Reseñas

• gamedeal user

  Dec 15, 2021

  Regional Pricing is now Fixed! Some store fronts are taking longer to update. The devs are adding a game mode focused on combat and exploration with heavily reduced mandatory precision platforming. A good compromise to cater to all types of players Read the steam description it clearly states that this has difficult platforming and combat at its core. I will start with the bad. And these are all things the devs could easily improve. -Feedback on melee hits needs to be better, right now it doesnt have enough weight behind it -there is too much foreground clutter, I can think of multiple instances where it was hard/almost impossible to see a platform because of this -First level is slow and linear. Hollow Knight starts the same way, but has multiple paths, where as Aeternas opening level is pretty much a straight shot. It takes till about the second boss to really pick up the pace. -control input needs some tuning. For no hit bosses and for the harder platforming sections, there were moments where I failed because of input issue. Sometimes I would dash the wrong way. -There has to be a way to implement dpad movement. Analog is just not precise enough for platformers in general. Almost all these issues can be fixed with a few quick patches. So far this is the best metroidvania to come out this year. And YES, it is a metroidvania. Tons of gated exploration that requires movement abilities and sometimes keys. The hand drawn art style is amazing. I've noticed some reviewers saying its tedious and they didnt get many abilities after 4 hours, except for the axe. If it took the player 4 hours just to reach the axe, that is a skill issue, not a game issue. This is a HARD game, platforming is difficult, combat is scary, and the bosses are an absolute treat. Quick Reflexes are REQUIRED. If you want a chill slowly explore game where the enemies arnt a threat like Metroid or SOTN, look elsewhere. if you enjoy the challenge in games like hollow knight and Sekiro, Grime, Deaths Gambit Afterlife, Celeste, Meatboy, Then this game will be right up your alley. Dont go into this looking for a casual experience though. The game is also HUGE, so far it seems bigger than hollow knight. There is an endgame, with tough optional super bosses and challenges. There are tons of secrets, hidden collectibles, and lore bits. The world itself doesn't feel as cohesive as Hallownest, but this isn't a bad thing. In hallownest, most of the biomes are just "cave but with grass" or "cave but with crystal" which again makes sense and works well with the game. Aeterna is more of a bunch of kingdoms mashed together. It reminds me of dark souls 2, in that while the whole world doesnt feel as cohesive, it allows for much more unique and awesome biomes, and feels more colorful. Two completely different but great world design philosophies. I can understand not liking one or the other, its up to your tastes. The story takes place front and center, and is interesting, the voice acting is superb. Will update review when finished, but all in all this is a recommendation FULL PRICE buy. So far Deaths Gambit: Afterlife was my metroidvania of the year, but this is looking to top that. Is Aeterna Like Hollow Knight? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1PAKzG3jWM
• gamedeal user

  Dec 15, 2021

  The constant super meat-boy style jumping segments absolutely kill the fun in this game. It also doesn't help that it has quite possibly the most unresponsive and unreliable jump button I've ever had the displeasure of having to deal with that constantly causes me to get hit or miss jumps despite HITTING THE BUTTON.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 15, 2021

  i am totally loving the game so far. finally a real challenging metroidvania. that tests platforming, combat and navigation skills. alot of the negative reviews so far seems based on the game being to difficult. they state on the store page that this is a challenging game and so it is, just as they said.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 16, 2021

