The good thing is that this absolutely feels like the closest thing to Metroid without being Metroid. I don't really like the paper doll thing, but this one actually manages to pull it off pretty well.
The bad thing is like...everything else. The enemies take forever to kill. The combat has interesting ideas that it does nothing with, or poorly implements. Movement isn't fun. The fast travel points are far away from anywhere you'd actually want to fast travel.
The ugly thing is that this should be like a 3 hour game but is riddled with such annoying decisions in order to pad the time out to around 8 hours.
The bad thing is like...everything else. The enemies take forever to kill. The combat has interesting ideas that it does nothing with, or poorly implements. Movement isn't fun. The fast travel points are far away from anywhere you'd actually want to fast travel.
The ugly thing is that this should be like a 3 hour game but is riddled with such annoying decisions in order to pad the time out to around 8 hours.
Peguei a versão do switch por conta da portabilidade e por ser um jogo aparentemente leve. Estava redondamente enganado.
Infelizmente, no presente momento, o que temos é um jogo absolutamente quebrado, com travamentos constantes e fps drops a torto e à direita. Uma pena, porque era um dos jogos indies que eu mais aguardava nos últimos anos.
O switch não é nenhuma máquina da nasa, claro, mas a falta de otimização aqui é gritante. Temos jogos na mesma vibe no sistema, como Hollow Knight e Unsighted, e ambos rodam mil vezes melhor.
Talvez volte a jogar no futuro caso saia um novo patch, ou pirateando a versão de PC.
Infelizmente, no presente momento, o que temos é um jogo absolutamente quebrado, com travamentos constantes e fps drops a torto e à direita. Uma pena, porque era um dos jogos indies que eu mais aguardava nos últimos anos.
O switch não é nenhuma máquina da nasa, claro, mas a falta de otimização aqui é gritante. Temos jogos na mesma vibe no sistema, como Hollow Knight e Unsighted, e ambos rodam mil vezes melhor.
Talvez volte a jogar no futuro caso saia um novo patch, ou pirateando a versão de PC.
Ghost Song is an okay Metroidvania with a Soulsborne death and bonfire mechanic. The platforming is fine, the combat is shallow but serviceable, and the story is almost nonexistant.
True to Metroid, the map opens up as you collect new weapons or abilities like double jump, wall jump, rockets, etc. Your goal is to collect engine parts for a ship you won't even escape the dangerous moon on. The crew of this ship will have multiple boring conversations with you revealing the smallest fractions of a personality per person. If you work annoyingly hard, or be smarter than me and just find the quadruple jump before attempting it, you can find a secret location that changes very little of the ending. When the credits roll, you'll sigh and move on to some other game.
Ghost Song is just really forgettable. Its monotony and emptiness is intentional which makes me angry knowing they liked it feeling like a void. To make this void worse, there aren't enough fast travel locations, so if you think you forgot something (good luck with the map, where you cannot zoom in very far and no location is named unless you are currently in it) somewhere, you're in for a trek that feels needlessly arduous.
The combat is pretty easy, with very few exceptions, and the punishment for dying isn't so bad. A bit of semi-permanent damage is done, capping your health a few percents until you go to one of those rare fast travel locations and repair it for a very cheap price. Though it only happened once, I believe there is a punishment for dying before collecting your remains, and I believe that's you losing a Suit Level. I'm not certain about this, however, and I do not really care (and neither should you).
Not worth your money. Needed more time and energy.
True to Metroid, the map opens up as you collect new weapons or abilities like double jump, wall jump, rockets, etc. Your goal is to collect engine parts for a ship you won't even escape the dangerous moon on. The crew of this ship will have multiple boring conversations with you revealing the smallest fractions of a personality per person. If you work annoyingly hard, or be smarter than me and just find the quadruple jump before attempting it, you can find a secret location that changes very little of the ending. When the credits roll, you'll sigh and move on to some other game.
Ghost Song is just really forgettable. Its monotony and emptiness is intentional which makes me angry knowing they liked it feeling like a void. To make this void worse, there aren't enough fast travel locations, so if you think you forgot something (good luck with the map, where you cannot zoom in very far and no location is named unless you are currently in it) somewhere, you're in for a trek that feels needlessly arduous.
The combat is pretty easy, with very few exceptions, and the punishment for dying isn't so bad. A bit of semi-permanent damage is done, capping your health a few percents until you go to one of those rare fast travel locations and repair it for a very cheap price. Though it only happened once, I believe there is a punishment for dying before collecting your remains, and I believe that's you losing a Suit Level. I'm not certain about this, however, and I do not really care (and neither should you).
Not worth your money. Needed more time and energy.
Better than Dread for only $20.
Ghost Song has solid vibes at first and a really great art style, but this Metroid clone is just not nearly tight enough control wise, with enemies way too spongey, and a story that just didn't grip me enough to stick with some of the frustrations.
If a game with some Metroid and Souls influence intrigues you, maybe give this a shot (currently on Game Pass as of this review) but there just isn't enough for me to want to stick with this over a longer span
If a game with some Metroid and Souls influence intrigues you, maybe give this a shot (currently on Game Pass as of this review) but there just isn't enough for me to want to stick with this over a longer span
A decent Metroidvania that's HEAVILY inspired by Hollow Knight. It takes a while to get through and until you have some upgrades the enemies are a bit spongy and annoying to kill. Also has an anti climatic ending that doesn't finish explaining much of the plot.
O jogo tem um enorme potencial, mas falha na decisões de design completamente nonsense.
Tudo que remete a atmosfera do jogo é impecável, a arte é estilosa e bonita, a música é boa, o texto, história, e até mesmo a dublagem, tudo é excelente.
Porém o jogo falha em toda a gameplay, o design das missões é horrível, a progressão é imperceptível e preguiçosa, o combate e movimentação são tristes.
Eu cheguei num ponto do jogo que se tornou impossível de avançar, com uma peça em mãos, sem vidas extras, com cerca de 10% de HP e um Boss entre eu e o savepoint mais próximo.
Tudo que remete a atmosfera do jogo é impecável, a arte é estilosa e bonita, a música é boa, o texto, história, e até mesmo a dublagem, tudo é excelente.
Porém o jogo falha em toda a gameplay, o design das missões é horrível, a progressão é imperceptível e preguiçosa, o combate e movimentação são tristes.
Eu cheguei num ponto do jogo que se tornou impossível de avançar, com uma peça em mãos, sem vidas extras, com cerca de 10% de HP e um Boss entre eu e o savepoint mais próximo.
A passion project a decade in development turns out as yet another carbon copy of Super Metroid with great presentation and tacked-on soulslike elements that serve no real purpose.
Its gameplay is perfectly serviceable, with an interesting overheating mechanic that not only prevents you from firing your guns non-stop, but also greatly boosts damage from your melee attacks when your gun is red hot, encouraging switching between ranged and short range combat. It's definitely not Ghost Song's fault that during its troubled development the indie metroidvania scene has been so prolific that such games are by now as numerous as the stars of the sky, oversaturating an industry with an ocean of perfectly competent copycats that make if far more difficult for any single one to stand out. In a different time, Ghost Song would have been special, but the way things are, it's yet another metroidvania that does nothing different from the crowd.
Extrinsic factors aside, it has problems of its own as well: taking a page from Hollow Knight, the world is frustratingly dispersive, requiring the player to wander around for far too long looking for the one way to make progress, running into dead end after dead end, which can get infuriating. The 3D geometry that composes platforms has strange hitboxes, which can lead to the player sprite falling through them when you feel like you landed on one properly. Bosses are few, far between and not very good.
