Ato is an atmospheric sword dueling metroidvania game set in the era of feudal Japan. Every combat encounter is an intense duel to the death with its own personality and fighting style. Perform risky parry maneuvers, bounce off of your opponent, evade their attacks and unlock new abilities to further expand your arsenal of options against your adversaries. Explore colorful and atmospheric environments. Obtain new abilities to solve environmental puzzles. Uncover the mystery of this world and experience a story that is told without a single word.
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Ato is a strange one in that it has a hand to play but refuses to show you it for the first hour of its ~5 hour runtime. You're dropped into a world with a blocky early-NES samurai guy who has to save his child from a clan of ninja, and it feels stiff at first.
You have no abilities, and without even a double jump you kind of have to ride the promise of stellar audio design and gorgeous parallax scrolling in order to make it past a somewhat tedious intro. Eventually you beat the introductory bosses (which are fun but somewhat similar) and the game shows its Metroidvania hand. There's weird mystical stuff? Hollow Knight and Sekiro vibes? Crazy bosses? Woah!
In Ato, you explore a managable map, do some platform challenges, grab some collectibles, and beat some bosses through parry or cheese. The post-intro bosses are all extremely fun (outside of maybe the very last one -- Tip: use the dagger!) and the platforming challenges are fun and well designed, The story goes a neat place or two as well, so at the end of it all I thought hey, this is pretty nice!
Little friction points here and there. The intro is, as mentioned, a bit tedious; the parry/charge slice is a bit awkward to navigate and doesn't keep you in the moment as much as, say, the Sekiro deflect; and the world feels a bit lifeless at times. A few villages, a shop with consumables, and a few sidequests would have went a long way, though that's easier said than done and maybe contrasts with the lonely feeling Ato tries to convey.
Still, quite good. Excellent audio and use of parallax, fun boss fights, doesn't overstay its welcome.
You have no abilities, and without even a double jump you kind of have to ride the promise of stellar audio design and gorgeous parallax scrolling in order to make it past a somewhat tedious intro. Eventually you beat the introductory bosses (which are fun but somewhat similar) and the game shows its Metroidvania hand. There's weird mystical stuff? Hollow Knight and Sekiro vibes? Crazy bosses? Woah!
In Ato, you explore a managable map, do some platform challenges, grab some collectibles, and beat some bosses through parry or cheese. The post-intro bosses are all extremely fun (outside of maybe the very last one -- Tip: use the dagger!) and the platforming challenges are fun and well designed, The story goes a neat place or two as well, so at the end of it all I thought hey, this is pretty nice!
Little friction points here and there. The intro is, as mentioned, a bit tedious; the parry/charge slice is a bit awkward to navigate and doesn't keep you in the moment as much as, say, the Sekiro deflect; and the world feels a bit lifeless at times. A few villages, a shop with consumables, and a few sidequests would have went a long way, though that's easier said than done and maybe contrasts with the lonely feeling Ato tries to convey.
Still, quite good. Excellent audio and use of parallax, fun boss fights, doesn't overstay its welcome.
my babey
Wow what a game. Probably the most hidden gem game I’ve played in terms I’ve never heard anyone mention it other than a few passing Reddit comments. Really fast fluid metroidvania, with little combat outside of boss fights. But the boss fights are fast and intense but manageable. Imagine maybe an easier hollow knight without enemies or corpse runs. And lots of platforming challenges that are all very fun and short. Really wish this was more well known and hopefully this review will lead others who like games like this to check it out
Fully completed in one 6 hour sitting overnight because I simply couldn't stop playing. Hollow Knight is my favorite game of all time and Ato hits the same exact spot for me. Big recommend for fans of the genre.
A refined and compact Metroidvania featuring engaging player movement and a host of challenging boss battles. Lots of love is put into this wordless narrative, which also yanks at the heartstrings in the right ways.
Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2022/10/31/now-playing-october-2022-edition/
Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2022/10/31/now-playing-october-2022-edition/
What a cute little game