  This game doesn't even come close to Hollow Knight, so if you're hoping for a similar experience, look elsewhere. It isn't anywhere near as refined, immersive, or fun to play IMO. Firstly, the voice lines aren't in English, although the text is and so is the intro cinematic. It's weird how there isn't one consistent language across the whole game. Most important is probably the skill tree - after playing for 4 hours there are no notable or fun abilities at your disposal - I just acquired an axe but it costs energy to charge and use so it's not very practical. Healing also uses energy but you have to manually pick it up after enemies drop it. Most of the starting skill tree is either increasing sword damage, critical hit damage or critical hit chance - a good 10-15 skill points. I have acquired one "gem" so far which is an equippable item - which increases my critical hit chance. The platforming is needlessly tedious from the get go and the obstacles don't really fit in with the areas at times. When you get an important item, you sometimes have to go back through the annoying obstacles you took to get there instead of having a shortcut that opens up once you get said item. The platforming resets you on a DIFFERENT time marker each time you die - so instead of all the obstacles being in the same place when you restart (so you can quickly speedrun the parts you've already accomplished), you need to wait and figure out exactly how everything was when you started your attempt the first time. The dash mechanic is very annoying - you have to precisely time when to stop a dash by moving in the direction opposite of the dash - and this dash-cancel timing is required often for all the precise platforming you will need to do. The platforms are ALWAYS the smallest size over hazards, often disappearing ones. Some platforms which appear like you can jump through them are actually solid, which usually causes you to die because you're in the middle of a platforming race. Often times it is difficult to tell the background from the foreground and therefore which things will hurt you unless you run into them. Sometimes the foreground will even block enemies from your sight and cause you to take damage. The world is huge, but the map only gives you limited markers and although it marks chests and other items of note for you, you have to zoom in all the way to see them so it's tedious to backtrack and figure out where something you're looking for might be. I don't really feel any magic in exploring the world, and it is confusing enough starting from the second area for me to want to quit the game. There are several different "dungeons" from the main world and so far I have only explored 2 of them. I have 4 or 5 doors that lead to places that I have not discovered yet and it is almost daunting to have to explore the rest. I will need to go back to all of them because there are several items of note that I simply could not reach. I have probably passed 10-20 such items so far but have no way to mark which abilities I need to access each item. The first boss had several different forms and many different types of attacks - far more complicated than I feel a first boss should have. It also took an insane amount of hits to kill (maybe 50?) in my opinion. If this is a hint of what's to come, then I wouldn't look forward to boss fights. So far I've only been able to buy one skill point and one health container piece from the main trader in the game. Everything else is far more expensive than I can afford or has no use I can yet discern.] There is a lack of rest areas, often forcing you to explore for extended periods of time without being able to change your skill tree and try new things out, and fast travel as well. You also can't edit all the controls, so instead of playing on keyboard how I prefer, I was forced to use a controller. However the controller was bugged in one specific area of the game, so I was forced to play with keyboard and remap my key bindings to use the controls I wanted to use partway through the game. I do not think I will finish this game.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 16, 2021