The music is quality stuff, but it rarely fits the action: Metroid did not feature many loud and bombastic tracks either, but its moody and haunting ambients conveyed a sense of danger. Here we are treated to beatiful tunes that belong more in a walking simulator than an action game. Silence would have been more tense.
The soulslike elements boil down to the usual currency retrieval mechanic after being killed, plus that irritating feature from Dark Souls 2 that chips a small percentage off your maximum health each time that happens. Only here it doesn't require some rare resource to restore: just go to one of the broken robots that serve as level up/fast travel points and repair the damage for mere pocket lint. All it does is add a minor inconvenience after every death: walk out of the respawn room, shoot one critter enemy, go back in, spend that currency to repair the damage, go back to your business. One minute wasted on what only amounts to pointless busywork.
You also have the usual dodge move tied to a stamina bar, different stats governing your attributes, and the game is smart enough to not respawn enemies immediately after leaving a room to discourage level farming. Leveling up grants energy points, which set a hard cap to limit how many of the upgrade modules found around the world you can equip at once. These range from some that will decrease your overheating rate (or increase it, for a melee build), make collecting currency easier, display enemy health bars, increase your i-frames, and so on. It's a good system, similar to what is found in The Surge, allowing for fairly deep customization, even though none of the modules is really necessary for beating the game, since it's fairly easy.
A similar principle applies to the many weapons, which use the same energy pool and therefore require you to choose which ones to equip, usually only being able to afford a couple. I found the basic Metroid-style missile attack to be the most efficient, along with a blob weapon spawning small jellies that seek out and damage enemies. It's not as dispersive as Axiom Verge, which gave you dozens of weapons, with only a few of them being useful, but you still get the feeling that most of the advanced ones are little more than a gimmick.
There is a story, and a quite verbose one at that: a number of friendly NPCs living in a stranded starshipwreck will talk your ear off about how they are sick of mushroom soup or they can't comb their hair properly. There is some interesting stuff in there, but you'll have to sift through the uninteresting drivel to get there, all the while what you really want is to go out and explore. It's bored depressed people telling you how bored and depressed they are, and that is not very conducive to urgency and engagement.
The map feature is precisely what you'd expect, with the feature from Hollow Knight to place abstract markers on it for reference. The problem is that not only do these not represent anything, forcing you to make note of what you decide each one stands for, but as of the time of writing this they are completely bugged, since they will change at random to a different one, completely defeating the purpose to have multiple types in the first place.
Imagine deciding that, say, a triangle means "I need double jump here" and a circle means "need air dash here", placing down markers accordingly, then the next time you boot up the game discovering that all your triangles have become circles and all your circles have become squares. I had to bypass the bug by setting multiple markers in the same room and associating different meanings to their number instead of shape. Sloppy.
All in all, Ghost Song is fine, it's competently made, but it's confusingly laid out, too easy and with an invasive and unengaging story that doesn't really explain anything by the end. It's a shame, but with all the similar games that populate the market these days, it really doesn't do anything to warrant too much attention.
Its gameplay is perfectly serviceable, with an interesting overheating mechanic that not only prevents you from firing your guns non-stop, but also greatly boosts damage from your melee attacks when your gun is red hot, encouraging switching between ranged and short range combat. It's definitely not Ghost Song's fault that during its troubled development the indie metroidvania scene has been so prolific that such games are by now as numerous as the stars of the sky, oversaturating an industry with an ocean of perfectly competent copycats that make if far more difficult for any single one to stand out. In a different time, Ghost Song would have been special, but the way things are, it's yet another metroidvania that does nothing different from the crowd.
Extrinsic factors aside, it has problems of its own as well: taking a page from Hollow Knight, the world is frustratingly dispersive, requiring the player to wander around for far too long looking for the one way to make progress, running into dead end after dead end, which can get infuriating. The 3D geometry that composes platforms has strange hitboxes, which can lead to the player sprite falling through them when you feel like you landed on one properly. Bosses are few, far between and not very good.
The music is quality stuff, but it rarely fits the action: Metroid did not feature many loud and bombastic tracks either, but its moody and haunting ambients conveyed a sense of danger. Here we are treated to beatiful tunes that belong more in a walking simulator than an action game. Silence would have been more tense.
The soulslike elements boil down to the usual currency retrieval mechanic after being killed, plus that irritating feature from Dark Souls 2 that chips a small percentage off your maximum health each time that happens. Only here it doesn't require some rare resource to restore: just go to one of the broken robots that serve as level up/fast travel points and repair the damage for mere pocket lint. All it does is add a minor inconvenience after every death: walk out of the respawn room, shoot one critter enemy, go back in, spend that currency to repair the damage, go back to your business. One minute wasted on what only amounts to pointless busywork.
You also have the usual dodge move tied to a stamina bar, different stats governing your attributes, and the game is smart enough to not respawn enemies immediately after leaving a room to discourage level farming. Leveling up grants energy points, which set a hard cap to limit how many of the upgrade modules found around the world you can equip at once. These range from some that will decrease your overheating rate (or increase it, for a melee build), make collecting currency easier, display enemy health bars, increase your i-frames, and so on. It's a good system, similar to what is found in The Surge, allowing for fairly deep customization, even though none of the modules is really necessary for beating the game, since it's fairly easy.
A similar principle applies to the many weapons, which use the same energy pool and therefore require you to choose which ones to equip, usually only being able to afford a couple. I found the basic Metroid-style missile attack to be the most efficient, along with a blob weapon spawning small jellies that seek out and damage enemies. It's not as dispersive as Axiom Verge, which gave you dozens of weapons, with only a few of them being useful, but you still get the feeling that most of the advanced ones are little more than a gimmick.
There is a story, and a quite verbose one at that: a number of friendly NPCs living in a stranded starshipwreck will talk your ear off about how they are sick of mushroom soup or they can't comb their hair properly. There is some interesting stuff in there, but you'll have to sift through the uninteresting drivel to get there, all the while what you really want is to go out and explore. It's bored depressed people telling you how bored and depressed they are, and that is not very conducive to urgency and engagement.
The map feature is precisely what you'd expect, with the feature from Hollow Knight to place abstract markers on it for reference. The problem is that not only do these not represent anything, forcing you to make note of what you decide each one stands for, but as of the time of writing this they are completely bugged, since they will change at random to a different one, completely defeating the purpose to have multiple types in the first place.
Imagine deciding that, say, a triangle means "I need double jump here" and a circle means "need air dash here", placing down markers accordingly, then the next time you boot up the game discovering that all your triangles have become circles and all your circles have become squares. I had to bypass the bug by setting multiple markers in the same room and associating different meanings to their number instead of shape. Sloppy.
All in all, Ghost Song is fine, it's competently made, but it's confusingly laid out, too easy and with an invasive and unengaging story that doesn't really explain anything by the end. It's a shame, but with all the similar games that populate the market these days, it really doesn't do anything to warrant too much attention.
I'm floored with Ghost Song despite the numerous flaws. 9 hours flew by quickly. This game is amazing at building up a believable world, being very atmospheric and sounding great. I don't mean sound just in terms of music but also sound effects, voice acting (when there is some), the way sound is mixed and from which side it comes from when you're using a decent headset etc. The game has some little touches like how some of your friends carry an umbrella when it's raining, how it snows sometimes, how the living life forms truly feel alive etc. The setting is so fascinating and I wish I got to see more of it. The Metroidvania gameplay is also very well done. The modules are worth going after and it's addictive levelling up your character.
When it comes to flaws, I can think of 2 mainly. Story and difficulty. I enjoyed the story a lot but the way it was presented is not the best sometimes. And there isn't enough of it. Let me explain a bit more (without spoiling things).
