Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Feb 5, 2022

  I don't want to say it's a bad metroidvania because it's really not, but at the same time, there are just so many little problems and glitches, it just continuously made me angry, granted because of my awful luck I found my first health upgrade at the end of the game, so that was part of the problem. I believe we have a tribute to the C64 Rastan here, although it plays a bit more like a modern platformer, if not a bit intentionally clunky like many retro games. Let me just say it's not a game for people that get easily frustrated, the game is just full of insta-kill spikes and death pits, even though there are a lot of checkpoints. It's a slightly difficult game and that is okay, but my problem is that it was kinda sporadic, even some of the early areas were more difficult than those in the late game. It's the little things that make this game less enjoyable, some of the first enemies seem to do more damage than they should, the delay on their attacks is kinda weird, other enemies tend to get on top of your hitbox so you can't hit them, it just feels like a good game that was not internally tested. It's actually a bit longer than I expected, the last game from this dev was about 2 hours, this game is at least 4, with maybe an extra hour of optional exploration. I want to say that I only enjoyed maybe 70% of the level design, the developer probably didn't let many people test it because some of the sections got somewhat confusing. I thought the store upgrades and the currency was implemented poorly, most of them are not that relevant and it's hard to save gold on your first playthrough because there is death everywhere. You can find several weapons, various sub-weapons and magic abilities, although I didn't think they changed the game all that much. To be fair, it's going for that retro feel, so in a way, you could look at all these issues and actually feel some nostalgia for it, but that is pretty subjective I guess. Ironically, all the boss fights were easy, I kinda wish they had more attacks. __ Oh man the glitches, so many glitches. Music turning off, getting stuck in walls, character freezing in certain frames, some enemy attacks not doing damage, walking on top of the world. I am not even complaining, I am just wondering why you would not let someone run through the game and see what they can find because obviously there were a lot of problems. If I played the game for 1 hour I would show you like 30 tiles with holes in them, it's better to find these before you put the game out. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) Dude, I love the pixel art you did for the cutscenes, can you make an artbook, I want to keep some of these for the desktop or something - ***** badass. Great music too, it has that Conan the Barbarian vibe to it, obviously. The level design was a bit uneven, but overall, I think you revived the Rastan very well. (+) The game has some decent exploration and you can find various power-ups and weapons, granted some of them were not that useful, most of the store upgrades were not exciting to get. I like the direction with the level design, but I guess you just stretched yourself too much, and you know, I understand. Again, the gameplay is not bad, but I think you need to work on the frames a bit so it's not as clunky. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] [u] Glitches [/u] - I already posted most of these in the forum, but yea, it was not good. Like the music stop playing in like 5 spots at least, I had several sticky zones that made me reset the checkpoint. There are all kinds of animation glitches like a character only having 1 frame sometimes. I don't blame you for it, but it is what it is, very glitchy, should have done more testing. [u] Attack Delays [/u] - for some of the early enemies like axe skeletons, maybe put a delay every 3 attacks for them so they can't spam at random and kill you going in. I don't mind the difficulty overall, I just think the first area is a bit cruel to new players. I also think maybe you could have an extra health upgrade in the shop, just to help players if they need a little help with the harder sections. [u] The frames [/u] - I get it's a retro game but the character frames did not feel good to me. Maybe make his attack+attack more reliable, faster speed and recovery on the dash-roll, and as I said in the forum, down+attack should not act as down, but should attack when crouching. [b]Overall Thoughts: 6/10[/b] I could really enjoy a game like this, I pretty much love where you were going with it, especially the visuals, but it just was not ready to be released. That said, I still had fun, and I can appreciate a little Rastan in my life. You know your last game GhoulBoy was one of the most fair platformers that I played, the level design was never frustrating, so I am not sure what changed. Maybe you just need to get more feedback from friends internally, let people test the game more. I also think you could have done something a bit more exciting with store upgrades, they were kinda meh, so collecting gold was kinda meh too. Anyway, again, not a bad game, I don't know, feels like not enough care was put into the things in between. [code]Review by: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
• gamedeal user

