Recent reviews by Soda

John Sinclair never miss, unlike me when trying to lariat those darn notes Yoru sings.

Everything you wish Prodigal was, but its real!

Game has a fun base mechanic, akin to how old games felt to us when we were children in the 80s and 90s.
And throughout the game there are a handful added challenges and mechanics to break up the core gameplay just enough to not get the feeling of the gameplay just repeating itself!

I will come back and revisit this review once I've started speedrunning it!

Best Metroidvania ever

Good game

How would I describe it in one word?
Puzzlevania.

You get exactly what you see, and if you want that retro vibe, sitting alone in front of a screen in a dark room, slowly pushing forward in small increments, this is the game for you.

PRAISE THE WIELDER

Okay, so I have edited my ENTIRE review. Before the edit, it was short and positive.

Some disclaimers first:
Since my first review, I have played this game a ton, became a speedrunner, joined the community, won a tournament where my own character is now an easter egg in this game, and I have become good friends with the creators of this game.
So I will start with the few nitpicks negatives I have about the game.

THE NITPICKS:
- No rebindable keys
- If you click "QUIT", there is no "CANCEL" option. only YES or NO for saving before quitting.
- Some very minor design choices on a few bosses.

You might read around other reviews and find some problems with the game, but the game has been polished so much over time, that almost all of them are solved by now.
The entire game runs 20% faster compared to launch. And there are a handful of guides on how to find the running shoes at the start of the game. There is even a buff food you can buy to increase your run speed until next death.
They increased the text rows from 2 to 3, and even have an instant text option for even faster text in the game.
Bugs have been ironed out hard time, and whenever a bug is found and reported, it is usually fixed within 1-24 hours.

On top of that, a lot of polishing has been done since release. adding mouth animations, boss rush, even more difficulty options for the ones seeking a real challenge.
Unlock color palette for the main character, tons of bonus content and post game content with extra story and secrets!
With the combination of different wives to marry, and Altars and Curses to change your game for the harder adds a handful of replayability.
With dungeons being focused on puzzles a lot, they are on the shorter side, but feel reasonably long on your first time through thanks to this, but goes quick on your second or third playthrough.

This game has something for all!
The original game to the original last boss has a decent difficulty curve, and do not throw anything too hard at you, so gamers at any skill level can enjoy the first 3-8 hours.
After that, you have the bonus content and post game, which drags up the difficulty a few notches!
The difficulty here can be a little bit all over the place (Looking at you, Backrooms), but for the people that were not satisfied with the main game, will soon get something to bite into!
The post game can last anywhere between 6-20 hours, depending on your skill level.

Now we get into what I personally find the fun part.
Altars.
Altars are unlocked after beating the game, and is available after beating the main game.
There are 4(5 if you include Chaos) of them, all designed to make the game harder.
Beat the game with all 4 altars activated, a feat only 1.4% (as of writing this) have beaten, and you will unlock Curses.

Aaah, yes. Curses.
Thought the 4 altars were crazy? The second you activate a curse, you also activate all 4 altars.
So if you play with all 4 curses, you basically have 8 difficulty modifiers on, making the game into a challenge fit for the true champions (Permadeath is deactivated though, thank Raem).
So far, we are only aware of 3 people beaten the main game with all 4 curses on. And only 1(2?) have gotten to Post Game ending with it. And only 1 person has ever beaten the hardest boss with it.


So if you want a cozy, fairly easy to moderate game to play through? This game is for you!
You want a game to give you some decent challenge? This game is for you!
You want a game that gives you pain? This game is for you!

I am so deep into the level of the world level after beating the level that was the world map, then found a secret level that lead to a new world that was actually a level and I have no idea what the ♥♥♥♥ is going on but I love it.

I expected a run to the hill Metroidvania, but it got deeper than expected, and high skill ceiling on the movement!
Tons of secret and stuff to figure out as well!

YES