Most of the story is gotten by talking to NPC who are either near the ship or somewhere in the field. You don't get all they have to say by talking to them once, you have to talk to them multiple times until they have nothing new to say until the next cycle. This is not the problem. The problem is when they also say some random shit or too much sometimes. Yes, you don't have to keep talking to them if you're tired but there are some very important lore mixed with stupid dialogue sometimes. Like when they say things like 'sometimes I dream of being carried by a tortoise' or 'do you think a girl lived here' or 'why don't you write a poem about a cat' etc. I know they were building up some personalities and setting up the mood but sometimes it goes too far. Also it is very easy to miss NPC dialogue and therefore lore when it happens in the field. You have to be at the right place and the right time to activate certain dialogues. I don't know what these conditions are but it is easy to think the game has bad story when you didn't speak to certain NPC. The ending also felt very abrupt. I wish they added a bit more to it, especially when we didn't get an answer about what Blue is, how she arrived at this planet etc. It's pretty bad to not answer those kind of questions when a lot of the plot is about it and most NPC asking what you are. I have my guesses of course but there is no confirmation in-game. Who knows, maybe I missed a dialogue somewhere.
About the difficulty, you get 2 modes. The way the game is intended to be played originally (a more difficult mode) and explorer. I went with explorer because I wasn't sure what to pick (in-game they advise you to pick explorer if you're unsure) and you can't change the difficulty mid-game. I would have liked giving the other difficulty a try and switch to explorer if I didn't like it. I thought the difficulty was fine for the most part but some sections did feel off. Like things could have been a tiny bit more challenging. But I don't want a frustrating time, hence the decision. There is new game plus that I sadly don't feel like giving a try before the game is taken off Humble launcher on November the 7th. But I might use my save and try it out if I ever get it on Steam someday.
This game is special. It truly got my attention. But it's not a game for everyone. Especially the ones focused on gameplay mostly. The gameplay is good but it's not the main selling point or does anything unique. I'm not sure if the game is challenging enough for those seeking this since I didn't try out the other mode. But ones looking for exploration, atmosphere and world building while having fun with the gameplay? It's definitely worth a look.
When it comes to flaws, I can think of 2 mainly. Story and difficulty. I enjoyed the story a lot but the way it was presented is not the best sometimes. And there isn't enough of it. Let me explain a bit more (without spoiling things).
Most of the story is gotten by talking to NPC who are either near the ship or somewhere in the field. You don't get all they have to say by talking to them once, you have to talk to them multiple times until they have nothing new to say until the next cycle. This is not the problem. The problem is when they also say some random shit or too much sometimes. Yes, you don't have to keep talking to them if you're tired but there are some very important lore mixed with stupid dialogue sometimes. Like when they say things like 'sometimes I dream of being carried by a tortoise' or 'do you think a girl lived here' or 'why don't you write a poem about a cat' etc. I know they were building up some personalities and setting up the mood but sometimes it goes too far. Also it is very easy to miss NPC dialogue and therefore lore when it happens in the field. You have to be at the right place and the right time to activate certain dialogues. I don't know what these conditions are but it is easy to think the game has bad story when you didn't speak to certain NPC. The ending also felt very abrupt. I wish they added a bit more to it, especially when we didn't get an answer about what Blue is, how she arrived at this planet etc. It's pretty bad to not answer those kind of questions when a lot of the plot is about it and most NPC asking what you are. I have my guesses of course but there is no confirmation in-game. Who knows, maybe I missed a dialogue somewhere.
About the difficulty, you get 2 modes. The way the game is intended to be played originally (a more difficult mode) and explorer. I went with explorer because I wasn't sure what to pick (in-game they advise you to pick explorer if you're unsure) and you can't change the difficulty mid-game. I would have liked giving the other difficulty a try and switch to explorer if I didn't like it. I thought the difficulty was fine for the most part but some sections did feel off. Like things could have been a tiny bit more challenging. But I don't want a frustrating time, hence the decision. There is new game plus that I sadly don't feel like giving a try before the game is taken off Humble launcher on November the 7th. But I might use my save and try it out if I ever get it on Steam someday.
This game is special. It truly got my attention. But it's not a game for everyone. Especially the ones focused on gameplay mostly. The gameplay is good but it's not the main selling point or does anything unique. I'm not sure if the game is challenging enough for those seeking this since I didn't try out the other mode. But ones looking for exploration, atmosphere and world building while having fun with the gameplay? It's definitely worth a look.
There is one single good thing about this game and it's the gun overheat mechanic: if you shoot too much it overheats, which makes your melee attacks better because your hand is on fire or something. It's clever and makes you switch between attacks. Otherwise the combat was terrible, the level design mediocre, and just simply not something I want to invest time into when there are so many better metroidvanias out there.
Deixando claro que: Eu fui filtrado. Essa análise foi feita com pouco tempo de jogo, é possível que a nota mude se eu chegar a zerar algum dia, e talvez você considere injusto analisar um jogo sem nem chegar na metade, mas não tenho vontade alguma de ir até o fim, e achei interessante analisar o motivo que me fez largá-lo.
Com pouco tempo, fica bem claro as inspirações em Metroid, Hollow Knight e Souls, e até pega bons aspectos desses jogos, o problema é que parece que tudo que Ghost Song faz, são coisas que esses jogos já fizeram melhor. A inspiração em Metroid se dá nas mecânicas, mas Metroid tem um ritmo frenético e bem calculado, e aqui, por mais que a mecânica de compensar o sobreaquecimento da arma com o corpo-a-corpo seja genuinamente interessante, eu não sei como o jogo quer que eu jogue, eu entendo que o jogo quer que eu otimize meu dano aproveitando o máximo da arma antes de sobreaquecer, usar o dash para posicionar o personagem para o melee, e logo depois já usar o dash novamente para reposicionar, o que na teoria é um loop mais rápido e agressivo, mas o ritmo na verdade é lento e metódico, pois o ataque é extremamente lento, possui um range pequeno, e não pode ser cancelado em um dash, então, o posicionamento se torna difícil, e o ataque é facilmente punível, isso são características de um ataque que deve ser usado de forma mais metódica, não como parte do loop principal de um combate mais rápido, ainda mais quando os próprios inimigos exigem velocidade de reação, assim o combate só acaba parecendo travado. Quanto a Hollow Knight, é claramente uma inspiração estética, e nisso, o jogo até que acertou, a atmosfera solitária e a arte são interessantes e foi o que me chamou atenção ao jogo inicialmente, só não é nada de novo, é realmente muito parecido com Hollow Knight. Agora indo para Souls, é onde reside maior parte das minhas críticas ao jogo, e o que me fez largar ele de vez, além do clássico sistema de almas, Ghost Song busca misturar uma exploração de Souls, com poucos checkpoints e levels punitivos, com a exploração clássica de um metroidvania (o que não é novidade no gênero, mas enfim), mas, acaba errando onde menos deveria: no design dos níveis.
Dark Souls 1 possuia poucos checkpoints, pois tinha confiança no posicionamento delas, os mapas eram feitos para que a exploração seja interessante, desafiadora, recompensadora e nunca excessivamente longa, sempre tem diversos atalhos para voltar às bonfires e o jogo te recompensa, além de apenas te punir. Já nesse jogo, não é bem assim, as recompensas são pequenas, os corredores são excessivamente longos e o posicionamento dos checkpoints é péssimo, voltar para um checkpoint sem fast travel é um sacrifício, é cansativo, punindo o jogador excessivamente, e o pior é: Isso é o começo do jogo, eu sei que é um metroidvania, visivelmente, o mapa vai se conectar melhor com o tempo (Mas mesmo assim os caminhos ainda parecem ser excessivamente longos), mas essa progressão é feita para manter o jogador entretido, se no início do jogo, a exploração é desnecessariamente cansativa, tendo apenas uma suposta promessa de melhoria, você não vai entreter o jogador, você vai afastar ele do jogo.