  Feb 5, 2022

  Well, a barbarian-themed metroidvania? Sign me up... I thought. This game was made by a single person, which is an impressive feat in itself and I think the game is exactly as the developer intended. Unfortunately this means it might not be for me, and maybe not for you either. FIrst of all, if you want to play this game, use a controller. You can rebind your keys, but I think it's just "easier". Which doesn't mean this game is easy. You will die. In true metroidvania fashion, everything in this game hurts you. You touch an enemy: you get hit, projectiles: you get hit, ground spikes and other traps: die immediately. But unlike for example, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, you have no mechanics to avoid them. At least not at the beginning. You start in a village, where you get your quest from the village elder and you're able to buy upgrades for Beholgar at the blacksmith (you won't have any money yet though). You absolutely will need these upgrades, but I haven't found a way to get back to the village, and I probably won't. After leaving for the Old Forest you have some limited choice of where to go. As you need to meet special requirements, like a key, to move on further, you can only explore so much before hitting a dead end. So, in the beginning the game is rather linear, which I like because it guides the player and let him learn the little mechanics that are here. You have a dodge roll (with no invincibility frame), which will let you roll AWAY from enemies. If roll into or through them, you get hit, and since this game has no post-hit invincibility (you know, you blink for 2 seconds and enemies can't hurt you meanwhile), you might get hit twice by the same enemy if you try to roll through them. 3 times if they try to throw a projectile at the same time, and you die in just 3 hits. I'm sure there will be upgrades for health and the like, but not at the start. Dodge rolling however, isn't too much of a viable option anyway, since the level design has so much spikes and pitfalls everywhere, that you'd rather take one or two hits. Small healing items can regularly be found in destroyable vases or from killing enemies, but that doesn't matter because the next thing damaging you is just around the corner. In order to make the dodge viable, you need to buy "Shubra's Necklace" from the blacksmith, it costs 1500 gold and neither do you have any money at the beginning, nor will you get gold quickly. Beholgar carries a shield, but you can't use it. It's just cosmetic. To block projectiles, the blacksmith sells you a "Hit Ring" which allows your projectiles to block others. Not the shield. And you can't block melee attacks with it either. If you have your barbarian have a shield, let him use it. Or let him find it later, together with the ability to block with it. Or just drop it. So far Beholgar feels like Psygnosis' Barbarian from 1987, which was a one-hit trial and error game for Amiga. Maybe there will be patches in the future, maybe this will get some upgrades and fixes. And if it does, I'll return and check them out. I really want to like this game, barbarians are my favorite "fantasy" characters, and nowadays there ain't much media with them around. But against my first intentions to recommend it to friends of mine, I can't. Yet. Pros + lovingly made pixel graphics, as you would expect from a game featuring a barbarian (it was the 90s when they where popular) + responsive controls, I never had problems landing on small platforms or otherwise + different main weapons + items you expect in a metroidvania, like limited "throwing" weapons (fireballl, spear, axe, etc.) + multiple skills to learn (double jump, wall climbing, etc.) Cons - You die in 3 hits - Dodge roll has no i-frames, but you can buy an item for 1500 gold (ingame, not real money) which grants you those i-frames - Beholgar carries a shield in hand, which you can't use, you can buy a ring for 1000 gold however, that let's you shoot your projectiles to block others . . . . . Minor spoilers ahead: I made it till after the first "boss", which is a volcano that throws stones at you, while you try to destroy 3 wall-mounted eye balls. Afterwards the volcano loses its rocky hide and only then can you attack and kill it. There's no space where you're safe, which might be the point, but you can't block or dodge those stones, because you will roll into another one. The projectiles pattern are some NES Silver Surfer kind of BS.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 5, 2022

  It's not there yet There's a lot of potential here, but the physics engine is VERY finicky. You take a LOT of deaths in the game from exploring. There's very little health. Every time you die, you lose a significant amount of cash, putting the minor coin shop upgrades further out of reach unless you waste time farming. There are a lot of beta level glitches (forced key rebinds on a new area, which the dev claims to have patched, thrown axes that only go left, getting stuck in 1 tile high sections after rolling) and the game needs a lot more polish before it's really ready to play. You can rather easily scroll too fast past what someone is saying, or get stuck with a note blocking your entire screen until you remember that it's Up to read it and figure out that it's also Up to unread it? I'm going to stick with it but it's not ready yet. It looks amazing and has a real Amiga aesthetic, but the gameplay...
• gamedeal user

