Reviews

• Primetime18

  Apr 25, 2023

  A metroidvania game that stands out in its own beautiful unique way. + A huge map that's rewarding to explore + Beautiful atmospheres with creative areas + The variety of enemies, bosses and weapons is plenty + A generous amount of content with reasonable difficulty + RPG like level and equipment based system for combat + Great game for Castlevania fans + Awesome chill music - npc locations can be hard to keep up with - NG+ ? Overall I'd highly recommend this game to anyone who wants a beautiful, metroidvania gameplay experience at an extremely reasonable price. 9/10. <3
• gamedeal user

  Apr 25, 2023

  I am just getting started with the game, but I am liking it quite a lot so I am giving it a thumbs up from the get-go. Edit: if the game seems to have low review score is becase for some reason people in asia are leaving negative reviews. It is a mistery to me why they are doing that, the game is good, if you like metroidvanias you will like this one. Good - The art is amazing. - The music is great. - So far combat is good, the controls are good, and you get a forward dash early on, i liked that. - There is a bit of weapon variety, I have now a sword, a whip, a great sword and a scythe. I am a bit hammer fan, i doubt i will find one in this game, be nice though. - You have a selection of 3 languages for the voicing, English, Japanese and Chinese. - This is a huge plus for me: Renee does not talk stupid crap every time you press a button, I wholeheartedly loathe that recent practice in games to make characters talk your ears off with regarded, cringy voice lines. Thanks a lot Aurogon for not doing that crap. - UltraWide support out of the box! Bad: - Talent tree is a bit confusing, takes a while to get used to it. - I have a bunch of items that their descriptions are just lore, not what they actually do if I use them
• chronexia

  Apr 25, 2023

  I haven't played a game this satisfying since Dust an Elysian Tail. The combat feels sharp and responsive, the art is nothing short of gorgeous and stunning and the gameplay feels extremely balanced with every weapon style having their uniqueness. Finding secret feels rewarding and while the combat could benefit from a bit more variety in enemies selection. I haven't felt like it's too shallow of an experience. The various terrain always keeps you on your toe. There's a marking system! Which is always awesome to have in Metroidvania but often feels like developers refuse to give you the tool to mark stuff up and expects you to remember every nooks and cranny on your way. So far the game is everything I love out of a Metroidvania, don't believe the mixed review, this game is worth every cents. Whole-heartedly recommend, can not wait to play more of it.
• Criiza