Com pouco tempo, fica bem claro as inspirações em Metroid, Hollow Knight e Souls, e até pega bons aspectos desses jogos, o problema é que parece que tudo que Ghost Song faz, são coisas que esses jogos já fizeram melhor. A inspiração em Metroid se dá nas mecânicas, mas Metroid tem um ritmo frenético e bem calculado, e aqui, por mais que a mecânica de compensar o sobreaquecimento da arma com o corpo-a-corpo seja genuinamente interessante, eu não sei como o jogo quer que eu jogue, eu entendo que o jogo quer que eu otimize meu dano aproveitando o máximo da arma antes de sobreaquecer, usar o dash para posicionar o personagem para o melee, e logo depois já usar o dash novamente para reposicionar, o que na teoria é um loop mais rápido e agressivo, mas o ritmo na verdade é lento e metódico, pois o ataque é extremamente lento, possui um range pequeno, e não pode ser cancelado em um dash, então, o posicionamento se torna difícil, e o ataque é facilmente punível, isso são características de um ataque que deve ser usado de forma mais metódica, não como parte do loop principal de um combate mais rápido, ainda mais quando os próprios inimigos exigem velocidade de reação, assim o combate só acaba parecendo travado. Quanto a Hollow Knight, é claramente uma inspiração estética, e nisso, o jogo até que acertou, a atmosfera solitária e a arte são interessantes e foi o que me chamou atenção ao jogo inicialmente, só não é nada de novo, é realmente muito parecido com Hollow Knight. Agora indo para Souls, é onde reside maior parte das minhas críticas ao jogo, e o que me fez largar ele de vez, além do clássico sistema de almas, Ghost Song busca misturar uma exploração de Souls, com poucos checkpoints e levels punitivos, com a exploração clássica de um metroidvania (o que não é novidade no gênero, mas enfim), mas, acaba errando onde menos deveria: no design dos níveis.
Dark Souls 1 possuia poucos checkpoints, pois tinha confiança no posicionamento delas, os mapas eram feitos para que a exploração seja interessante, desafiadora, recompensadora e nunca excessivamente longa, sempre tem diversos atalhos para voltar às bonfires e o jogo te recompensa, além de apenas te punir. Já nesse jogo, não é bem assim, as recompensas são pequenas, os corredores são excessivamente longos e o posicionamento dos checkpoints é péssimo, voltar para um checkpoint sem fast travel é um sacrifício, é cansativo, punindo o jogador excessivamente, e o pior é: Isso é o começo do jogo, eu sei que é um metroidvania, visivelmente, o mapa vai se conectar melhor com o tempo (Mas mesmo assim os caminhos ainda parecem ser excessivamente longos), mas essa progressão é feita para manter o jogador entretido, se no início do jogo, a exploração é desnecessariamente cansativa, tendo apenas uma suposta promessa de melhoria, você não vai entreter o jogador, você vai afastar ele do jogo.
I had a wonderful time with this game. It's not the most mechanically polished, but the vibes/atmosphere were phenomenal. It really captures the experience of discovering a cool world through the environment and the stories of the characters within it that a metroidvania can give so well.
I may or may not finish it to completion. I think what I'd have to say, especially coming off the back of Blasphemous, that the game doesn't feel so bad to play, but that I can't recommend it unless you are very sad and bored.
Every part of the experience feels slow even after you have the majority of your movement options unlocked. The dialogue with the characters, if you choose to engage with it, the traveling between locations, the accruement of currency, the long stretches of empty hallways and bland corridors. I feel like this game has a lot of good ideas but there's just so much nothing despite every path leading to some sort of reward. Despite having things to go and collect that improve your character incrementally, I can't help but fall asleep while I dash through needlessly long corridors with at most one or two enemy types. Why can't we fast travel to all of the save points? Maybe that dev thought that would make the game too fun. If you want to backtrack for exploration you have to WORK for it; and by work I mean tediously manage your stamina gauge to run and dash at peak efficiency while literally nothing else is happening 80% of the time. The atmosphere is so... mild. The music is nice and moody, but it never really stands out, or becomes more than that. The world just feels so barren. A shame really, I enjoy the visuals.
Mechanically its all there, you got a dash, you got a wall jump, you got a double jump. But man, moving around just feels so, sluggish, I'm not sure why, when you play Super Metroid it always feels like Samus is just trucking it, but here the rooms are just so wide and full of empty space. The main goal of the game is going out and collecting these ship parts, but while you have the parts you can't fast travel (which doesn't matter anyways because there are very, very few fast travel nodes, this just makes it take very little more time for story? reasons, I don't know), and these green skull things attack you. Of course, the parts range from, ehhh sort of close, to VERY far from the delivery point. It's all just so tedious. Why? I have been trying to wrap my head around what the developers thought the return sequences added to the game. Its not really like tense or anything. Its just a boring walk and climb through the same hallways as before, maybe with a few more enemies.
I wish to not be so mean. I hope the developer learned a lot from shipping this game. Apparently its been in development from kickstarter for just under a decade. Looking at past beta footage, I feel like I don't understand how the game artistically arrived where it did. It feels like the devs played Hollow Knight and were like "whoa dude, this is way better than what we're working on" and then preceded to rip the design asunder into something bland and lacking its own identity. Ernestly, why would I play this over Hollow Knight, or Super Metroid, or Metroid Dread, or anything else in the genre. Because its new? Those are some REAL contenders; for sure, we stand on the shoulders of giants, but this one has no innovations for me to applaud, and the story and characters are just not captivating enough for me to not want to just grab my switch and replay Dread.
Every part of the experience feels slow even after you have the majority of your movement options unlocked. The dialogue with the characters, if you choose to engage with it, the traveling between locations, the accruement of currency, the long stretches of empty hallways and bland corridors. I feel like this game has a lot of good ideas but there's just so much nothing despite every path leading to some sort of reward. Despite having things to go and collect that improve your character incrementally, I can't help but fall asleep while I dash through needlessly long corridors with at most one or two enemy types. Why can't we fast travel to all of the save points? Maybe that dev thought that would make the game too fun. If you want to backtrack for exploration you have to WORK for it; and by work I mean tediously manage your stamina gauge to run and dash at peak efficiency while literally nothing else is happening 80% of the time. The atmosphere is so... mild. The music is nice and moody, but it never really stands out, or becomes more than that. The world just feels so barren. A shame really, I enjoy the visuals.
Mechanically its all there, you got a dash, you got a wall jump, you got a double jump. But man, moving around just feels so, sluggish, I'm not sure why, when you play Super Metroid it always feels like Samus is just trucking it, but here the rooms are just so wide and full of empty space. The main goal of the game is going out and collecting these ship parts, but while you have the parts you can't fast travel (which doesn't matter anyways because there are very, very few fast travel nodes, this just makes it take very little more time for story? reasons, I don't know), and these green skull things attack you. Of course, the parts range from, ehhh sort of close, to VERY far from the delivery point. It's all just so tedious. Why? I have been trying to wrap my head around what the developers thought the return sequences added to the game. Its not really like tense or anything. Its just a boring walk and climb through the same hallways as before, maybe with a few more enemies.
