My copy was provided by the devs*

So developer described the game as a Souls-like/Hyper Light Drifter/Hollow Knight inspired project, which I feel may attract very high expectations, but to be fair it is a good description for how it feels conceptually, even if the game can't directly compete with the artistic direction or depth of certain games. I believe it's a solo dev working with composer and writer, just something to keep in mind when reading this. I thought it was a simple but enjoyable game, very goofy characters that often made me laugh, exploration was great, the movement is smooth, but it also does not have the same amount of nuance to combat or detail to locations. We actually had a similar game not too long ago, Unsighted is probably the best comparison I can give because of the heavy top-down metroidvania elements, as well as the Souls/HLD vibes.

I would say about 9 to 12 hours, depending on how many secrets and optional activities you decide to do, and some bosses could slow you down as well.

Fountains does not have the attribute leveling at the bonfire(fountain), there is no direct power-scaling in the game, instead you can increase your attributes with equipment like armor, collecting health shards in hidden areas, and occasionally meeting a character that may give you a few specific upgrades. I don't really mind the simple approach, but in most souls-like games if you do not like a boss, you can usually go back and power up, where in this game it's not always the case, you may not have access to certain areas to find better items, so your only way of getting "stronger" may be getting more consumables, and I personally think it feels kinda lame if I have to just get more healing items.

To briefly touch on the 'combat feel' because it's something that was mentioned, I would not say it's as nuanced as many souls games, if anything it's very streamlined version of it, reducing it to the most basic elements like dodge roll and getting gauge on hit, but it is responsive and mostly has good timing, there are rarely any junky frames that these games often have. One thing this game does not do that well is lacking a proper stagger system, for example if you try to interrupt a trash mob, you mostly likely will get hit, instead this game expects you to dodge and follow up, which is pretty vanilla. It's not a very difficult game overall aside from a few specific boss fights, but it's partially because it allows you to spam consumables and overcome difficulty for which you otherwise may not be ready.

As these games usually go there are a lot of metroidvania elements, actually that might be the best part of the game, the world is connected through many secret shortcuts, and also I think it does a really good job at rewarding exploration. Even though I didn't care a lot for the narrative, I liked all of the goofy conversations and events you hidden around the game.


+ Rewards exploration really well, many fun secrets, good logic behind metroidvania elements

+ Responsive movement, generous telegraphing, usually fair difficulty (except a few bosses)

+ While the art is somewhat simple, the animation is clean, the armor shows up on the character, and it has enough variety of thematic elements

+ The narrative isn't super interesting, but I think the side characters were fun to find and talk to, as well as decent world building speficially through level design

+ I thought the game had good boss fights, depending on what you compare it to, at least better than a few other souls-like games I played


Tool slots - sadly you mixed the metroidvania items with the inventory. Also, I really wish I could just cycle them easier on the keyboard instead of constantly managing my default slots. If you ever decide to fix this, maybe put them on right side so you never have to scroll or remember the pictures, or having some fast way to cycle them blindly. (played on keyboard, can't speak for controller)

Boss Damage/Being forced into fights on dev's terms - some bosses do like 40-70% of your HP with fast attacks, which I could understand if it was like a huge swing, but even if you have good armor and HP upgrades some bosses are killing you in 3, maybe 4 hits tops, you would have to heal like 2.5 times to negate 1 attack. Also, because there is no generic leveling system in the game, sometimes it feels like the game forces you to take a fight if the map access does not allow for more scaling. Maybe consider adding another stat trainer in the first area for HP and Stamina, just with limited upgrades, or another merchant.Personally I wish you would make a compromise, and have limited fountain upgrades in addition to what you have on the map, would help with motivation to kill regular enemies. But I suppose it's a little too late for that.

Smith upgrades - whenever I would upgrade something I always felt that I already had something similar or better than the upgrade, which I feel kinda defeats the purpose of the feature and is not rewarding, making me backtrack to the smith to get a similar or inferior weapon to what I have. I also don't like that upgrading the base weapon is misleading you into wasting the stones, as it's better to wait for a correct base.

