Ghost Song

released on Nov 03, 2022

On the desolate moon of Lorian V, a long-dormant Deadsuit awakens from slumber. Journey beneath the surface on an atmospheric 2D adventure of self-discovery, ancient mysteries, and cosmic terror. Explore winding caverns and acquire new abilities to unearth this alien world’s long-buried secrets.


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Do Androids Dream of Tortoises?

Ghost Song just oozes with melancholic atmosphere and a sense of exploration. You are stranded on a moon infested by some sort of plant infestation without any memories. Your only purpose is to help a stranded crew that crashed due to a magnetic field which pulls every spaceship onto the surface. While the premise is not that intriguing at first, it develops into a greatly written tale of sacrifice and humanity that just gives you enough lore bits and clues to comprehend your place in it, while it can sometimes turn into a guessing game of where you can obtain that knowledge because some vital NPCs move places or turn up out of the blue in different spots on the map you already marked as explored, my sense of wonder still kept the better of me, and I'm sure it was purposely designed that way. It's not as grand or entangled as Hollow Knight or the modern FromSoftware games which obviously deeply influenced the game, but rather focused on a certain theme, and I found that rather refreshing.

It plays like a typical modern metroidvania with more focus on ranged combat than melee. You have many different modules, some more helpful than others, and several weapons. My favorite was definitely the precise laser gun mixed with a satisfying magnum of sorts. The biggest gripe I have, though, were the boss fights, which were very unspectacular and rather easy. Most of them had three moves at most and a rather large health pool, which turned them into a test of patience rather than skill.

The soundtrack, though, was something else; I absolutely loved it. It's practically a more simplistic "Tomorrow's Harvest" album from Boards of Canada with a more melancholic touch. The song that was playing in Stoffbloom will definitely live rent-free in my head for the next weeks. Also, it absolutely helped to alleviate the already lonely and post-apocalyptic atmosphere to the next level.

If I were to make a list with games like Hollow Knight, this one would definitely be among the top three. It comes very close to some aspects of it, and I think with a few more fine-tuning in the gameplay and some more budget to alleviate some of its presentation, the next game of this studio can reach new heights.

best metroidvania I ever played and I fucking love metroidvanias

Joguei até o fim em pouco tempo por estar intrigado, gostei bastante. A atmosfera do jogo é bem interessante e densa. O combate é muito simples, mas funciona bem. O fato de ser curto talvez ajude, já que a simplicidade poderia ser um ponto negativo em um jogo mais longo. Não é o tipo de jogo que eu jogaria novamente, nem um que traz alguma ideia inovadora, mas a narrativa é boa o suficiente pra torná-lo recomendável.

On paper Ghost Song is another in a growing list of reasonably enjoyable metroidvanias that doesn't do much do drive the genre forward in a meaningful way. However what stood out to me is the mood. Even on this dead world full of dangerous creatures there's this uncanny calmness to the atmosphere. This is portrayed perfectly through the beautifully gentle voice acting of the player character. The world is full of deep lore and shrouded in mystery. Our protagonist has no memories and we don't even know if she's human, an artificial intelligence, or something else. Just that she is inherently a caring and considerate being that feels the need to help others. I'll stop there as to avoid spoilers but the interesting world, tone, and story give extra weight to what is otherwise a fun but unspectacular game.

The atmosphere and art design are nice, but there are some shortcomings in the gameplay part. I didn't have the opportunity to play it enough, but the combat could have been a little better. The clunkiness in character animations is a bit annoying. But overall, it is one of the games that can be tried from GamePass. If you like the genre, you can give it a try.

A Metroidvania/Metroid clone with an interesting art style in a creepy, grimy, abandoned planet atmosphere. Overall, I'm positive on the game but there are some things that need a bit more polish as I don't understand some of the design decisions.

Right off the bat, I'm not going to leave this one a star rating, as I did not even come close to finishing it (about 2 hours in). I'm more than likely not going to have time to finish this one before it leaves game pass. Shelving it for possible future purchase and playthrough. I'll update my review then.

Gameplay is very much Metroid but without the flashy feel. Every special collectible or upgrade seems to be a white glowy thing on the ground and there is absolutely no celebration in finding any of these. Remember in Metroid when you would collect an upgrade? That music? Yea, none of that.

Which is a shame because the game has cool, ambient music, but overall sound design is a bit strange. Some sounds rattled my speakers and others sounded muffled? I also didn't notice any boss music for bosses/named characters? Must've been on purpose? There aren't a lot of sound cues for things either.

There are NPCs with spoken dialog and your character talks now and then and I think the voice over is well done.

The game also has that whole, "die and you have to collect your stuff" mechanic thing going on. In this case, it's the points you collect from kills to upgrade your suit and buy stuff with. If you die, you have to find your way back to where it happened and get your points back.

I should also mention that upgrading your suit basically means leveling up. You need to find this decrepit statues to level up at, but when you do, you can level up as much as you like, as long as you have the points. You could potentially just grind out your levels and become super powerful and considering random, powerful, named characters just show up out of nowhere some times, that might be the way to go.

Anyway, as I mentioned above, I did not finish this one but I'd like to get it on sale in the future and jump back in.