I wish to not be so mean. I hope the developer learned a lot from shipping this game. Apparently its been in development from kickstarter for just under a decade. Looking at past beta footage, I feel like I don't understand how the game artistically arrived where it did. It feels like the devs played Hollow Knight and were like "whoa dude, this is way better than what we're working on" and then preceded to rip the design asunder into something bland and lacking its own identity. Ernestly, why would I play this over Hollow Knight, or Super Metroid, or Metroid Dread, or anything else in the genre. Because its new? Those are some REAL contenders; for sure, we stand on the shoulders of giants, but this one has no innovations for me to applaud, and the story and characters are just not captivating enough for me to not want to just grab my switch and replay Dread.
Honestinho sabe? Nada demais mas nada de menos
simply no reason to play this
Que pena, poderia ser muito mais... Poderia, sem nenhum exagero, ser um dos melhores jogos que joguei na vida. Ghost Song é um daqueles casos que a sua jogabilidade, infelizmente, é o pior elemento do jogo, enquanto todo o resto é SENSACIONAL... E isso me deixou profundamente triste ao finalizar o jogo. O que ajudou a aliviar minha frustração foi o fato de que, como eu já tinha visto críticas iniciais à movimentação e exploração do jogo, eu fui com expectativas baixas, e acabei tendo uma boa experiência no fim das contas.
Quero começar falando logo da gameplay pra depois focar nas coisas boas (que não são poucas, apesar de tudo)... A movimentação da personagem é excessivamente lenta, o mapa mal interconectado e pontos de viagem rápida são mal distribuídos. Mesmo com os upgrades adquiridos no decorrer das horas de jogo, explorar o mapa é de certa forma bem doloroso. Ter uma boa exploração é meio que um pré-requisito para um metroidvania ser bem sucedido, e acho que é um fator que pesa de maneira EXTREMAMENTE negativa na análise. A progressão por níveis, inspirado no modelo Dark Souls, também não evolui muito a fórmula e é bem "mais do mesmo". Combate é de razoável pra bom, e a mecânica de aquecimento da arma de fogo e troca para arma corpo-a-corpo é o que a gameplay de Ghost Song traz de melhor.
Ok, falamos das coisas ruins. Agora... É incrível como absolutamente TUDO que foge do quesito "gameplay" é BRILHANTE! Ghost Song é, acima de tudo, emocional. É sobre auto descobrimento e relações de amizade. A trama é simplesmente maravilhosa, você se importa com praticamente todos os NPCs, é instigado a saber mais e mais sobre eles, entender o sofrimento de cada um e sentir empatia pela situação geral de todos, perdidos em uma lua desconhecida cheia de mistérios... E isso fez com que eu sentisse vontade de revisitar áreas e ouvir diálogos adicionais dos personagens. Todo esse sentimento é impulsionado ainda mais pela trilha sonora excelente e dublagem absurda de boa dos atores que fizeram cada personagem.
Como falei no início dessa análise, tinha tudo pra ser um jogo perfeito. Daqueles memoráveis, que entrariam para a galeria de ouro de melhores jogos indie de todos os tempos. Infelizmente, como a jogabilidade não é algo que pode ser ignorado (afinal, ainda estamos falando de um JOGO), ela ser de mediana para ruim fez com que roubasse o holofote dos outros aspectos excepcionais do jogo durante toda a sua duração. Se o resto não fosse brilhante, seria um péssimo jogo. Parabéns aos escritores dessa trama, aos compositores das músicas e a quem dublou os personagens. Ficou realmente incrível, e foram ofuscados por uma gameplay "xexelenta".
Quero começar falando logo da gameplay pra depois focar nas coisas boas (que não são poucas, apesar de tudo)... A movimentação da personagem é excessivamente lenta, o mapa mal interconectado e pontos de viagem rápida são mal distribuídos. Mesmo com os upgrades adquiridos no decorrer das horas de jogo, explorar o mapa é de certa forma bem doloroso. Ter uma boa exploração é meio que um pré-requisito para um metroidvania ser bem sucedido, e acho que é um fator que pesa de maneira EXTREMAMENTE negativa na análise. A progressão por níveis, inspirado no modelo Dark Souls, também não evolui muito a fórmula e é bem "mais do mesmo". Combate é de razoável pra bom, e a mecânica de aquecimento da arma de fogo e troca para arma corpo-a-corpo é o que a gameplay de Ghost Song traz de melhor.
Ok, falamos das coisas ruins. Agora... É incrível como absolutamente TUDO que foge do quesito "gameplay" é BRILHANTE! Ghost Song é, acima de tudo, emocional. É sobre auto descobrimento e relações de amizade. A trama é simplesmente maravilhosa, você se importa com praticamente todos os NPCs, é instigado a saber mais e mais sobre eles, entender o sofrimento de cada um e sentir empatia pela situação geral de todos, perdidos em uma lua desconhecida cheia de mistérios... E isso fez com que eu sentisse vontade de revisitar áreas e ouvir diálogos adicionais dos personagens. Todo esse sentimento é impulsionado ainda mais pela trilha sonora excelente e dublagem absurda de boa dos atores que fizeram cada personagem.
Como falei no início dessa análise, tinha tudo pra ser um jogo perfeito. Daqueles memoráveis, que entrariam para a galeria de ouro de melhores jogos indie de todos os tempos. Infelizmente, como a jogabilidade não é algo que pode ser ignorado (afinal, ainda estamos falando de um JOGO), ela ser de mediana para ruim fez com que roubasse o holofote dos outros aspectos excepcionais do jogo durante toda a sua duração. Se o resto não fosse brilhante, seria um péssimo jogo. Parabéns aos escritores dessa trama, aos compositores das músicas e a quem dublou os personagens. Ficou realmente incrível, e foram ofuscados por uma gameplay "xexelenta".
I personally like that this metroidvania clearly tried to do more than just copy the source material, but that comes with the burden of being the pathfinder. As such, the game delivers on a beautiful and captivating environmental feel, but the pacing and gameplay do have their stronger faults. I would love to see a sequel improve upon the foundation laid here.
I was a backer for Ghost Song years ago and ultimately I enjoyed the game. The game does have its fair share of real flaws though, namely that Dark Souls was the worst thing to happen to indie Metroidvanias because they made indie devs think tedious ass mechanics like loads of backtracking and getting you into a penalty loop for dying in your attempts to get better were good game design. Regardless, I liked the game in spite of this and it also really helps that if you play Explorer Mode most of the mechanics that punish you for dying are cut. I’d seriously suggest playing Explorer right now too because the game needs a couple of balance patches when it come to a couple stuff like some boss hitboxes and better placement of warp zones, I can see how parts of the game could potentially be a major pain in the ass on Normal Mode.
For the positives Ghost Song nails what I think is one of the most important things to get right in Metroidvanias, it rewards exploration. There are very few areas of the map that don’t reward you in some noticeable way, may it be through currency, sub-weapons, equipment modules that give you different benefits, and permanent stat buffs. The game also rewards experimentation too as you can get some real powerful builds if you combine you sub-weapons and modules in certain ways. The game starts off rather slow and clunky but once you start getting more abilities it starts to flow better. One real cool thing is that the game is pretty open-ended in you how you collect ship parts which are required to get to endgame. There’s a bit of an annoying mechanic where you have to make the whole journey back to the ship to return the parts though. Ironically, the first part the game tells you get to is the hardest due to the walk back being weirdly kind of brutal and long compared to pretty much every other one which are much shorter and are less of a hassle. I would actually recommend not picking that one up until later because you can unlock the other movement abilities first. Combat gets better as the game goes along and you get more sub-weapons and modules. The focus on switching between your gun and its sub-weapons and the melee weapons you pick up is a neat one and gives you some freedom in how you approach combat.
