Experience a Lovecraftian inspired story-driven action RPG game with skill-based combat. Explore and Fight in a dreadful world rich in treasures and deadly creatures. Elderand is a love letter to Castlevania with modern elements. Make your own path as you unveil the darkness.
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It's the definition of "fine".
The core gameplay doesn't adopt the common modernisations of 2D combat - you can't move when you attack, you take damage upon contact with enemies (and some of them abuse it with cheap movesets), enemies don't get hitstunned (but you do, if you're mid air). It's fine, but certainly test your tolerance for that brand of bullshit.
There's no spice to the combat beyond the basics, all strength based weapons function the same way, enemies have a bit too much health. There is plenty of variety when it comes to the enemies though - that's a big plus.
The level design is very solid. Guides you through well, the checkpoints were placed at a solid pace, there were no difficulty spikes, not much needless repetition or empty space wasting your time. Think Bloodstained: RotN, but both less annoying and less interesting.
The one complaint you could have is that there's little variety between areas beyond the enemy types they contain, but it's not too big of an issue.
The game also feels like it was designed on autopilot as well. There's a loadout swapping system, but it's made pointless by a progression system that locks you into one weapon type. The game doesn't use the estus system for healing potions and has you rely on random drops despite limiting you to 3 flasks of any type, and levelling up heals you as well, breaking the tension and release of travelling between checkpoints. Using checkpoints doesn't save automatically, and it takes a while to do it yourself. Fast travelling is an unlock. You pick up gold constantly, but there's barely anything to spend it on. I'm 99% certain I got the "fake"/bad ending and there's a bunch of the game left to do, but I got hit with unskippable credits and no indication that I missed a chunk of the game after beating the boss.
The presentation is solid, including the music, as should be the case for a castlevania inspired title, but that's just a cherry on top of a really bland cake.
The core gameplay doesn't adopt the common modernisations of 2D combat - you can't move when you attack, you take damage upon contact with enemies (and some of them abuse it with cheap movesets), enemies don't get hitstunned (but you do, if you're mid air). It's fine, but certainly test your tolerance for that brand of bullshit.
There's no spice to the combat beyond the basics, all strength based weapons function the same way, enemies have a bit too much health. There is plenty of variety when it comes to the enemies though - that's a big plus.
The level design is very solid. Guides you through well, the checkpoints were placed at a solid pace, there were no difficulty spikes, not much needless repetition or empty space wasting your time. Think Bloodstained: RotN, but both less annoying and less interesting.
The one complaint you could have is that there's little variety between areas beyond the enemy types they contain, but it's not too big of an issue.
The game also feels like it was designed on autopilot as well. There's a loadout swapping system, but it's made pointless by a progression system that locks you into one weapon type. The game doesn't use the estus system for healing potions and has you rely on random drops despite limiting you to 3 flasks of any type, and levelling up heals you as well, breaking the tension and release of travelling between checkpoints. Using checkpoints doesn't save automatically, and it takes a while to do it yourself. Fast travelling is an unlock. You pick up gold constantly, but there's barely anything to spend it on. I'm 99% certain I got the "fake"/bad ending and there's a bunch of the game left to do, but I got hit with unskippable credits and no indication that I missed a chunk of the game after beating the boss.
The presentation is solid, including the music, as should be the case for a castlevania inspired title, but that's just a cherry on top of a really bland cake.
Excelente metroidvania!
Tremendously derivative but technically well-made metroidvania.
+ decent variety of gloomy yet colorful environments
+ steady stream of skill unlocks and gear upgrades
+ satisfying if basic platforming and action combat
+ appropriate soundtrack
+ good settings menu including full key rebinds
- options for fast travel and stat resets visibly locked until close to the end
- abysmal drop rates of important materials
- straightforward "story" that only includes a few boring cutscenes and doesn't really justify its generic ending
- questionable stat balancing that heavily incentives a strength melee build
+ decent variety of gloomy yet colorful environments
+ steady stream of skill unlocks and gear upgrades
+ satisfying if basic platforming and action combat
+ appropriate soundtrack
+ good settings menu including full key rebinds
- options for fast travel and stat resets visibly locked until close to the end
- abysmal drop rates of important materials
- straightforward "story" that only includes a few boring cutscenes and doesn't really justify its generic ending
- questionable stat balancing that heavily incentives a strength melee build
It's just not a good game. The combat is sluggish, the enemies deal way too much damage and I don't really feel any stronger by leveling up skills. The traversal of the world is extremely limited by no autosave, as in other souls games. If you die, you get put back to your last saved game, which can erase loads of progress you've made. While not having rechargeable healing flasks isn't a deal breaker, the amount of healing you actually need is massive and makes the game unnecessarily hard.
good artwork and music. combat doesnt really click, neither does story.
Combat-focused Castlevania love letter, not much of the platforming side of things but nice amount of exploration in that format. Doesn't really play like them 1:1 but reminds me of the feeling of playing Circle of the Moon/Harmony of Dissonance. Blew up the castle and went home.