Items - I can accept the simple RPG elements, but you also have like 15 flavors of the same melee weapon, usually Souls games have some variety there, even on the indie side. Maybe like a heavy type and a longer range melee in addition to the sword.

Spell Cheese- I already mentioned this one to you, but maybe you can find a better balance, nerf consumables spam so you can't spell cheese, but also lower boss damage so you don't have to rely on them as much.

Narrative Themes - the only personal and subjective criticism I would give to the game, is in regards to its thematic elements. Now, I don't mind that you take so much inspiration from the Souls games and I assume HLD, but also I want you to separate your world from them enough so I am not constantly reminded of those games. There are so many design references to Souls in this game, even to point where it feels like you remade individual scenes, I think it undermines your own narrative effort if you overdue it, and in the end I felt your lore was like a slightly different version from your inspiration. It may not be the same Dark Souls lemonade, but it's still lemonade with strawberry flavor.

Some small things- maybe adjust telegraphing on the flower enemy, it kinda feels like you get hit before you really see it charge it up, it's almost instant once you see it. I would like you to expand the swamp area a little, maybe optional boss. Also I don't mind the art style, but it felt like some areas could use more objects, you have a ton of generic tunnels with nothing in them.

Overall Thoughts: 8/10

I kinda get a feeling like you simplified the core elements to make the project realistic for a solo dev (I assume), but still kept the "soul" of those games, so even though the game is conservative, it didn't hurt it that much. Actually, the exploration in this game I think carried it very hard, you can overlook many things just because it's so fun to look for all the hidden doors, error fish, and things like that. I honestly don't think this game is that far behind from games like Unsighted, it is a little basic in some aspects, but the important thing is it was fun, even if it didn't look as good or was as complex as those games. If the game does well I still think it would really benefit from just ironing out the side activities like fishing, and making them more diverse.

You can watch my video review of FOUNTAINS here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQEQsMQ2hQg

For those who do not wish to watch it:

Playtime: 12 hours

Completion: I estimate around 95%

Pros:

- Interesting story and lore, though fairly familiar and predictable for those well-versed in the genre’s narrative conventions.

- The setting is quite diverse and fleshed out, featuring a decent number of biomes for its size, each one home to its very own flora and fauna.

- When it comes to the land of FOUNTAINS, it’s not only one of the most ingeniously interconnected places I have ever explored but also packed with an incredible amount of optional secrets for you to uncover, some more evident than others but all of them yielding helpful equipment and upgrades meant to help you on your quest for survival. The game does an amazing job of evoking your sense of wonder. Whether presenting you with a fractured wall that promises future riches once you have the proper skill to take it down, or an immediately accessible concealed corridor, there’s never a dull moment when it comes to teasing your curiosity for discovery and rarely misses the mark with its rewards.

- The map overview gives you the option to place manual markers on it in order to pinpoint places of interest, which I recommend you start doing immediately since I didn’t find a way to reveal said points on the map automatically.

- The world is cleverly interconnected in a way that, once you get the hang of it, you can cover long distances in a matter of seconds after opening up certain shortcuts. That being said, the game does offer two different options in which you can actually fast-travel across the land, though you will need to activate each one in a different way. First, there are a total of four gates that I discovered, connected in pairs of two, which, once activated by finding the main one of the pair, allow you to travel in-between them, essentially giving you quick access across four different biomes where each one is located. The second and more obscure way becomes available after you discover a certain item that allows you to use some mushroom circles, which teleport you to other such circles across the map by giving you some cryptic, though thematically fitting, options to choose from.