The level design is mostly okay though it has few standout areas compared to others in the genre like Bloodstained and Hollow Knight. The music is also just kind of there. The writing is decent with your interactions of the survivors of a stranded ship, though the ending is just kind of a nothing anti-climax. The game looks pretty good though and nicely atmospheric.
Still as I said overall despite its flaws I had a fun time with Ghost Song and it did fill some of that Metroid shaped-hole in my heart because I was really disappointed by Dread. Worth checking out.
For the positives Ghost Song nails what I think is one of the most important things to get right in Metroidvanias, it rewards exploration. There are very few areas of the map that don’t reward you in some noticeable way, may it be through currency, sub-weapons, equipment modules that give you different benefits, and permanent stat buffs. The game also rewards experimentation too as you can get some real powerful builds if you combine you sub-weapons and modules in certain ways. The game starts off rather slow and clunky but once you start getting more abilities it starts to flow better. One real cool thing is that the game is pretty open-ended in you how you collect ship parts which are required to get to endgame. There’s a bit of an annoying mechanic where you have to make the whole journey back to the ship to return the parts though. Ironically, the first part the game tells you get to is the hardest due to the walk back being weirdly kind of brutal and long compared to pretty much every other one which are much shorter and are less of a hassle. I would actually recommend not picking that one up until later because you can unlock the other movement abilities first. Combat gets better as the game goes along and you get more sub-weapons and modules. The focus on switching between your gun and its sub-weapons and the melee weapons you pick up is a neat one and gives you some freedom in how you approach combat.
The level design is mostly okay though it has few standout areas compared to others in the genre like Bloodstained and Hollow Knight. The music is also just kind of there. The writing is decent with your interactions of the survivors of a stranded ship, though the ending is just kind of a nothing anti-climax. The game looks pretty good though and nicely atmospheric.
Still as I said overall despite its flaws I had a fun time with Ghost Song and it did fill some of that Metroid shaped-hole in my heart because I was really disappointed by Dread. Worth checking out.
Seems okay, but nothing in it really hooked me. The movement speed was a little too slow for my liking, with a lot of trekking around unnecessarily large rooms of nothing back and forth.
Shelving it, for now, but I might revisit it at some point. Right now, I have no motivation to keep going with this.
Shelving it, for now, but I might revisit it at some point. Right now, I have no motivation to keep going with this.
Metroidklon mit Blasphemous-Anleihen. Sieht ganz hübsch aus, Gameplay ist jedoch uninspiriert. Eines unter zahlreichen 2D Soulslike Gähnern...
I don't really like putting reviews for games I drop, I feel like I dont want to throw my hat in on a game i didnt finish even if I think my reasons are legit, but I was looking forward to this game since the crowdfunding days and getting really let down by this game was big bummer.
The big thing for me is that this game made me think this was gonna be the indie metroidvania that gave me what I wanted: metroid, not castlevania or hollowknight or dark souls but in 2d. It sure seems like it; it's scifi, you got an armcannon, you kinda look like samus, surely this is the one, right?
Sadly, it's not , especially because it really doesn't want you to do the shooting part of metroid. The game has a heat mechanic where if you shoot too much your weapon will overheat, resulting in really weak shots, and improved melee hits. However, it overheats in like 2-3 seconds of shooting and it takes a lot time for your weapon to reduce heat, often leading to constantly having to swap between ranged and melee. It doesn't feel good, if you want to metroid shoot it up it feels really bad even if you're taking upgrade pieces with the shooting in mind, because you're constantly in overheat and will stay overheated unless you start meleeing, and the melee combat just feels mediocre and limited overall. Special weapons are also attached to their own meter, which i guess is nice rather than ammo but the special recharge is so slow. I feel like no matter what I do im just out of resources at all times even when using equipment with the goal reducing the downtime.
the game also has a lot of Souls mechanics because every game needs them now for some reason and this game did not need them and does not improve the experience. Enemies drop souls which you use to improve stats and upgrade slots, and if you die you drop them and have the pick them up. However, very curiously, not every save point in this game is where you can level up. infact, most of them aren't. In my playtime I only found like 3 of them that let me level up/quicksave. Thinking "i have a lot of souls i should look for a bonfire and level up" becomes an entire endeavor of backtracking through many, many screens to hit a levelup bonfire. It turns out, the souls thing where you hit a bonfire after being alive for a long time and carving through with a ton of souls in your pocket stops being a good feeling when most bonfires wont let you actually dump your souls.
you also do the thing where you lose max health when you die, and picking up your souls does not bring your health back and instead you need to... once again go back to a levelup shrine to repair yourself. It's just tedious.
Ultimately it all comes to head for me when I died on a foggate'd section, went back to it, and found that the foggate was activated, I was locked out of the fight, and I couldn't progress anymore. Maybe if I explored around more and did some other stuff it would've fixed itself, but I wasn't really enjoying myself so I just gave up on it.
It's all disappointing. I think the game's character designs look nice, even if it has that flash movement to it, it gave up on the good parts of metroid by replacing it with melee and souls mechanics because idk hollow knight was popular.
To any indie devs interested in making a metroidvania who is following this: PLEASE stop making souls game in 2d i beg you. i want to play metroid. please rip off metroid i am begging you.
The big thing for me is that this game made me think this was gonna be the indie metroidvania that gave me what I wanted: metroid, not castlevania or hollowknight or dark souls but in 2d. It sure seems like it; it's scifi, you got an armcannon, you kinda look like samus, surely this is the one, right?
Sadly, it's not , especially because it really doesn't want you to do the shooting part of metroid. The game has a heat mechanic where if you shoot too much your weapon will overheat, resulting in really weak shots, and improved melee hits. However, it overheats in like 2-3 seconds of shooting and it takes a lot time for your weapon to reduce heat, often leading to constantly having to swap between ranged and melee. It doesn't feel good, if you want to metroid shoot it up it feels really bad even if you're taking upgrade pieces with the shooting in mind, because you're constantly in overheat and will stay overheated unless you start meleeing, and the melee combat just feels mediocre and limited overall. Special weapons are also attached to their own meter, which i guess is nice rather than ammo but the special recharge is so slow. I feel like no matter what I do im just out of resources at all times even when using equipment with the goal reducing the downtime.
the game also has a lot of Souls mechanics because every game needs them now for some reason and this game did not need them and does not improve the experience. Enemies drop souls which you use to improve stats and upgrade slots, and if you die you drop them and have the pick them up. However, very curiously, not every save point in this game is where you can level up. infact, most of them aren't. In my playtime I only found like 3 of them that let me level up/quicksave. Thinking "i have a lot of souls i should look for a bonfire and level up" becomes an entire endeavor of backtracking through many, many screens to hit a levelup bonfire. It turns out, the souls thing where you hit a bonfire after being alive for a long time and carving through with a ton of souls in your pocket stops being a good feeling when most bonfires wont let you actually dump your souls.
you also do the thing where you lose max health when you die, and picking up your souls does not bring your health back and instead you need to... once again go back to a levelup shrine to repair yourself. It's just tedious.
Ultimately it all comes to head for me when I died on a foggate'd section, went back to it, and found that the foggate was activated, I was locked out of the fight, and I couldn't progress anymore. Maybe if I explored around more and did some other stuff it would've fixed itself, but I wasn't really enjoying myself so I just gave up on it.
It's all disappointing. I think the game's character designs look nice, even if it has that flash movement to it, it gave up on the good parts of metroid by replacing it with melee and souls mechanics because idk hollow knight was popular.
To any indie devs interested in making a metroidvania who is following this: PLEASE stop making souls game in 2d i beg you. i want to play metroid. please rip off metroid i am begging you.