  [h2]A Disappointing And Ungratifying Experience. Not Recommended: 5/10[/h2] [hr][/hr] [i][b]For Linux & Steam Deck:[/b] Platinum. No problems whatsoever with Proton 6.3-8[/i] [hr][/hr] Aeterna Noctis had a lot of good ideas but it is mired with so many flaws that it makes it impossible to recommend it earnestly, even if you're a souls-like metroidvania fan. What it has got are an interesting premise that turns out to be just a pretentious and cringey love story, good level design for precision platforming that is ruined by deliberate imprecise controls and really bad respawn mechanics, rooms that just goes on far too long, combat that is unrewarding and not fun, enemies that are deliberately designed to be sponges, extremely slow leveling progression with an uninteresting skill tree as well as an art design that frankly isn't very good. What's unfortunate is that, there is actually a good game here. The platforming is kinda fun if it wasn't so excruciatingly tedious to do. The map could have been more fun to explore if the enemies inhabiting them weren't such a pain to exterminate. So what you get is platforming, combat and exploration that is just not fun. I would only consider this if it was on sale, and even then, there are far, far better souls-like metroidvania that came out this year that has better art, better platforming, better combat and more rewarding exploration. [hr][/hr] [h3]What's Not Good[/h3] [table] [tr] [td]1. Controls are just not suited for precision platforming. And this game requires precision platforming.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]2. Respawn mechanic is bad. When injured by the environment, you respawn at the last safe landing instead of continuing on. This kills the flow of the game immensely and makes platforming unnecessarily tedious.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]3. Art style to be frank, is not pretty. It's not ugly, but it's not pretty. And the story is somewhat pretentious. [/td] [/tr] [/table] You cannot make a precision platformer with deliberate unprecise controls, and the controls while not exactly bad, it's nowhere good enough for the kind of precise jumps and lands that the game requires you to do. Especially the dash move, which instead of it being a straight drop, has a momentum that will push you forward before you land. The problem is, the platforms are design with straight drop in mind. This wouldn't be so bad but the game punishes you if you mess up by respawning you to the last safe landing instead of letting you continue forward. So you end up having to unnecessarily redo an entire section (sometimes an the entire room) over and over again. It's unnecessarily tedious and unfair. This is really unfortunate because the platforming is actually designed well. And the challenge and the fun was there if it wasn't mired by the controls and the bad respawn mechanic. The art style is just not good. Perhaps this is just a personal preference, but I'm sure the developers could've put in a bit more effort in designing better looking characters. And the story while it had a very interesting premise, devolved into a pretentious love story about King of Darkneess and the Queen of Light. Yes, it went there. [hr][/hr] [h3]What's Bad[/h3] [table] [tr] [td]1. Combat is boring and unfulfilling.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]2. Enemies are damage sponges.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]3. Character leveling is extremely slow and grindy. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]4. Skill tree is insubstantial with no meaningful upgrades. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]5. The platforming levels go on way too long [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]6. The map is not interesting to explore[/td] [/tr] [/table] 2 main things that are wrong with Aeterna Noctis are the bad combat, and the bad exploration. The combat is just mind-numbing. It lacks any kind of flow or rhythm. You don't even have a parry or dodge skill and your dash doesn't evade enemies of their attack. What you get is an exchange of "I try to hit you, then you try to hit me." It wouldn't be so bad if you could dispense the enemies with 1 or 2 hits, but the enemies are damage sponges. It takes such a long time to kill 1 enemy and some enemies are deliberately placed to block your way. The experience points that you get from defeating them is also not worth the trouble. You gain so little experience points that is becomes grindy. Grinding in a metroidvania game. That is a sin unto itself. The skill tree is also very poor with no meaningful upgrades to your character. Your character will remain underpowered regardless since level progression is extremely slow. The second sin for a metroidvania game is having a map that you don't want to explore. Nothing is worse that this. If a metroidvania has a map that doesn't entice player to explore it then it fails. The world is barren with nothing interesting to look at, the enemies get in your way of exploration and are tedious to defeat and if you get damage, you are not allowed to continue forward but instead you respawn a spot behind because reasons. Some sections of the map just goes on and on and on with nothing in it except more tedious platforming and more spongy enemies. The game goes out of it's way to punish you for exploring it's world, so why would you want to? And if your metroidvania punishes players for trying to explore your world, then it's just a bad metroidvania game. [hr][/hr] [h3]Conclusion[/h3] One good thing I can say is that the boss fights are actually designed well and I had fun with the bosses, but reaching the boss stole all of the enthusiasm and good will that I had for the game that there is no more good will to have. It's really unfortunate that the game feels so, anti-gameplay because the platforming and the boss fights can be fun. I did not enjoy my time, and at the current price, the game is just not worth it. Not recommended.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 17, 2021

