Developer/Publisher: poncle
Gameplay Stats: 12 hours, 67/96 achievements
I always struggle about when to write my review about roguelikes. And in this case, whether or not I should review a game in early access. But I feel like I have a solid impression of this game, so why not?
Visuals: Some lovely pixel art based very closely on the old sprites from Castlevania games. Many of the old enemies show up here and many of the sprites at least appear to be unchanged. It's nice! They did downsize the sprites so many more of them can appear which makes sense for the gameplay. Everything communicates clearly although this game is very simple so communication isn't super necessary.
Audio: The music is fine for this one, nothing really to write home about. There is a "streamer friendly" option, so I think the music may be licensed or from other properties. Not too sure on this one! Where the game shines though is that the sound effects are absolutely fantastic. It really seems like this game was designed to generate dopamine and it does it well. The little fanfares that play when you open a treasure chest are incredible, they are so good every single time you hear them. Even though the animation accompanying it is too long.
Plot: There's no plot in the Early Access version. Seems like there will be when the game fully releases.
Gameplay: This game is some kind of combination of a Musou game and an autobattler. You control a character and basically all you do is walk around. You get to pick items as you level up and these items are automatically used to destroy the enemies around you. The majority of the enemies are fodder enemies that drop experience crystals, you walk over to enough of the crystals you level up and pick a reward. You can choose to level up an item you already have or you can pick a new item. There are synergies between different items that you can pick which can change the nature of some of the items eventually. The game doesn't really tell you which items synergize unfortunately, and I hope that changes when the game fully releases.
Overall it's really hard not to recommend this game. It's $3 and it executes on its simple premise darn near perfectly. This game was introduced to me as an offhand recommendation and I'd like to pass it along as such. I will say that I don't think the game presents itself well in videos. This game is very simple, perhaps overly so, but playing it yourself is very satisfying.
I think I will start foregoing a score in these reviews to focus more on making a point about the product I am reviewing. This game is good, give it a go.
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