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.
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.
Abandon Reason: The game unfortunately did not respect my time with a lot of long death runs and a lot of backtracking. As well as some very clumsy gameplay/controls.
There's potential here, but the game design is just a mess of concepts that essentially amount to "let's be different for the sake of being different" without regard for how the design impedes fun or potential fun.
Observations:
-- Like walking/running and aiming? Not in this game. Hold a button to stand still and aim and hope you're not shaky with your analog stick, because weak spots receive more damage.
-- If you use your gun for too long, it overheats and your range and amount of damage output decrease. The tradeoff is that whatever melee weapon you have deals extra damage during this time. This will last for a limited time before the weapon cools down and you're back to firing your gun for damage again. What about enemies that excel at ranged attacks or proximity attacks? What about enemies that are strong against one type of attack and not the other? Answer: if they exist, too bad, suck it up and waste time using the other weapon form.
-- On one hand, I want to praise the exploration that the game allows for, since there's a lot of winding paths that loop back on each other but plenty of nooks and crannies to go for. On the other, the map doesn't even list legitimate passages in a number of places and gating is based on abilities you find in random places that aren't necessarily obvious.
-- Although I don't care much about signposting, this game is terrible about it outside of when you first accept the main quest of the game and are given five general directions to go in. You are advised to take on a certain one first, but you can theoretically reach each of the other ones if you just wander around aimlessly and find all the necessary gated abilities for a given area.
-- I don't mind that the Souls system is present (they even define your level as "SL #" after the Souls system) and I don't mind the modules that essentially feel like the charm system from Hollow Knight. If something works, why not borrow it and find a way to logically incorporate it into your game. We don't ask car manufacturers to find alternatives for wheels or side-view mirrors, so I don't see the problem in devs working with something that's a functional system.
-- The missile subweapon is just so much more appealing than any other one I found, especially once you're used to miserably standing still while aiming. It's also considered a gated ability needed for progression, so it feels like it's mandatory to have it at the ready anyway.
-- The real sadness for this game is in the main quest to retrieve some stuff and bring it back to a base. For what I can only assume are story-based reasons, you cannot fast travel from the location where you acquire one of the vital parts. You have to trudge back a good 20-30 minutes to the base because...because. You also can't opt to go hunt down another part because the game explicitly tells you as much -- if you beat a boss and grab a part, you're stuck with the part and the long walk back and you just have to shrug your shoulders and suck up doing a pointlessly long walk for...reasons.
The lattermost point I listed above REALLY took me out of the game. I don't want to spend an extra 2-3 hours of walking back to base just to satisfy some random dev need. It doesn't bring me joy, it doesn't keep me invested -- I'd just rather be doing anything else. It's great that you added in some new monsters on the way back; still not interested.
I found two bosses before giving up and the second one seemed like it could be fun to try and figure out, but after getting through the first boss on the first try, my interest in knowing I'm stuck with four more walks back is zero, I'm done. At least the MC has an appealing personality I can get behind.
Observations:
-- Like walking/running and aiming? Not in this game. Hold a button to stand still and aim and hope you're not shaky with your analog stick, because weak spots receive more damage.
-- If you use your gun for too long, it overheats and your range and amount of damage output decrease. The tradeoff is that whatever melee weapon you have deals extra damage during this time. This will last for a limited time before the weapon cools down and you're back to firing your gun for damage again. What about enemies that excel at ranged attacks or proximity attacks? What about enemies that are strong against one type of attack and not the other? Answer: if they exist, too bad, suck it up and waste time using the other weapon form.
-- On one hand, I want to praise the exploration that the game allows for, since there's a lot of winding paths that loop back on each other but plenty of nooks and crannies to go for. On the other, the map doesn't even list legitimate passages in a number of places and gating is based on abilities you find in random places that aren't necessarily obvious.
-- Although I don't care much about signposting, this game is terrible about it outside of when you first accept the main quest of the game and are given five general directions to go in. You are advised to take on a certain one first, but you can theoretically reach each of the other ones if you just wander around aimlessly and find all the necessary gated abilities for a given area.
-- I don't mind that the Souls system is present (they even define your level as "SL #" after the Souls system) and I don't mind the modules that essentially feel like the charm system from Hollow Knight. If something works, why not borrow it and find a way to logically incorporate it into your game. We don't ask car manufacturers to find alternatives for wheels or side-view mirrors, so I don't see the problem in devs working with something that's a functional system.
-- The missile subweapon is just so much more appealing than any other one I found, especially once you're used to miserably standing still while aiming. It's also considered a gated ability needed for progression, so it feels like it's mandatory to have it at the ready anyway.
-- The real sadness for this game is in the main quest to retrieve some stuff and bring it back to a base. For what I can only assume are story-based reasons, you cannot fast travel from the location where you acquire one of the vital parts. You have to trudge back a good 20-30 minutes to the base because...because. You also can't opt to go hunt down another part because the game explicitly tells you as much -- if you beat a boss and grab a part, you're stuck with the part and the long walk back and you just have to shrug your shoulders and suck up doing a pointlessly long walk for...reasons.
The lattermost point I listed above REALLY took me out of the game. I don't want to spend an extra 2-3 hours of walking back to base just to satisfy some random dev need. It doesn't bring me joy, it doesn't keep me invested -- I'd just rather be doing anything else. It's great that you added in some new monsters on the way back; still not interested.
I found two bosses before giving up and the second one seemed like it could be fun to try and figure out, but after getting through the first boss on the first try, my interest in knowing I'm stuck with four more walks back is zero, I'm done. At least the MC has an appealing personality I can get behind.
Hollow Knight really changed how metroidvania games are designed and Ghost Song is quite emblematic of this.
Ghost Song succeeds at being a mostly good game with a very striking atmosphere. The gameplay is pretty good albeit simple and straightforward. The story is just there. It's really nothing special.
Overall, it's an above average Metroidvania game that doesn't really excel at anything it does but it's comfort food. I wanted to play a cozy vania game and that's what I got out of this.
I did enjoy my time with it, overall, but it's hard to recommend when there's so much better stuff out there.
Ghost Song succeeds at being a mostly good game with a very striking atmosphere. The gameplay is pretty good albeit simple and straightforward. The story is just there. It's really nothing special.
Overall, it's an above average Metroidvania game that doesn't really excel at anything it does but it's comfort food. I wanted to play a cozy vania game and that's what I got out of this.
I did enjoy my time with it, overall, but it's hard to recommend when there's so much better stuff out there.
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.
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.
This review contains spoilers
Ero davvero molto interessato e intrigato nel vedere un Metroidvania che volesse mettere in risalto il primo segmento del nome del genere di cui esso fa parte, e ho aspettato impazientemente l'uscita di Ghost Song, totalmente ignaro di chi siano gli autori, se questo sia il loro primo lavoro o meno. Che sia così o no, non sarà giustificazione di ciò che ho da dire, e mamma mia se ho da parlare...
Partiamo con ordine. Il gioco riesce in maniera decente a ricreare un'atmosfera e un ambiente accattivante, simile ad un Metroid, nonostante la presenza di una base piena di NPC(presenti anche nell'intera mappa) non diano quel senso di isolamento e totale solitudine che mi han sempre affascinato dei Metroid, ma magari il team non puntava a questo.
Dal punto di vista narrativo non mi è chiaro molto, la narrazione è subdola, con poche informazioni che derivano principalmente da interminabili dialoghi con gli NPC, a volte davvero lunghi e molto spesso incentrati più sui problemi personali di questi ultimi piuttosto che sulle vicende che avvengono nel mondo. Non avendo approfondito abbastanza, non mi dilungo oltre.