  Apr 26, 2023

  20 hours into the game and honestly, I'm in love with it. for now I'm seeing several negative reviews about the game and some even constructive criticism but let's analyze them briefly and talk about the good and bad things about the game ---- TOP NEGATIVE REVIEWS POINTS: FAST TRAVEL The game starts giving us potions as the only fast travel option, these potions are very rare and no NPC sells them at the beginning of the game. But I don't see how this could be negative for the game, I understand who says that the lack of fast travel is a show of ego on the part of developers who trust too much on their map and believe that players will like to go from one side to side without teleporting, but honestly I don't see how the lack of FT can become a problem, given the amount of path that the game offers and forces you as a player to better manage the things you are going to buy or ways that youre going(i know that keep walking in a vast world where you doesn't know where you're suppose to go kind look strange, but for me is something exiting, remember me when i was playing dark souls 1) I only used two potions before reaching the part where you get infinite fast travel in the bigtree(and it was for go to the first zone again, I wanted to see if there was anything to do there) COMBAT I would like to start by saying that the devs did a great job in the weapons section, the game has several weapons and each one of them will have a different function and gameplay while you level up the skilltree. The huge amount of weapon variation and their skills opens up a huge skill celling for those who like experimentation the first point about combat in negative reviews is the contact damage, which I and many other metroidvania players really find interesting and adds to the game, you have to think carefully about where to place your character, when to jump, where to fall, etc. The game's combat is extremely responsive, in my opinion better than the hollow knight itself, with aerial skills, weapon switching, parrys, and many other things. I've seen people (mainly Chinese reviews) complain about the game not having incencibility or initial parry. with respect to i-frame dash, the game doesn't really need i-frame for the whole beginning, the vast majority of bosses are easily dodgeable just by moving a little or jumping and about the parry being anti-responsive, I don't know, for me in my gameplay the parry of just hitting the projectile and the greatsword parry work very well BOSSES about the bosses i saw several opinions, mine is that they are fantastic (i just wish that they had more unique ost), the great majority of the bosses are ''easy'' depending on your level, given that it's an open world game and you can get underleveled or overleveled easily, in addition to being able to pick up very strong weapons or armor easily (I myself picked up a weapon 4x better than the one I was using previously, just for being curious in the exploration and climbing a wall) in terms of patterns, the ''mini bosses'' tend to have simpler and easier patterns as usual, but even so, they are still an interesting fight depending on your level. But holy god the main bosses are great, incredible, it's cool to see that the game already has good bosses at the beginning of the game, which makes learn and react quickly to the patterns become something very fun ART I know some people have commented about the game dimentions or setting that there are times when you look lost or can't see things straight, I just didn't want to comment because it's ''personal'' as I can clearly see the characters and what happens on the screen, but it is undeniable that there are some parts that are a bit complicated, I can remember 2 places off the top of my head, but in general it is not as big problem as people say And about the designs, they are very functional and beautiful, the only thing I could say about the art of the game is that the sprite of the main character being drawn in anime style (style that the game doesn't use) made me uncomfortable for a good while time, but overall you get used to it ------------------------ I believe that these were most of the criticisms from the negative reviews, now I will go into other points that I would like to talk about ------------------------ MAP The map is huge. it's gigantic, and above all it's an amazing place to explore, if you go to my profile you'll see that I have hundreds of screenshots... because the world made in this game is just fun to explore. the parkours to obtain items are challenging enough to make me smile when I manage to pass them, and almost always comes a reward in line with the difficulty of the given challenge SOUND DESIGN OST I was walking on the meadow when I entered the cave and begins one of the best ost I've ever heard in games, honestly what the compositors did in this game is from another world, ALL zones have a good memorable music DUB (mostly english) I played the game in English, and I can say that really, the dubbing is not the best, I forced myself to switch to Japanese because I couldn't really get the feeling in the characters (Japanese also has some small problems but it's already much better) SOUNDS one thing that bothered me at first was the character's attack screams and the sounds of the hits, her screams feel inconsistent and out of place, for example using dualblade the character is screaming as if she is lifting something very heavy. there is little variation in attack sounds, however the ones that already have are functional, I might want some sounds for the crit or air strikes. NARRATIVE I'm not going to get into the game's lore, but the narrative, the way the story is conveyed is good enough to be interested in a not-so-creative plot like (go looking for a girl who will probably be my future friend ) the characters feel alive, each person you meet on the journey is interesting and someone memorable, I remember when rosalia said she was leaving town and I was desperate traveling the entire map to find out where she would be overall the narrative is functional and fun to follow ------------------------------------------------ TLDR: the beginning of the review was me saying my opinion about the general criticism that the game is getting but a summary could be that: it's fun, it has a good world and good soundtrack. if you are looking for a game to get lost in a world where you have to know how to organize things, have exciting fights and spend a lot of time exploring a vast world that seems to have no end and you always will get new things to see, this game will meet your needs!
• MightyMouse

  Apr 26, 2023

  Nothing to say, just buy it for 25 euros this is a steal.And for the devs, thank you. Only one thing - if you could make the elevator chain move or add some sound effects so you know that the elevator is coming down.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2023

  It's alright but falls short of expectations

  Chinese people bombing it with negative reviews for no reason to be honest. Yes. There are no iframes, meaning the dodge is basically useless outside of keeping your distance and travelling faster. But not every Metroidvania game has / had a dodge that let you phase through targets. It's a vibrant looking game that functions well, just gotta get used to the inability to dash through enemies like you have been accustom to with recent titles. It's annoying that's about it. We, the players, have unlocked the sites. We should be able to teleport from one location to another at will, without the need for this inconvenient "mechanic" called a resting potion. If you enjoy running through areas for up to 20 minutes and more to get to NPCs to complete quests and doing the same thing over and over as you progress deeper and further through the game with even longer gaps in how far you need to travel to backtrack to town, then this game is for you. I and a lot of other people have given up trying to put up with this feature. The further you progress into the game, the more monotone the game becomes, the more boring the bosses become. It's so unrewarding and tedious. There are plenty of better games.
• Ratzing

