Voidwrought is a game I put off for a while, mainly because my taste had drifted farther from Metroidvanias and way over into horror land. But I had heard good things, so I decided to see if it can ignite the spark again of my love for the genre.

And it came close, as the first few hours were super impressive. Gorgeous frame-by-frame animation, a very vivid diverse world, tough and tight gameplay, challenging exploration - it’s all here. But, I think maybe I’ve just gotten a bit tired of the formula.

It absolutely took a lot from hollow knight, the art style - while having its own eldritch horror look - is still pretty dang similar. The whole world building, the lore, even the backstory of how your character came to be is nearly identical. It’s done well, but I’ve seen it before.

By the end, the game really just grinded to a halt for me. Combat and platforming became way too easy, especially after the meticulous exploration I did. And the exploration itself became extremely tedious. The game has an item that supposedly helps with 100%ing, but in practice it’s useless and didn’t help when I needed it most.

By the time I got to the final boss, I was just begging the game to end. It stopped sparking any wonder or curiosity, just felt like I was going through the motions. Maybe it’s me, my taste in games has just drastically shifted after this incredible year of survival horror games. Or maybe this one just wasn’t a good fit. Either way, it’s a very mild recommendation, though im sure many hardcore Metroidvania / hollow knight fans would love it. It’s definitely one of the better ones in the very direct inspiration camp.