  Feb 6, 2022

  Tiene un par de problemas técnicos, pero en líneas generales es un plataformero sólido con toques de metroidvania y todo el poder bárbaro que tu alma necesita. Al principio vas a perder un montón pero cuando consigas un par de armas buenas y el anillo que te hace perder poca plata con la muerte, ya está te lo vas a pasar re contento. Es duro, épico y solo para valientes. Si Conan jugara videojuegos, jugaría Beholgar!!!
• gamedeal user

  Feb 6, 2022

  I love the art style and vibe the game has got going. But there are too many rough gameplay elements to recommend this. There are too many leaps of faith and the enemy behavior is extremely hard to read. Too many projectiles flying all over the place and enemy placements are...weird. Also, the jump button shouldn't continuously jump when held down. It should jump with a single button press. The dev has something here, it just needed more time in the oven. Edit: I'm NOT changing my review to recommended. What I said previously is still true, but more time with the game and discovering health expansions and other items improved playability quite a bit. Hanging from ledges and iframes during rolls really helps the overall feel of the game. Avoid if you are bothered by glitches and jank. Buy if you like retro games with a good sense of adventure. The game wasn't ready for release, but there is still fun to be found here.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 6, 2022

  I've officially finished the game, and I don't write very many reviews. Like at all. However, in this instance, I feel it fair to give this lovingly-crafted gem as honest of a review as I can. I've posted a TL;DR at the bottom. For starters, this game is fairly short. My playtime of 15 hours is inaccurate, as I went to sleep the previous evening and left the game running. It's roughly 5-8 hours long, if you want to 100% everything. This game is short and sweet, and will scratch that Metroidvania itch you may have. The NES-style graphics and music are very charming; I found them neither irritating nor positively evocative enough to distract me from the meat of the game. The gameplay is simple: you move left and right, jump, and you have a dodge roll to avoid enemies and projectiles. You can purchase an item early in the game to allow your dodge roll to carry you through enemies and projectiles without harm. Eventually, you'll nab other upgrades that enable a double jump, wall-hanging, and platform generation. All of these change the way you move without making things too difficult. Other upgrades include subweapon maximums, health increases, a currency multiplier (currently broken in a good(?) way) along with varying weapons to aid you on your quest to destroy a great evil that plagues the land. Destroying enemies usually nets you gold, health restoring items, and powerups that refresh your current subweapon. Campfires are strewn about each level to allow you to save your current position so that when you die, you'll be returned to that point. They also allow you to fast travel to other areas that you have discovered, though not to any specific campfire. Resting at a campfire restores your health and saves your progress, but also causes all previous enemies (with the exception of bosses and mini-boss events) to respawn. To be efficient, you must develop strategies that allow you to remain healthy while also killing enemies for their gold in order to purchase upgrades from merchants you will meet along the way. The difficulty of this game is... punishing, to say the least. Enemies will not hesitate to delete your health bar, and it takes only 3-4 hits depending on the enemy to scatter your bones. There are also pitfalls that result in instant death with a single misstep, so it's important to watch your footing. Death results in a significant reduction to the gold you're carrying, but a purchased upgrade can help mitigate this. I would equate this to a souls-like difficulty, but unlike other souls games, this one kept my attention. The difficulty is challenging, but certainly not impossible. To summarize: PROS: - Fluid, engaging gameplay - Plenty of loot to slake your barbaric lust for glory and battle - Upgrades to make you much more powerful - Graphics and soundtrack that go very well with this style of game - Platforming upgrades that make your experience more engaging - A challenging difficulty that will irritate you just enough to convince you to keep going CONS: - Some platforming elements don't seem to string together too well. A few strategies that you might think would work, don't. Examples include inability to trigger a double jump from a wall-hang or from a vine/chain, platforms that vanish when you touch them, when they're likely only supposed to do so when you grab onto them or stand on them, and rolling into tight spaces and getting stuck in the terrain. For the last issue, bringing up the pause menu and selecting Restart will spawn you at the most recently saved camp, alleviating the problem. - Some items can fall through the level terrain, making them impossible to collect. Restorative items were the most common offender, while gold and gems failed to be an issue after a certain point in the game. - Some bosses offer a decent challenge, while others are mere meatbags for you to tenderize with your barbarian rage. Still others seemed overwhelming, and I felt had to be cheesed in order to make progress. An example would be the very first boss, which nearly made me tear my hair out. Following bosses offered moderate to very little challenge. As they lose health, they get modifications to their abilities which can give them an additional challenge boost, but aside from that, boss difficulty is sporatic. - Most, if not all, moving platforms don't allow you to grab them at all. Standing is perfectly fine, but take care once you get the upgrade that allows grabbing onto ledges. Attempting to grab them may result in an untimely death. I highly recommend this game because it is a labor of love. By my understanding, this is a game that was developed by one person, which is an incredible feat. Everything you want and need in a Metroidvania is here, and it would be a shame to pass it up. Do yourself a favor, and buy it. The price tag is more than reasonable, and there's no excuse not to destroy your enemies using your mighty barbarian muscles! Kill all of the meatbags! TL;DR - A very decent game, in my opinion. It's a diamond in the rough; a little unpolished and buggy at times, but well worth every penny you spend. It's a game that I feel should have been on the original NES, were it possible. The difficulty is cranked up just enough to push you into wanting to play it even more. Games like this are proof that the Metroidvania genre is still very much alive with inspiration and passion mixed in.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 7, 2022

