Here's a mildly amusing anecdote: About two years ago I played Team Ladybug’s previous game, Touhou Luna Nights, and gave it a 4.0 on [Glitchwave]. The thing of it is, I remember nearly nothing about the game. Maybe I’m getting old or maybe there’s too much chloride in the tap water or maybe I’ve played too many metroidvanias over the past few years, but my recollection of this supposedly 4-out-of-5 game was so fuzzy that for a while I was 100% conflating it with Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight in my head. With the help of YouTube I managed to jog my memory, but even after that refresher I struggled to recall exactly why I’d been so enthusiastic about it. (Too bad I wasn’t writing reviews back then!)

Having finished Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, though, I absolutely understand both why I savored Touhou Luna Nights as well as why it didn’t stick in my memory. Because Team Ladybug have struck once again, delivering a beautiful, perfectly paced Metroidvania – one that manages to hang just a tier below the best in its genre despite a haphazard story and a lack of real standout elements.

There’s a map to fill. Enemies to kill. Experience points to gain. Items to collect. Bosses to conquer. Team Ladybug have borrowed many elements from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, fusing them together with detailed animations, lovely parallax-scrolling effects, and silky smooth combat – which isn’t to say that it’s a mere clone. One notable difference lays in the level design. The layout of the labyrinth, though not particularly inspired, always kept pushing me moving forward. Yet on the other hand, when I wanted to return to a previous area for a second look, a fast-travel point was never far away. Team Ladybug have even made key improvements to the UI since their previous game, adding features like a minimap in the corner of the screen.

I wonder if the game’s greatest sin is that it doesn’t provide enough friction for the player. Rushing around the map and bumping into new bosses every 20 to 30 minutes keeps the game feeling fresh, but it also makes every new encounter less memorable than the last. The game has a few impressive setpieces, like a pair of battles with dragons, but both of these appear in the first half of the game. The tension level flattens out early, when ideally it should build and build and build instead.

There is at least one innovative feature here, however, that as far as I know hasn’t been used in a Metroidvania before. That feature is elemental switching. The game’s namesake and protagonist, Deedlit, can switch between Fire and Wind at will. Certain obstacles can only be overcome by switching between the two, and many enemies are more vulnerable to one element than the other.

Complicating matters further is that both elements have power levels. When an element is charged up to level three, it confers attack bonuses and also allows you to slowly regain health while you have it equipped – a trick that comes in handy during boss fights. How do you charge up to level three, you ask? You do it by attacking with the other element, so attacking with Wind charges Fire and vice versa. In practice, this means you’ll find yourself frequently bouncing between the two, trying to keep both topped up in order to maximize your damage output and health regeneration. Personally, I found this system extremely engaging, and by the end of the game my finger was constantly clicking the right bumper, ever seeking a little boost.

Will this game stick more firmly in my memory than Team Ladybug’s previous offering? Only time will tell, though I certainly hope it will. It honestly has even made me interested in checking out the manga that it’s based on. High fantasy, Japan-style? Sign me up.