  Let me preface this review by saying that there is a significant difference between actual difficulty and artificial difficulty. I've found the fifth seal, I've opened seven of the ten doors, and I've done most of the sidequests up to this point, so anyone coming at me with "game too hard" can shove it. The early game is, for the most part, fine. Once you reach the Tower of Light, however, the feel of the game goes down significantly. Why is the first major boss you fight only reachable after a really, really long gauntlet full of one-hit kills that reset you back to the start of the section? It's the first freaking boss. I understand that you don't want to hold players' hands, but this felt like overkill. From then until the Light Crystal boss, most of the game is spent exploring, trying to find a route to the next two seals. A big issue I have with this game is if an NPC tells you something (for example go find my Goblin Sceptre or whatever) you cannot get them to repeat whatever information they gave you — and the quest log doesn't have it notated. So you either a) need to write down literally every quest thing you need, or b) just stumble across whatever item whenever you find it. Unlocking the seal bosses follows a very predictable pattern of collecting three or four items to open the main gate, which promotes exploration of the area, which is fine. However, once you obtain the Crystal Arrow, literally every single jump puzzle or exploration thing requires you to do this stupid swap ability combined with pinpoint jumps and dashes — and because every item you need to progress is surrounded by instadeath walls, if you slip up, you get sent all the way back to the beginning. Other games do have this kind of thing, but usually as a side-room challenge to get an unlockable or something — never as an obstacle for main progression except in Kaizo games or stuff like I Wanna Be The Guy. This is different from Soulsborne games — in those games, there are significant tells to the one-hit death mechanics in most cases, and usually mistakes aren't punished with instadeath, but instead with significant damage. Add all of that to the sheer inaccessibility of the game itself. Thrones are not nearly plentiful enough, so completing a quest objective requires you to chug a Dimensional Vial — but returning to that point requires you to make the trek all the way down again in most cases. The skill tree is a joke — I haven't seen such boring talents since World of Warcraft before they wizened up and replaced the talent tree with the much more interesting skill selection system. Stuff like 5% Critical Chance, 10% Melee Damage are your choices all the way up to the top of the tree! If you want interesting weapons or abilities, like the Scythe or Axe or Spear, you gotta find it — except oops, outside of one quest for the Scythe, nothing indicates where or what zone these things are in. Furthermore, you tied your subweapon resource usage to your healing resource, which is ridiculous. In 99% of cases, I would always stockpile the Blood for healing and use the Scythe since its free and only does marginally less damage then the Axe. I only used the Spear for the Cave Worm fight. Making it to where you have to track down each Merchant and buy the area map from them before you can see areas YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN TO is also absolutely awful. The fogged map I can understand for unexplored areas, but areas I've already cleared? Are you joking? The controls feel unresponsive at times, and yes, I'm playing in fullscreen with VSync off. There's this weird bug where if you are holding the stick in the face of the wall (which you have to do to wall slide/jump) and then teleport via the Crystal Arrow, any jump input you make gets negated or something, because my character warps and immediately divebombs into death. So, a fun scenario in Trial Room 7, which gives you a split second to fire a crystal arrow, while wall sliding, and then teleport to jump up to another wall is extremely difficult to do when your jump input gets blocked! Oh, and that section is midway through the entire jump puzzle, so naturally I get kicked back to the start. The story is interesting, I am genuinely invested in the characters, and the boss designs / encounters are actually very good — I think the Phoenix boss is probably one of the most stellar examples of encounter design I've seen from an indie developer, the entire fight is very tight. Even the Eye Blob re-fight in the West Wall is pretty well done, and I spent a long time learning that fight. However, an interesting story and good boss design doesn't override the rest of the problems this game has. I cannot recommend this to anyone unless you are a person who played the hell out of IWBTG-style games and enjoyed it.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 18, 2021

  I REALLY wanted to love this game. It was so close to being a fantastic metroidvania but the problems with it are bad enough to warrant a "do not recommend". In a game where platforming makes up a large portion, to put a delay on jumping AFTER you hit the ground is utterly stupid. To fog the map of areas you have already been, is utterly stupid. Having a huge portion of the game covered in one hit kill walls and floors makes this game artificially difficult. Also enemies have massive hit boxes and if you even remotely come into contact with their space, you get hit AND get pushed back. This game had so much potential but until there have been patches, I'm shelving this and not recommending it to any of my metroidvania-lover friends.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 19, 2021

  To quickly put the difficulty into perspective, the platforming is slightly harder than 'The End is Nigh' and the combat is slightly harder than 'Metroid Dread'. If the platforming difficulty is a turnoff for you, the devs are currently working on a gamemode that makes platforming easier. I cannot understand why so many people don't like this game. If you enjoy difficult action-platformers / metroidvanias, you will love this game.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 1, 2022

