Valdis Story: Abyssal City

What with my penchant for old-school JRPGs (need I mention I am a Castlevania fan) this game caught my eye straight away when the second demo was released on Gamers Gate. While I have to say that the game has come a long way since then with the 1.0.0.20 update, "Metroidvania" level of polish and perfection is still some ways ahead, especially since the developers are still in the troubleshooting stage, and the game itself is riddled with countless bumps and hiccups, the most glaring one being *spoiler* the inability to save the town of Ishk after roughly 7 game hours *spoiler*, thereby crashing a major quest. Although some might dismiss these things as minor setbacks, pointing out how well the game delivers in terms of action, its obvious forte, I still can not come to terms with how GOG would release a work-in-progress such as this. Maybe next time you guys could hold off till the developers are done with the developing bit, eh?

I don't usually play these kind of games, so keep that in mind. Mechanically the game is sound, I'm giving it 3 stars because of the story and not explaining many of the mechanics very transparently. First, the enemies are a varied bunch, mixing melee and range attacks. Unfortunately sometimes you can be "stunlocked" as 2 enemies launch long combos taking over half your health. Frustrating, but trying isn't expensive. You might want to pick an easier difficulty at first though. The game's plenty challenging as is. The style is okay. Nothing special but it's consistent and I didn't run into any eyesores. The view player gets is very small but big enough. Sometimes being able to zoom out in the maze that some levels are would have been useful, as map isn't very good. The entire game is blurry, but that didn't bother me. If you like retro style, you'll probably like this. The menus; they're clumsy and clearly made for consoles. There's no mouse support of any kind. The combat consists of 2 types of melee moves (didn't notice a difference in their effects), blocking, dodging and 5 spell slots that you can customize with specific spells. It's mostly about avoiding getting hit and chaining up long comboes. You have the tools though it takes a while for muscle memory to develop, until then it's going to feel a bit clunky. What the stats do isn't explained very clearly, undermining the RPG aspect. Some spells are completely useless. These are the biggest annoyances here. Now, the story. This really dropped the points. There's barely any introduction in-game, it's very confusing and the dialog isn't particularly interesting. The story probably isn't the main attraction anyway, but I really disliked the way it's handled here. If you don't care about it, knock yourself out and enjoy gameplay. Overall, if you like these kind of games, you might like this one. If you particularly like them, you might want to go for something else. I was of the latter category.

I don't think I have ever been this disappointed in something that I was so excited about. The game is simply not good, and I am not sure it was even worth the $5 I paid for it when it was on sale. There is actually a LOT that is wrong with this game, however despite my best attempts I can't fit everything into the amount of room GOG gives you to write a review. The game looks and sounds amazing. The developers put a lot of effort into those aspects of the game. Combat for the most part is a lot of fun and satisfying when you get good at it. Its the rest of the game that just totally ruined it for me. There are endless flaws and poor design choices that make it clear the people who were behind this game either didn't know what it took to make a good game or were far to invested in the visuals to put the same amount of effort into the rest of the game. Terrible map, terrible item/merchant system, puzzles that take perfect play to pull off, numerous aspects that punish a player for trying to explore. There is also a few ill advised choices to the control set up that the player has no way of changing. If you really want it and the game is less than $5, you might as well go for it. But don't pay full price. Because not only is the game not very good it's also very short.

The Good: * High quality graphics and animations - There was a lot of love put to each creature and animation. * HUGE replayability - Pure joy and value here. Additional 3 characters when you finish the game. Each character plays significantly different and it keeps things fresh after many hours. * Hardcore Battle System - Hard to learn and even harder to master. With too many stuff to list here. Player will have many options with playstyles. The Bad: * The Story - The regular flair of the free for all, demons vs angels vs humans, but it is told in such a way that you are left clueless and lost of what is happening and thus you will not care. Examples: Dialog is very limited and scarce, game drops on you strange names of races, towns, people, ect... From the get go without explaining who or what they are until far into the game. Also no character development at all. * Over Complex Progression Crafting System - Too many stuff that you need to collect and exchange. I tried explaining how frustrating it is here when writing the review but it killed the character limit here. Let's just say they overdid it. * Controls - Not tight enough - They get the job done but you always want more accuracy and control over your actions. In my opinion a controller is a must for this game and even with it, it's still not that good. * Boss Battles - Frustrating and crappy for the most part. They "gate" their difficulty by making them take lots of lots of damage and the end boss takes more than 20 min to beat and it was an excellent result (Got an "A" score on it by the game). * Music not impactful - Totally forgetful and does not make you excited for battles. The Ugly: * Wishing you played a game of the same type with more polished controls - I Couldn't stop wanting to play as "Zero" from "Mega Man X4". * Starting the game as a different character and understanding that you like him much more than the original - Why couldn't I just start playing as that character in the first place?

The game has a good pace and the battles are fun. Definitely one of the best Metroidvania games that isn't Castlevania or Metroid.