- Numerous collectibles to find, divided into equipment, tools, consumables, miscellaneous items as well as coins. Equipment refers to weapons and armor that you’ll get to gather during your travels, with each piece providing different benefits as well as, at times, detriments. More specifically, your main statistics are broken down into water, which is the game’s equivalent to magical energy, health, stamina, attack power as well as physical and magic defense, and every equipment piece can have different bonuses as well as disadvantages, for example a piece of armor that gives a lot of physical defense but is weak against arcane attacks. Tools are essentially accessories that mostly function like equipment pieces in that they provide certain benefits when utilized, and this is also the group that includes the items granting you special traversal abilities, for example the ring that allows you to dash forward or the hook-shot that gets you across chasms. Consumables are items which can be used to provide temporary positive effects, such as mushrooms that slowly restore health or water as well as flaming halos that briefly add a fire element to your sword attacks. The miscellaneous group mainly includes quest-items related to certain side-quests you get from NPCs, as well as items related to permanent upgrades for your character, such as life fragments that increase your overall health when gathered in groups of four and whetstones which can be used at a blacksmith to sharpen certain blades. Coins are the game’s main currency and can be spent either to purchase items from merchants or to acquire permanent upgrades from a very specific mage.

- Solid combat. On a basic level, your main form of attack is carried out by using the various swords you will get to discover, which allow you to take down enemies in hectic melee battle. You will always have to be mindful of your stamina, which is spent every time you attack, dash or sprint, making it paramount to be prudent with your movements in skirmishes in order to avoid leaving yourself open to counterattacks which, trust me, can be largely punishing a lot of the time. Ranged combat comes in the form of magical abilities you acquire, which are actually the same abilities that can also be used for traversal. For example, your dash-attack can be utilized to, both, pass over chasms as well as to slash through enemies, and the laser beam can be shot at your foes from afar. Said magic attacks are used at the expense of water, the game’s equivalent to mana, which can be restocked either by attacking enemies, using consumables or purchasing units of it from the various fountains you find scattered across the map, which also function as healing and save points, though each use of them results in most of the enemies on the map respawning.

- One of the things I enjoyed the most about combat in this game is the fact that you cannot actually get overpowered and decimate every enemy on your path. You definitely get stronger over time through new equipment and upgrades but never to an extent where you can face-tank everything. Instead, the game requires tactical thinking depending on the enemy you have to face at any given moment. For example, if your foes are more focused on magical attacks, you need to equip armor with magic resistance, and if they mostly go for physical attacks, then you have to choose your equipment appropriately.

- Bosses were good, for the most part. While most of them weren’t incredibly impressive from a design perspective, the same cannot be said about the actual fights against them, which are as dangerous and stressful as you would expect from a villain situated in the soulslike genre. There wasn’t a single one of the main bosses that I can say was easy to beat, with all of them ranging from hard but fair to brutally punishing, especially later in the game.

- There's fishing!

Cons:

- I do need to mention one thing that rubbed me the wrong way in the combat department, and it has to do with what I perceived as a lack of consistency as well as difficulty perceiving attack patterns. While I had no issue dealing with most of the enemies that came my way, there were a few of them that were a bit trickier in a way that felt slightly unfair. Said enemies, such as a knight foe early on, felt a bit inconsistent when it came not only to their attack patterns but also the timing of them, which was my biggest gripe. For example, at times it felt like the same slashing attack was one second off when compared to how I dealt with it previously, and there were also some instances where I thought I had parried an attack only for it to land whereas other times when I was sure I had been hit only to find myself safe and sound. I think the main issue here was that some of the attacks weren’t appropriately telegraphed and had very short reaction windows, which often led to me getting punished or avoiding them based on luck. This left a sour taste in my mouth quite a few times, since accuracy and consistency are the hallmarks of soulslike combat, though, thankfully, it wasn’t something I experienced with every enemy.

- The above issue was experienced in a couple of boss fights, which made my life a living hell.

- The game’s penalty upon death is the loss of half your gathered coins, and there are no corpse runs to regain them, so if you die, half your currency is lost forever. Thus, as a pro-tip, make sure to always purchase coin-pouches from merchants since that is the only way to safe-keep your hard-earned silver.

If you’re looking for a solid soulsvania with zeldalike elements to sink several hours into, FOUNTAINS is definitely one to keep an eye out on!

I backed this game on Kickstarter, and I feel quite pleased with the finished product. It's a bit simple, but all the fundamentals are exactly as you'd want them to be. Combat is smooth and responsive, and exploration is consistently rewarding. It's got a decent challenge as well, with nothing feeling unfair or irritating. If you like Soulslike style game play, I can absolutely recommend this one.