  Apr 26, 2023

  It's a good game, although a little strange, the artstyle is good but there is a weird mixture of styles going on, idk what's that about but it's a minor thing, the story also seems needlesly convoluted but you can follow the main idea pretty okay since it's still pretty simple. The gameplay loop feels great, the combat flows mostly good, exploration is just standard metroidvania stuff but it feels good, maps are complex and there are lot of secrets all over the place, as well as backtracking with you new traversal skills. I'm honestly just writing this to counter the strange chinese review-bombing, idk what's that about but screw those guys, the game is good.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2023

  Fast travel is patched, merchants also sell the consumable. Biggest problem is gone. One little thing wish for improvement: some platform challenge's difficult and reward doesn't match. Often find something after a lengthly platform to be.....potions? ======================================================================= In response to devs: 1) by the time player has fast travel unlock pre patched, I would already acquire a couple new abilities, which is double jump, dash, and the crouch dash thing. Every time player gains a new ability, it is very natural for ppl like me, to go back and explore (while I still remember). With fast travel locked with an ultra rare potion, this became almost impossible. I don't have that many potions to go back and forth. This change is needed and I appreciate you guys patched it. 2) Checkpoints distance are not a huge deal for me if fast travel wasn't locked. 3) to perform a downward kick movement(下踢), it's left stick down + A button on controller. In my experience, left stick will need to be down before you press the A button. I don't know if this is just something with my controller or a common issue. 4) With my progress right now I have 3 heals, and I die total of probably 5 times except platform challenges, so the amount of heal is not really a problem for me, but I do think it's a bad design. And also if I recall correctly I had to collect some items to make it happen. So exploration is required, but fast travel is locked? seems bit conflicted to me. 5) I do know you can cancel attacks, but from my experience dex weapons are just the superior ones even on damage output. 6) Let's say there are 60, and let's say I cut my playtime to 6 hours because I spent total of 1+ hour total on some platform challenges and also legged my way back to some starting area for exploration. So 6 hours I get a total of 3 charm (I also see some hour review mentioned this), which is only 5% of total charms. Unless you tell me this game is going to be 120 hours, then the resource placement is not justified. 7) I am fine with no iframe, I am not fine with enemy glued on my landing point forever on a platform. I can't land on a platform unless they die. All in all, my biggest problem is with the fast travel, like I said everything else is just small things being aggravated by fast travel lock, which seems to be patched. I'll update my review once verified later. ====================================================================== Original REVIEW: Some very noticeable problem of the game at current stage: 1) Fast travel. Who TF thought it's a good idea to require consumables which you CAN'T buy, and is even rarer than upgrade materials, armors, weapons etc. I beat more bosses than the amount of consumables I hold. So you basically can't fast travel because every time you want to go somewhere else you need to have at least 2 consumables, 1 for going there, 1 for coming back. I already cleared around 6-7 maps and I just don't see free fast travel unlocked. So whoever is playing the game, likely in their first 10 hours will have no fast travel ability. 2) The problem with fast travel further aggravate the issue with checkpoint placement. The amount of bone fire is pathetic. To put hollow knight comparison, just imagine the entire crystal peak area has 2 benches total. This basically how the checkpoints are placed in this game. Now with the fact you can't fast travel... I don't understand why anyone play tested the game would think this is a good idea. 3) The downward kick movement, the control says stick down + A button, but when you actually play it, simultaneously hold your stick down and press A doesn't work. Stick down needs to happen first. Again, why? 4) Resources early game. With my progress now I am sufficient with healing & resources, but the first maybe 5-6 hours? You will only have ONE healing. Yes, you will be clearing 3-4 big regions with only 1 heal available, beating bosses with one 1 heal. And the fact that you can't fast travel, and the fact that there are only like 2 checkpoints for one entire region... 5) Merchants are mostly useless. I don't understand, devs placed so many npcs as merchants, but they are mostly useless. They don't sell upgrade materials, they don't sell fast travel consumables, some merchants will have 1-2 legit useful items but that's it. Blacksmith sells weapons that are worth that the ones you can acquire in game, the cooking girl is only useful once, after you bought all her meals she is useless. I've encountered 4-5 merchants so far, and they just feel useless. Unlike hollow knight, you can buy pins and charms and notch, blacksmith does your upgrade, but in this game, these stuff you need to find by exploring, and you can upgrade weapon in the menu yourself. Just feel like defeats the purpose of having these NPCs. 6) Weapon imbalance. Usually I go for greatswords, but as far as I can tell, it's so much worse than scythe/whip/dual swords. The problem with greatswords is you can't interrupt enemies. Just can't. And it's slow. The time you do a single attack dex weapons already did at least 2, so dex weapon actually deals more damage. And scythe/whip wins the war with long reach, especially whip has special jump attack which is a f***ing AOE that clears out the flying enemies with ease. Not to mention bosses's attack interval is smaller than greatsword's attack speed, using greatsword in boss battles is basically suicide. Weapon class needs to be balanced. 7) Charms. 8 hours in the game I collected total of 3 charms. Judging by the charm slots there should be around 30 charms if not more. The resource placement again is weird. I understand devs don't want players to be OP, but not giving anything in early game is not the way to go. 8) enemy placement. This is the problem with collision and enemy AI. So you have no invincibility when dash (at least I haven't got it yet), meaning collision damage. BUT, once an enemy spots you, they will STAY at the platform edge. See the problem here? You just can't jump to that platform without taking damage unless you somehow figure out a way to kill them, normal enemies are fine, but often you will have ranged enemies throwing firebombs at the platform edge, meaning you can't kill them/jump on the platform without tanking the damage. If i-frame is too much, just don't let enemies glued on the edge. I don't recall hollow knight has this problem ever, enemies will no occupy player's landing point forever. I actually like the game, but these problems are very frustrating especially fast travel. Everything else is just minor frustration which can be dealt with, but fast travel mechanism is a major issue here.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2023

