8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure is a 2D exploration-based action platformer (a Metroid-like). The story reveals itself over the course of the game, but you are mainly looking for your father in the afterlife. You are given powers as you talk to important characters and defeat bosses. There are also special orbs hidden throughout the world that can be collected and spent to buy "perks" which are ability upgrades like magnet money, invulnerability while dashing, and faster attacks.

I like how exploration is tied to becoming more powerful through the orbs described above. It isn't just boss fights that grant you new abilities. I thought the art style was cheap at first, being all black and white, but over time I came to appreciate the particular uses of the color red and the character animations, so now I am a big fan of the art style. There is a normal difficulty and a story difficulty for those who want an easier experience. I actually did find the normal mode to be enjoyably challenging, dying on bosses over and over until I learned their tells and how to avoid their attacks. There are a good number of optional bosses tied to getting a different ending. The final boss voiced some beliefs that actually made me reflect on my own beliefs. After beating the game, it does tell you on your map the % complete of each area, which is helpful for completionists.

There are some grammar mistakes due to the translation. I should've taken screenshots at the time to report to the developer to get them fixed. I'm also not entirely sure what happens in the true ending. There is a missable ending/achievement. Light spoilers: there are three endings, one is just beating the game, one is for getting all the flower pieces, and a third is for getting all the mirror shards. If you don't beat the game after getting all the flowers and before getting all the mirror shards, you will lock yourself out of that middle possible ending/achievement. I did this and had to get it after my speedrun file, just continued playing after to meet the conditions.

I do recommend this game as a fun and challenging action platformer. It took me 2 playthroughs to get all the achievements, the second playthrough was a speedrun with minimal abilities and no deaths, but it can be completed on story mode. I had to use a map comparison to find the last sections of the map to get 100%.