Back when this released I found it to be a bit clumbsy in regards to gameplay. But flashforward almost 20 years later, and the gameplay is actually alot better than some modern games. I guess that just shows that better tech, more polygons, and newer physics doesn't nescessarly make a game fun to play. Either game were alot better 20yrs ago, or I just need to find better games to play 2024.
It's obvious way forward is a fan of the old donkey kong games, but unfortunately they've picked up all of rareware's bad habits and have made all the same mistakes they did when making a platformer. I found myself turning this game off because it was becoming more of an annoyance than anything. For one, I hate repitition, and I hate redoing stuff over and over again, unless the difficultly is fair. When you reach a checkpoint in this game and die, you start with the same health you had when you reached the checkpoint. Meaning, if you made it there with only one health you'll have to restart from the checkpoint with one health, over and over again. I mean, you may as well not have any check points at all and just start me at the beginning of the stage with full health, so I can actually get good enough with practice to reach that check point with enough life to beat the level. Also, there are alot of gimmickly levels, that use the old tricks games like donkey kong country 2 used, only its done with less finesse, Like the whole There somthing at the bottom of the screen that forces you to climb up a tower before it catches up and "one shots" you. Those a old stale tricks that should have been left in the 90's. I find too that regular enemies take too many hits for a platformer, progression through levels isn't very smooth. I feel more like I am playing a mega man game, only I can't hit things with as potent projectiles and the projectiles I have are limited by a magic meter. There's a hardcore difficultly, you could have fooled me because the main game feels like a donkey kong country game being played on hardcore difficultly. I couldn't imagine playing this on a hardcore difficultly seeing that every wayforward game, cough, river city girls, I've played is too difficult for even some seasoned gamers who have lives to live and lack paitenceI. I think most kids with the time to do that would lose their paitence with a game like this even quicker than I did.
So, I am reviewing this after recently playing it earlier this year, and its a good honest attempt at a metroidvainia, but is very basic by todays standards. The first major downside of this game is the length, it's too short, five hours in total for the fourth installment in the series, really? The second downside, what little story there is, can be hard to follow, especially since it serves as a prequel to three other games that also have next to no story, but very rich lore and history behind them; so much so, they got a prequel. The third grip I got, it has recycled asset, from previous games that were done in a different artstyle from this one; yes some of the enemies here stick out like a sore thumb from the new pixel art included in this game, which is superior in comparison to an enemy like bakman, for example. Lastly, The dodging mechanics too, seem limited in comparison to a game like i dunno, blasphimous, which is basically the same idea only it has more story and allows you to perry attacks as well. The pixel art is good, the soundtrack is good, but again, blasphimous has these two factors going for it, and so do many other metriodvainias... so, I can't give it a five star rating in the year 2022.
Prior to writing this review, I made sure to beat the game, the only thing I have not played is the bonus content offered upon completeing it.; I've witheld my judgement until completion so that I could give the most honest review possible. First off, this game is a metroidvainia, meaning the areas you explore are all connected rather then separated into "levels" aka "stages." However, as you progress through the game, you will notice that there are a few more modern elements added that are not altogether common to the genre in question. In alot of metriodviania's, you can walk up to an enemy and button mash, melee attacks; e.g. in Castleivainia Symphony of the Night, you can crouch down in front of an enemy and mash the attack button, and avoid most enemy attacks, at least enough attacks anyway, that deal large amounts of damage. In Minoria, you are required to dodge and deflect enemy attacks in order to defeat them. If you don't you'll die, just like in real life. To be clear, this is not a design flaw in the gameplay, the difficulty is reasonable, and once you are able to grasp the concept of this game mechanic, it is not really too much of a hassle. In fact, it starts to feel natural to react to enemy encounters in this way after playing for an extended period of time. As for bugs and glitches, well, as of this review, the devs have fixed most of those with patches, and have even sligthly adjusted the gameplay in order to make the experience more user friendly than it was on its initial release. Lastly, I'd like to point out, that if you've played any of the devs previous releases (Momodora series) you'll have to play the game without making any comparisions to the IP mentioned in order to fully enjoy this game; most fans will anyway. Take an objective stance while playing :).
So, the "Cold Steel" games have been released across several platforms, the pc release however is superior to its previous incarnations in a few "aesthetically" noticeable ways. The most noticeable improvement, like with most multi platform games, is the fps. This game is capable of running at a consistent 60 fps, and in comparison to the original ps3 release, one can notice the difference between 30 and 60 fps while playing. Graphically, the textures in the game appear smoother as well, that is, while running the game on its maximum video settings. Beyond aesthetics, the game stays true to the roots of the JRPG genre; a turned based battle system, with a few extra twists included, which keeps the game play diverse enough, that you don't feel as if your playing just another "snes" styled rpg. Another thing worthy of noting, is unlike many other modern JRPGS, this one allows you to go inside an abundance buildings. Others from this decade kept the ability to enter a building's interior to a bare minimum. Beyond that, there's not much else to add, I heard a lot of good things about this series, so I gave it a try and I like what I've played thus far.
