theme and design, and the environmental storytelling was perfectly coated in mystery.
I was really impressed with the "glitch" mechanics... corrupting enemies to make them into some additional variant, was super fun, and getting a new reaction was cool every time. I also think the game glitching out every so often was a nice touch, making me feel like I was playing something forbidden to our reality. Really cool stuff!
The story is serviceable enough, I think more than anything it paves the way for interesting and unique world building exposition, which gets continually built on with little lore notes and small cutscenes throughout the game. I didn't find myself particularly attached to the main character, and while I'm pretty sure the "odd speech" from the machines is intentionally done, it comes of more like I'm playing a game with a bad translation.
The movement in this game feels good enough, traversing the environment calls for a lot of engagement from the player, so learning how to optimize your route through the world helps you feel a bit quicker with each pass. I did find myself quite lost at points, which made me do the thing where I go to every part of the map over and over and over again just to find the one point of entry to the next area that I'm missing... And while I think that's a staple thing of the genre (I did find a lot of power-ups and upgrades because I got lost), It definitely added a few hours onto my playtime that really didn't need to be there. I think had there been just a quest marker or something that would have shown me the right direction (not necessarily the exaction location) to go, that would have incentivized me to explore the map on my own, rather than accidentally exploring the map and feeling relief that I was finally going the right way in the new area. That is my one major critique of this game.
I think a few minor critiques I could say would be: Some of the bosses are really easy (got em on the first try), and some enemy attacks feel absolutely unfair and unavoidable, even with a full arsenal and knowledge of where they are and their move sets... The last thing is, is that I don't really think it pushed the genre in any way... It had unique powers and abilities and mechanics that set it apart, but nothing completely wow'd me like I thought might happen, the way I've heard about this game.
Overall though, I really liked this game! I think it's a perfect embodiment of the original metroidvania formula, and as such I am happy to recommend it to anyone who may be itching for that kind of fix. It doesn't break the bank with your money or your time, and with its options to randomize, become more difficult, and speedrun, I think it definitely has its fair share of value under the hood.
Picked this up lately because I realized my experience in the metroidvania genre was almost exclusive to the Metroid games, which I adore, but I was pleasantly surprised by this game! The collectible weapons and items were fun to use and interesting, the areas were unique in theme and design, and the environmental storytelling was perfectly coated in mystery.
I was really impressed with the "glitch" mechanics... corrupting enemies to make them into some additional variant, was super fun, and getting a new reaction was cool every time. I also think the game glitching out every so often was a nice touch, making me feel like I was playing something forbidden to our reality. Really cool stuff!
The story is serviceable enough, I think more than anything it paves the way for interesting and unique world building exposition, which gets continually built on with little lore notes and small cutscenes throughout the game. I didn't find myself particularly attached to the main character, and while I'm pretty sure the "odd speech" from the machines is intentionally done, it comes of more like I'm playing a game with a bad translation.
The movement in this game feels good enough, traversing the environment calls for a lot of engagement from the player, so learning how to optimize your route through the world helps you feel a bit quicker with each pass. I did find myself quite lost at points, which made me do the thing where I go to every part of the map over and over and over again just to find the one point of entry to the next area that I'm missing... And while I think that's a staple thing of the genre (I did find a lot of power-ups and upgrades because I got lost), It definitely added a few hours onto my playtime that really didn't need to be there. I think had there been just a quest marker or something that would have shown me the right direction (not necessarily the exaction location) to go, that would have incentivized me to explore the map on my own, rather than accidentally exploring the map and feeling relief that I was finally going the right way in the new area. That is my one major critique of this game.
I think a few minor critiques I could say would be: Some of the bosses are really easy (got em on the first try), and some enemy attacks feel absolutely unfair and unavoidable, even with a full arsenal and knowledge of where they are and their move sets... The last thing is, is that I don't really think it pushed the genre in any way... It had unique powers and abilities and mechanics that set it apart, but nothing completely wow'd me like I thought might happen, the way I've heard about this game.
Overall though, I really liked this game! I think it's a perfect embodiment of the original metroidvania formula, and as such I am happy to recommend it to anyone who may be itching for that kind of fix. It doesn't break the bank with your money or your time, and with its options to randomize, become more difficult, and speedrun, I think it definitely has its fair share of value under the hood.