  Just popping my review in to balance out some of the silly ones. The game's pretty, the combat feels responsive and fluid, the weapon types are neat. I'd recommend anyone who liked Ori, Dust an Elysian Tail, or Hollow Knight to try it. Positives: - Combat is fluid, responsive and fun, you can even deflect projectiles back at enemies. - Decent weapon variety and you can wield two at once like in Ori. - The map is huge, lots of places to explore. - The artstyle is gorgeous, the enemy and boss designs are neat, all around good looking game. - The music is good, it's not going to stick in your head like Ori's did but it's doing its job and it's doing it well. - The story is there, it's pretty standard for a Metroidvania plot, it works and I'm not here for plot anyway. I do have some gripes though but I don't think they take away from the experience enough to not recommend though they might detract someone from buying it: -Resource-based fast travel is pretty cumbersome, especially with how distant each "bonfire" is, these resources are limited and can't be bought, meaning you have a finite number of fast travels. UPDATE: You can buy the potions to fast-travel anywhere now! -Healing is relegated to relatively rare potions, or the innate heal your character gets from the getgo, but she only gets additional ones later on, quite a bit later on too, meaning you have whatever potions you find +1 heal and only the innate heal restores on death. You have a magic bar, but you don't get a healing spell at least as far as I've gotten. UPDATE: Mentioned above but consumables can be bought now for relatively cheap. -Some enemy animations are pretty ambiguous making you guess where or how to dodge. Not a big deal once you have mobility abilities but early it can be troublesome. -The game doesn't seem to recognise certain inputs (down+attack, jump+attack) at times it's supposed to like for extending jumps. I'm sure it's an issue that can be patched out so it's not that big a deal. UPDATE!: That was a slight translation error as I thought. -The voice acting and dialogue/translation are pretty rough in some spots, if you're like me though that doesn't matter you're in it for the gameplay. -The menu transitions and transitions to the title screen are pretty long. It takes 5 seconds or so to get back to the Load File screen, not a problem normally but if you're speedrunning it can be. On launch it takes about half a minute to get to the title screen as well. If you played any of the inspirations this game has then you kinda know what to expect, it's relatively by the numbers on that end but it's pretty good for what it is, aside from those complaints. Lol. Edit: I play games like this on my Deck which is offline most of the time to save battery so my playtime is weird. Edit 2: The latest patch fixed or cleared upmy major gripes with the game, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 26, 2023

  Helping balance the review bombing, this is a excellent game reminiscent of classic Metriodvanias like SotN. I think people forgot the gameplay that founded this genre and made it great before it was over saturated. Really enjoying this game!