Review Strawhat 3/5 · May 30, 2024
8/10 - Great
ROUGELITE ACTION-PLATFORMER - Fight through the Undercity, the outskirts, and the Sky City Esperanza, aiming to overthrow the oppressive regime and bring justice to their world.
PROS:
++ Moment to moment gameplay. The combat was simple, but incredibly fun. Controls during platforming felt tight which allowed the player to zip around the screen at break-neck speeds and still maintain control. …
ROUGELITE ACTION-PLATFORMER - Fight through the Undercity, the outskirts, and the Sky City Esperanza, aiming to overthrow the oppressive regime and bring justice to their world.
PROS:
++ Moment to moment gameplay. The combat was simple, but incredibly fun. Controls during platforming felt tight which allowed the player to zip around the screen at break-neck speeds and still maintain control. Combat was basic, but quite satisfying. There were multiple viable builds. Simply put, the gameplay was quite addicting and had me saying "one more run" often.
++ Four playable characters. Kil, Darcy, Jenny, and Zett all had distinct playstyles. Kil (all-arounder) was my favourite, but playing as Darcy (quick slashes and attacks) and Zett (heavy hitter) was also fun! I wasn't able to progress far with Jenny (chain sickle/ranged character) but her playstyle was quite interesting.
++ Visuals and aesthetics. Loved the cyberpunk aesthetic of the game. The pixel art was solid. And the elemental effects and attacks looked great.
++ Progression. This was my first roguelite game, so I don't have much to compare it with. Each run wasn't totally in vain because there are persistent upgrades that will positively affect your future runs (skill trees and increasing friendship levels which improves the services that each of the NPCs provide). But even with those upgrades, a certain level of skill and knowledge of the game's mechanics was still required to beat and complete the game. The balance between these two things provided a perfectly fair and mildly challenging experience.
CONS:
-- Non-existent story. There are story bits in the beginning and the end of the game, but absolutely nothing in-between. There is practically no story whatsoever to consume in this game.
-- Lack of tutorial. The game just shoves all its mechanics and its currencies down your throat without explaining to the player what they do. It made many of my early runs futile because I had absolutely no idea how to navigate the different mechanics and what each currency was good for.
-- Noisy screen. At times, there was a bit too much going on in the screen. To the point where I couldn't see my character and had no idea what was even happening.
-- Mediocre stage design & music. The stage designs were generic, and it quickly grew to be repetitive. And the music was mostly forgettable.