  I love metroidvanias and platformers but this game kind of hits different. I think there are a ton of good things about it, but there are too many things that i keep finding very annoying. I'll list them out: - Inputs. There are plenty of times where i want to dash the opposite direction and continue in the same way i'm facing. I've also had the issue of jump inputs being eaten as well. - Leaps of faith. There are so many rooms that even with the panning of the camera that you cannot see what is coming next. For a precision platformer, you should have all the information (by that i mean the layout) shown to you so you can plan how you are going to make jumps. So imagine having to react to a tiny area with one shot mechanics and your inputs being eaten as well. Turns in to dying a bunch just to know what's happening and then memorizing it. - Skill gems. So you find these skill gems that increase your power in some ways (more damage, more crit, etc.). There are some that seem like a requirement to always wear when exploring. For example, the gem that increases the slowdown of the arrow. Without that skill gem, your timing to teleporting must be PERFECT. a split second off and you're dying. There are only a few gems you can wear so having to waste a slot on a necessary way of moving irks me a lot. - Enemies. There are some enemies that i think are completely unfair. Mostly that light angel woman that does the HUGE circle explosion that can only be avoided by running REALLY far or a perfectly timed teleport arrow. Doesn't seem that bad right? Well you mostly find her in very small hallways where you practically have to know the timing on when it's coming or just eat the hit. Almost every enemy also has auto tracking charges or projectiles. I dont think this too bad, but it really sucks dealing with 6 things that all have auto tracking fast projectiles. - Hitstun + Screen Shaking. Every time you get hit by something the screen shakes violently and you will be in hitstun long enough to not be able to recover when near any one shot thing (spikes and light). The shaking of the screen and the "blinking" of your character makes it hard to figure out where you are even at after getting hit. There have been tons of times i just walked off a platform before i even realized where i even was. - Dashing. For movement that is required, there is NO INDICATION on when you actually have it available after using it. Lots of times i'll just quickly hit a platform and continue going and then die not having the dash because i was being too quick. - One shot mechanics. They are everywhere. Everything that isnt an enemy will one shot and reset you. Every area is held together by spikes and more spikes. Prepare to reset everywhere and often. - Weapon Skill memorization. I hope you remember exactly how everything works because once it's explained to you after you pick it up, that's it. Nothing else in the game will explain it to you. You have a menu that shows you pictures on stuff you've obtained, but that's it. - Getting stuck without a way of getting back. So you can get these vials (consumable) that can take you back to one of the Thrones (used as waypoints). WELL, so many puzzles require you to do it backwards to leave. There were times where i did not have any vials and was required to go through it backwards. The worst offender to this are the King's Trials you go through. Without a vial in the trials? Your file will literally be stuck there with no way out unless you "git gud" because the checkpoints auto save there. Good luck. This game does have some very good qualities about it, but i've been finding everything i've mentioned the most annoying. I hit a point where i didn't want to collect anything just to finish the game and put it to rest. I definitely got my money's worth out of it. You can see the love and work put in to this game and i respect that fully, but i cannot recommend it in it's current state.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 3, 2022

  This game is being done VERY dirty by a ton of "drive by" reviews with very little time invested. Some complaining about the difficulty even after the dev implemented easy mode. This game is certainly challenging but the abundance of checkpoints (especially post-patch) means that you'll never be setback very far. Many complain about the controls but what they really mean is the lack of input buffering which is an entirely different issue as the controls are just fine once you get use to that. Aeterna Noctis is hands-down the most expansive metroidvania in the genre surpassing even Hollow Knight in size and content. Each area has its own unique platforming challenges so you never feel like you're treading the same ground. A skill tree and gem system give you lots of build diversity once you start getting better gems. Sidequests and secrets galore that reward you for exploration. Most MVs can be 100% completed in 15-20 hours. I'm only 20 hours in yet I've barely even scratched the surface of this game. If you're averse to challenging platforming, the new Aeterna Mode is there for you to enjoy. However, Noctis Mode (original difficulty) offers a difficult but satisfying experience that is unmatched in the genre. Normally steam reviews are a mostly fair indication of quality, but this is not one of those cases. While not without some issues, this game easily deserves to be in the 90% range if people would just give it a fair shot.