Blue Fire

If you like jumping and dashing through levels and don't mind retrying tough challenges a few times, this might be the game for you: the progression of your movement abilities is satisfying, falling off the level isn't too punishing, you can still get in a lot of places earlier than you probably should if you're clever and persistent, the void levels (the real challenges the game has to offer) aren't too demanding outside a handful of optional late-game ones (and the whole post-game Void of Sorrows stuff, but that's to be expected), and the camera does a great job for the most part (again, outside of the post-game stuff). If you're here because of the "Action" and "Adventure" tags on the store page or expected a Soulslike, this isn't the game for you: combat, story, quests, inventory, all that stuff is there but it's nothing special. With that said, even if you like the platforming I would suggest stopping after the main story ends: the post-game void levels love to combine insta-kill surfaces, bad camera angles, tight timings, and scarce checkpoints, there's a couple of them with cool ideas but they're not worth slogging through the rest.

Notice: I completed the game on the Switch version and was incredibly addicted to completing the game once I got past the intro areas and became proficient. Highly recommend this title to anyone that loves action/adventure/puzzle/platformer. Great atmosphere. Blue Fire is an amazing action-adventure game that presents a polished package similar to Zelda titles before Breath of the Wild. The level design is tight and intentional. The story unfolds in sections, with each potion of the world becoming more accessible as you gain tools and skills (or you get really good at what you have and get somewhere early). Each new item or skill is added as you start to become proficient with the previous ones, and the gameplay becomes ever more addictive with each newly mastered technique. I couldn't put this game down. Remember how you solve one puzzle, because there is a good chance it was there to teach out how to do a portion of the next one. The controls are precise and responsive. Each death or failure is your own fault. I have played a lot of action-adventure games that can't get the feel right, but luckily in Blue Fire the camera moves as it should and your character immediately response to input. Since the game has platforming that requires precise inputs, this is very important. Thankfully the controls are implemented well. I also really enjoyed the atmosphere. Take a look at videos and screenshots and know that the style is consistent throughout the entire experience. Whether in sewers, bogs, cathedrals, walkways or castle balconies, the visuals have a unified vision that makes the world feel "real". I did get lost once, but this game rewards you for exploring, so I kept at it until I found myself back on track. It's a mostly linear experience that becomes more open as you unlock or find ways into other areas. Didn't get lost to the point where a walkthrough was needed, so it wasn't a frustrating lost. Nearly perfect experience. Highly recommended.

As the title suggests, this is NOT a windwaker clone despite looking like it and sharing a bunch of zelda-esque features. You can feel the small team and low budget, but they stretched it as much as they could into a fully featured singleplayer experience. I don't play much 3d platformers (last one i played was Supermario Sunshine when it came out) but really enjoyed the physics. I see some complaints about the ever so slight "slipperyness" of the walking, but if you've ever played an oldschool doom game I really don't see the issue. I personally enjoy working with a bit of momentum, but I would hardly describe the movement as momentum based. Combat felt like a bit of an afterthought, and very very easy on normal. But it wasn't a distraction either. Sidequests where you look for people in the (quite small) metroidvaniaesque world I enjoyed too. But you don't have a map wich might confuse some less orientation prone players. Managing money feels a bit odd at times. It respawns in crates around the world you can break and you can sell some gems to get it. You can find an unlockable skill that doubles the money you get wich carried me at almost max cash throughout the game until I found another bigger wallet. The look of the game is kind of hit or miss to me. I prefer windwaker wich it is based on but can see some people really getting into it. Music wise, atleast the main "city hub" that was very memorable to me and very atmospheric. Can't really comment on the rest of it as I don't remember it. But that one theme of stoneheart city and the forest temple/undead burg inspired environment was incredibly cozy. Is it a must play? Not really, but if you look for a platformer with some exploration i'd check it out. The dlc I enjoyed too to get the movement really out of my system. I tried demon turf after finishing the main game and eventually dropped that to do all the extra more challenging bonus levels as I enjoyed those much much more in terms of movement.

This game relies heavilyon 3d platforming and it's easy to overshoot platforms and fall into a pit. Doing so sets you back to a predetermined location in the room, which can be far away from where you fell. This is particularly bad in the Voids, where a fall sets you back to the beginning of the challenge. I'm not sure why the developer thought that playing more of a level should be the punishment for falling. As with the platforming, the combat is similarly rough. Enemies don't seem to react much to being hit and neither does the player character, so I regularly found myself taking damage without realising. The mechanics seems to function well though. It feels like someone played Hollow Knight and decided that they'd make a 3d version of it without quite understanding why Hollow Knight was good. It's not a bad game, but it lacks the character and polish that makes games like Hollow Knight and Death's Door good and I wouldn't recommend it.

I've quite enjoyed this game. Loved the exploration and the difficult, fast paced 3D platforming. It has a grim atmosphere and artstyle - felt the dark souls vibes. Can't complain much about the game itself. I've had a game breaking bug, where something didn't trigger correctly after killing the last lord, so i could't advance to the final bossfight. The whole issue was a huge letdown für an almost perfect experience. I've decided to accept my fate, never beating the game. Found the official discord at some point and the community analysed the issue and actually solved the problem. The devs and the community of this game are great! Devs even provided a free content dlc with quite a lot of stuff to do and an even more insane diffculty in the new rifts. I still have to cut the rating on gog to 4 stars, since i have a 100% save and like 9% (2 achievements) achievement progress. Found no way to fix that issue so far. The game itself is a 10/10 for me tho can't recommend it more, even tho not particularly on gog.