Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus (2024)

Finished Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus:

Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus is a lovingly drawn platformer, but is not as lively in terms of gameplay as its visuals might suggest.

It is plain and simple, straightforward but expertly-crafted metroidvania game. The cast of colorful characters ends up leading to quests that feature impressive gameplay that encourages exploration as you eventually discover more of the world, the action is mediocre, sometimes challenging with a lot of fun movement, and it all looks dazzling as you take in all of the sights of Japanese mythology, depicted here in such a charming style.

It is a visual marvel filled with interesting but, sadly, underdeveloped characters. Still, a good buy if you're a fan of the genre, or even a good place to start.

RATING

AESTHETICS : -Visuals -9
-Sound -8
-Theme -8

NARRATIVE : -Plot -6
-Characters -6 -Execution -7

GAMEPLAY : -Core -8 -Difficulty -7 -Consistency -8

VALUE : -Cost -8 -Content -7 -Longevity -7

OVERALL RATING: 7.41

Check out my entire playthrough of Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmJgHiDDNnRIUNuuCaxZgcMr5reJDuvlf&si=M7taGHb5mmsyeKBl

I'm dripping this after the second boss. I love the look of this game and the gameplay is good I prínciple, but I just don't think the constant A+X mashing is that enjoyable.

On top of that, the difficulty curve is all over the place; not every single jump needs to be a test of skill, game. And the tricky platforming does not combine well with the limited checkpoint system.

This game has a serious control mapping issue. The core gameplay is jumping and attacking almost at the same time, yet they are mapped to A and X respectively. So I'm constantly pressing X->A on quick succession, which is hard and is making my thumb hurt. I've already had to map the grab button to the left trigger instead of B because it was hard enough to jump and grab.

It also has a big design issue with the health system. It has the Hollow Knight thing of recharging you heal when attacking enemies. Fine system. The problem is that the game difficulty is not in the combat but in the platforming. So when you finish a lobg stretch of tricky platforming with barely any health, you can't heal at all even though you've just overcome a significant challenge. Also, only hitting enemies count; damaging them by reflecting their proyectiles, don't. This incentives the player to avoid that particular fun and rewarding mechanic.

It does feel like someone copied a bunch of systems from Hollow Knight but without understanding how they work together or how to adapt them to this particular flavour of gameplay.

Humble Games Lays Off All Employees, Carries On In Name Only

Today Humble Games, publisher of indie hits like Signalis, Wizard of Legend, and Temtem, informed employees of layoffs that will impact the whole company, leaving its staff of 36 jobless.

Laid-off workers took to LinkedIn to relay what management told them in a morning meeting, which Aftermath has obtained a recording of. In the meeting, Steve Horowitz, president of parent company Ziff Davis’ technology and shopping division, pointed to long delays and rising costs as pervasive issues faced by Humble Games. He went on to say that Ziff had attempted to sell Humble Games twice, but that “neither attempt created significant demand, and unfortunately neither attempt created a viable offer or an outcome."

As a result, he explained, employees are being let go, and remaining projects will be carried over the finish line by a third-party company called The Powell Group.

Bō is pretty much the only Metroidvania this year that met my high expectations. It is beautiful, feels great to control, and nails basically every aspect of the genre. Definitely in my top 5 of the year.

The art style is literally jaw-dropping gorgeous. There are so many moments that took me by surprise and just made me feel… delighted. The paper Mario style storybook look combined with wonderful lighting and shadows and just great visual ideas really made the game a treat to look at.

But even more impressive is the acrobatic gameplay. If you enjoyed the Ori type of movement, i.e. being in the air 90% of the time and feeling like an Olympic monkey - this game nails it. Along with the great physics, you get the satisfaction of slowly getting upgrades that very naturally expand you skill set and keep making the gameplay more varied and satisfying.

Exploration? Very good. Quality of life map features? Nailed it. The only criticism I can muster is wishing it was longer. It truly meets the standards of Hollow Knight and Ori, while also having its unique visual and tactile feel to it, and I can’t recommend it enough.

The demo gives the impression of a relatively competent Hollow Knight clone (right down to the load screen animation) that borrows an aesthetic from Japanese folklore while layering in quite a lot of verticality. Not only can Bo (I think the protagonist is Bo) pogo off enemies, they can also jump after any attack which means you can pretty reliably stay airborne during combat, immediately adding a new dimension to the standard Metroidvania toolset.

Animations are a bit choppy, so movement doesn't feel quite as smooth as other games with other similarly hand drawn or hand drawn inspired aesthetics (Hollow Knight, Ori, Cup Head, Ultros, or Nine Sols). There are also weird bugs in the game, such as button prompts randomly switching between the Xbox and PlayStation button icons. I suspect things like that will get ironed out by launch.

I don't know if it has enough going for it that will make it stand out above games like Ultros and Nine Sols for me as far as Metroidvanias released in 2024 go. Ultros did something really unique with both mechanics and thematics, while Nine Sols delivers a Skeriro-like experience in the form of a Metroidvania, which is an incredibly rare thing in the realm of 2D action platformers. Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus seems to have interesting ideas, and if combat and platforming are tweaked a bit it will probably be fun to play, but so far it doesn't standout as a must play title.