Iconoclasts

I think this may be the first review I've written after years on the site. Thank you, Iconoclasts, for breaking me out of my shell. The game is too good not to talk about. The visuals are stellar, able to stand up next to things like Owlboy and perhaps even Metal Slug, with vibrant color and smooth animations. There's a huge amount of subtle character put into the way people and creatures stand, walk, and attack, and a level of detail in backgrounds and environments that is almost too much to handle. The gameplay is tight, responsive and clever. Everything has a place and a purpose-you do not get stronger as you progress, you just get new tools, and then new puzzles and enemies to use those tools on. Simply moving from point a to point b is a simple joy, and though there were moments of frustration in bossfights and level exploration, it was usually enough to just come back with fresh eyes and ace the thing the second time around (And that is from someone terrible at videogames in general.) The story is just great. The world is fascinating, with interesting lore detailed societies. Every character is likable, or at least understandable, with a few even being downright tragic. And, as in some of my favorite games ever, the stakes start small and relatable, but spiral outward into something grand, but still with personal weight for our main cast. Final note: yes, this game was made almost in its entirety by one person, and for that alone it deserves a little attention. The fact that it is so good besides just makes it a no-brainer, at least to myself. I'm always one to stick up for the talented little guys in this world of bloated, bland major releases. Short version: This game is a masterpiece. If you have any interest in sidescrollers, Metroidvanias, or just well-executed games, you really, really ought to check this out.

Currently in the final phase in harrd difficulty. I agree with the review named "Diminishing Returns" in mostregards. It is, like Owlboy, made by people who did it willingly and lovingly and during years, so there's something that pushes you to go to the end. I sense a big subject behind but it seems a bit convoluted (maybe due to the bad french translation) but the parts I like the least are big parts of gameplay. To put it simply: the game most often feel quite unfair. As in when failing it is quite easy to put it on the game and not the player. The broken save/checkpoint system annoys to no end, not knowing where we'll have to resume the game from. Bosses with strange convoluted patterns that a human player can't sensibly follow and read (sometimes the same pattern won't even play the same way). Special note to the utterly useless craft system, that is not quite 100% understandable either. Apart from these big shortcomings, I'll most probably finish it (I've come all that way) but I will not come back to it, it doesn't respect its player enough I find. But again the work put into it for the last decade really shows, beautiful music and pixel graphics included.

I´m talking about the story. I was seriously not expecting how full of "reflections" and "deep dialogue" this game was. It failed in both making me take it seriously and making me have fun. I´d say the thing I hated the most was the boss fights: most of them are in phases and fast, I had no idea what I should do in many of them. There´s just too much going on on screen for you to stop and analyze the environment and discover what switch to activate, which part of the boss to hit and which character you should switch to in order to hit said part. Maybe if you can ignore the story, you can consider it an acceptable game.

Because I played the original demo (ivory springs, before the first iconoclasts demo) many years ago the beginning was quite standard for me, I knew everything for the first two areas. After that I was treated to a steady increase in quality in story, gameplay and progression until the very end, a welcome twist to the typical metroidvania that tends to weaken out at the end. This however doesn't mean the game was without issues. The first issue I had was that right after the first 2-3 areas I got stuck not knowing what to do (looking for 3 keys, that's all I'll say), I knew what my goal was but due to one lock not working until a restart and not knowing exactly where to go I ended up wasting 2 hours in an area that shouldn't have taken more than 30 minutes tops. The second issue was une unclear nature of what types of block was liftable, it never clicket to me that the flickering blocks were liftable because the lift prompt only appeared when you jumped on said blocks, if this had been made more clear it would have been easier to not get stuck an additional hour or so. The last issue I had was soflocks, in the area with lots of elevators I managed to make the screen transition get stuck in a loop which lead to me needing to restart, another earlier issue was a lock that didn't work (I had to look up a guide to figure out something was wrong). Even though all of these issues (giving me more frustration than Wings of Vi day 1 no patches) I found the game to be very enjoyable and in conclusion a game I really reccomend playing instead of watching.

This game is a masterpiece. Period. Reading some of the reviews here one thing caught my attention: how many people have argued that the story and it's characters are nonsensical! My reaction? "What..? How..? Did they play the same game as me?" Yes, the story is thrown at you with little to no explanation. Yes, you have to piece everything together. No, you won't actually understand who are the "good guys" (or even what is "good" or "evil"). Yes, lots of metaphysics and philosophy. Lots of it. In every single dialog. I found it great! Been missing this in games since Legacy of Kain got descontinued. For me a videogame is a form to tell a story and everything in it - gameplay, aesthetics, dialog, graphics - are just casings, just structures that help us understand what is being told. In my understanding, everything exists within the context of the narrative and may or may not convey it well. This game is about mending: relations, communities, sanity, body, soul, enviroment, existence, ancestry, godhood, the universe. All these things need mending. But is fixing something really the same as returning it to it's "original state", or does it mean exactly the opposite, the destruction of what is in the act of giving way to what is to be? Iconoclasts comes to this world as the destroyer of idols that it's title foreshadows us. Nietzsche would be proud!