A fateful night of sorrow and ancient magic changed the life of a young child forever, and with it, everything else as mankind knew it. For 9 long years, the world has been submerged in the deepest of shadows, robbing every object and living creature of their color, their joy, and most impor...
A fateful night of sorrow and ancient magic changed the life of a young child forever, and with it, everything else as mankind knew it. For 9 long years, the world has been submerged in the deepest of shadows, robbing every object and living creature of their color, their joy, and most importantly, hope.
Many brave souls have tried to venture inside the corrupting depths of Talos Castle, a long-abandoned orphanage from which the curse stemmed. All have failed, except for one. Armed with little other than her halberd and sheer nerve, Europa’s daunting quest is clear: enter the castle, find the source of darkness, and return color to the lands before it is too late.
However, this adventure is not for Europa to face alone. In her most desperate hour, Europa encounters Apino, a cute magical bear with the ability to heal, cleanse the corruption and protect his allies.
While exploring the castle, Apino can shoot powerful projectiles at enemies, open locked doors and shield Europa from ranged attacks.
Enhance your battle prowess by acquiring elemental armors. Master the might of lightning, water, earth and fire to defeat a vast assortment of enemies.
Use the elements to your advantage to travel the map dynamically, surprise bosses while you change armors on the fly and perform strong combos. Obtain special abilities to swim against waterfalls, travel underground tunnels or glide through warm air currents to access hidden locations and uncover their secrets.
Meet enigmatic composers that will aid you in your mission. With the special appearance of Michiru Yamane and Norihiko Hibino, both as NPCs and composers of several tracks tuned to 432hz, a soothing frequency used in what’s known as healing music. And there is more to music than meets the eye. Hidden bosses with musical attack patterns lurk in the shadows ready to strike. In fact, music is the binding thread that brings gameplay and storytelling together; from collecting musical notes, to performing a healing lullaby to restore your health, music is all but the soul of the game.
The game was pretty standard for a Metroidvania. I did enjoy the variety of colored upgrades so it was pretty easy to figure out what the environmental puzzles demand from you. The difficulty of the monsters are usually contigent on the color of the armour you are currently wearing, and the boss fights were pretty fun. It took me less than 11 hours to 100% the game, and that was after wasting time just playing around in the endgame. Overall, this game was fun and I recommend it if you have an afternoon or two to kill.
I had a very pleasant experience with this game, the story is captivating, the pixel art is magnificent, I think for the first time in my life I played an aquatic section that I really liked. The cutscenes animation reminiscent of Blasphemous, the armors that instantly refers to the Saint Seiya anime, so the artistic part of this game is in fact 10/10 and the gameplay design was also juicy.
However, the game as a whole does not deserve a score of 10/10 for 2 reasons.
Lack of Achievements here in GOG version and bugs.
Look, I'm the kind that doesn't care about bugs if it's not critical.
But the map screen overlapped my game several times and I had to close and open the game to return to normal.
My character also died after some key events and I missed progression made previously for no reason. There was also a moment in the flame section that one of the sounds simply entered loop.
The technical side fell short of expectations.
i bought this randomly and it was a good idea. This game offers around 10 hours of gameplay that were well spent. Imagine it a metroidvania with Hollow knight gameplay, not as advanced tho
This is what a good Metroidvania should be if it's not the next blockbuster hit: short and fun, without a lot of unnecessary backtracking or sidequests. About 10 hours of play, and I enjoyed myself. Thanks, devs!