  SUCH A GOOD BARBARIAN GAME! There are some quirks with the controls but you learn what is going on very quickly. Found out about this from Macaw45 on Twitch. He is playing the game right now actually as i write this review. He has some good sanctified feedback for the creator.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 7, 2022

  As a fellow solo game developer I applaud you for actually getting to a point where you felt comfortable putting the game out, but honestly this one is not quite ready. I've been waiting for this to come out for quite some time, but I think at best you should have put out an early access demo and waited for some feedback. It's nearly unplayable for me. The controls are not smooth. I do understand what you were trying to do with the character controller and it works for the type of game, but the actual controls feel bad while playing. Plus, it's been mentioned before but it's worth mentioning again; When opening up the scroll or letter, there is no dialog on how to get it off the screen, which speaks to someone else's point that there just needs to be more time spent polishing up the game. Also the difficulty is way too hard for an open exploration game like this. Actually it's not even that the difficulty is too hard, it's more like too much is going on in the scene right from the start. Does not seem like any thought was put into combat or game flow. It seems like you just put a bunch of enemies in places that seemed okay at the time. Edit: I spoke about lack of dead-space in the controller before, but I can see where players can customize the dead-space in the controller section, so that is a nice plus. Never the less, on a more positive note. I do love the art-style. I think you did a beautiful job with the all of the art. Also, hats off to the musician for the game music and sound effects. The overall feel of game takes me right back to those 80's arcades, which is an awesome feeling. I think you have something special here, it just needs so much more work. In conclusion, I'm not even that far into the game, but the 47 minutes that I spent playing so far have not been a joy, it's too good a game concept to play through the game annoyed, so I will wait for a few updates to finish and hopefully you will work out a lot of things that people are complaining about. In the end, I am still super excited about continuing the game because I just think it's a cool game. Thank you and keep up the great work. I can't wait to see where this game dev. journey will take you.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 7, 2022

  Good action game with nice graphics and music. Very old school in nature. Some bugs here and there, but nothing major.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 9, 2022

  Simple but very well made Sidescroller. For Sword and Sorcery Fans probably a must have.Its a bit Metroidvania esque,several Items to find and Abilities to boost. Around the edges its a bit rough,sometimes im not sure if something is buggy or just intended. The Game keeps track on the Stuff you find,so except for Gold and Antidotes nothing of Equipment is lost on Death. Levels are well thought out,you really dont need a Map in this Game. Some Passages can feel unfair at first here and there but nothing you cant beat after a few tries. There were a few Bugs here and there,but nothing Gamebreaking so far. (Edit: One Gamebreaking bug.A Door doesnt open even if you have the key) Also the Dev seems to care about the Game currently,so probably Patches ahead. Sometimes the simplest Game are the best,its a Fun Game with a for me always welcome Herotype,Setting,and some thinking involved through Level Design. Levels are so intuitively built that you get a feel for the Places with Time (like in Dark Souls for example) Nice art and also good Soundtrack. For People that look for something like this but with some more Depth i highly recoomend Savage the Shard of Gosen. Edit: Funfact: Played the first 5 Hours without noticing that theres Fast travel :D Always did a backtrack manually,just noticed it as you had to go back to the old Forest. So i did it most part without the Blacksmith upgrades,which just proves how well done the Game is.