Il gioco, come già detto, è un Metroidvania, ma trae forte ispirazione da Hollow Knight e, ovviamente, Dark Souls. Parlando di Dark Souls, mi duole anche sottolineare che vedo molte meccaniche di gioco riprese da Dark Souls 2, e da qui non vi nego che il gioco, personalmente, mi ha deluso profondamente.
Vorrei parlare prima velocemente del lato sonoro del gioco. Oltre alla colonna sonora, che ho trovato davvero monotona e per nulla variegata (non figura davvero nessuna OST ), il gioco soffre (ed è davvero incredibilmente fastidioso) di problemi di equalizzazione audio imperdonabili. Non importa quanto impostiate alto o basso il volume, ci saranno SFX o anche voci che vi spaccheranno i timpani per quanto siano alti (così alti da essere anche fortemente distorti, comunque ho giocato solo in cuffia, quindi non saprei se sia così anche da speaker).
Il gameplay, nel complesso, non è neanche malvagio; purtroppo scelte, level design e meccaniche di gioco alquanto discutibili rovinano davvero l'esperienza nella sua interezza. Il gioco tende ad avere un livello di difficoltà abbastanza punitivo nelle prime fasi di gioco per poi semplificarsi grazie a potenziamenti che otterremo durante l'esplorazione del mondo, alcuni permanenti per migliorare le opzioni di movimento, altri equipaggiabili per migliorare i parametri o equipaggiare diversi tipi di armi e cannoni (come il sistema degli amuleti di Hollow Knight).
Ora ci divertiamo.
Il gioco prende due meccaniche in particolare da Dark Souls 2. Oltre al classico "muori, perdi le anime, recuperale sul posto o le perderai irrimediabilmente ad una seconda morte", il gioco troverà anche un modo aggiuntivo di punire la morte del giocatore. La vita totale del giocatore si abbasserà progressivamente per ogni morte, fino a dimmezzarla (o quasi). In più gli Healing Cores (le Estus per intenderci) ci cureranno progressivamente e non istantaneamente. Nonostante la seconda non sia chissà quale disastro, ho trovato la prima meccanica totalmente superflua, in quanto il problema ricade anche sul fatto che per recuperare la vita mancante dovremmo ripararci presso delle statue che saranno sparse per la mappa di gioco (e in nessun altro modo).
E qui un altro punto a sfavore a mio avviso ricade proprio nel level design. Queste statue serviranno non solo a ripararci, ma anche a salire di livello e fungeranno anche come punti di viaggio rapido per poterci spostare velocemente presso altre statue. Il problema qui è il seguente: le statue non solo sono poche a mio avviso, ma sono anche posizionate in posti "scomodi", lontani da molti punti d'interesse principali, lontani da punti di salvataggio, rendendo il backtracking per ripararsi (magari prima di un boss) davvero tedioso e pericoloso se abbiamo perso i Nanogel (le anime) in precedenza. Aggiungo inoltre che anche i punti di salvataggio sono posizionato distanti dai boss e poche volte mi è capitato di trovare degli shortcut particolarmente efficaci per poter tornare ad un boss senza troppi problemi, inoltre non capisco proprio la scelta di rendere il Level Up disponibile solo alle statue sopra citate piuttosto che ad ogni punto di salvataggio avendo essi la sola funzione di salvare il gioco, valere come checkpoint e ripristinare vita e Healing Core. Meccaniche e design di gioco che rendono l'esperienza spesso davvero frustrante , e al solo scopo di allungare il brodo, essendo che probabilmente privati di queste limitazioni il gioco durerebbe anche metà delle 8 ore che ho speso per finirlo [MINOR SPOILER: Quando dovremmo recuperare delle parti per completare la quest principale, non avremo neanche la possibilità di usare il viaggio rapido, in quanto finchè non porteremo quell'oggetto a destinazione quest'ultimo sarà totalmente disattivato].
Non ho approfondito molto le quest secondarie degli NPC, ne ho portate a termine un paio e mi sono sembrate abbastanza godibili, senza infamia nè lode.
Piccola nota anche sui comandi, piuttosto legnosi e, per mia infinita rabbia, non modificabili...
In conclusione, Ghost Song è un Metroidvania che poteva aspirare a molto più di quello che ha mostrato. Non mi sento di bocciarlo in quanto il sistema di combattimento, dopotutto, funziona relativamente bene e l'esplorazione mostra comunque lati interessanti. Un peccato che cada sotto il peso delle sue stesse meccaniche rindondanti, obsolete e a tratti frustranti.
Davvero un peccato.
Voto finale: 6.5/10
Partiamo con ordine. Il gioco riesce in maniera decente a ricreare un'atmosfera e un ambiente accattivante, simile ad un Metroid, nonostante la presenza di una base piena di NPC(presenti anche nell'intera mappa) non diano quel senso di isolamento e totale solitudine che mi han sempre affascinato dei Metroid, ma magari il team non puntava a questo.
Dal punto di vista narrativo non mi è chiaro molto, la narrazione è subdola, con poche informazioni che derivano principalmente da interminabili dialoghi con gli NPC, a volte davvero lunghi e molto spesso incentrati più sui problemi personali di questi ultimi piuttosto che sulle vicende che avvengono nel mondo. Non avendo approfondito abbastanza, non mi dilungo oltre.
Il gioco, come già detto, è un Metroidvania, ma trae forte ispirazione da Hollow Knight e, ovviamente, Dark Souls. Parlando di Dark Souls, mi duole anche sottolineare che vedo molte meccaniche di gioco riprese da Dark Souls 2, e da qui non vi nego che il gioco, personalmente, mi ha deluso profondamente.
Vorrei parlare prima velocemente del lato sonoro del gioco. Oltre alla colonna sonora, che ho trovato davvero monotona e per nulla variegata (non figura davvero nessuna OST ), il gioco soffre (ed è davvero incredibilmente fastidioso) di problemi di equalizzazione audio imperdonabili. Non importa quanto impostiate alto o basso il volume, ci saranno SFX o anche voci che vi spaccheranno i timpani per quanto siano alti (così alti da essere anche fortemente distorti, comunque ho giocato solo in cuffia, quindi non saprei se sia così anche da speaker).
Il gameplay, nel complesso, non è neanche malvagio; purtroppo scelte, level design e meccaniche di gioco alquanto discutibili rovinano davvero l'esperienza nella sua interezza. Il gioco tende ad avere un livello di difficoltà abbastanza punitivo nelle prime fasi di gioco per poi semplificarsi grazie a potenziamenti che otterremo durante l'esplorazione del mondo, alcuni permanenti per migliorare le opzioni di movimento, altri equipaggiabili per migliorare i parametri o equipaggiare diversi tipi di armi e cannoni (come il sistema degli amuleti di Hollow Knight).
Ora ci divertiamo.
Il gioco prende due meccaniche in particolare da Dark Souls 2. Oltre al classico "muori, perdi le anime, recuperale sul posto o le perderai irrimediabilmente ad una seconda morte", il gioco troverà anche un modo aggiuntivo di punire la morte del giocatore. La vita totale del giocatore si abbasserà progressivamente per ogni morte, fino a dimmezzarla (o quasi). In più gli Healing Cores (le Estus per intenderci) ci cureranno progressivamente e non istantaneamente. Nonostante la seconda non sia chissà quale disastro, ho trovato la prima meccanica totalmente superflua, in quanto il problema ricade anche sul fatto che per recuperare la vita mancante dovremmo ripararci presso delle statue che saranno sparse per la mappa di gioco (e in nessun altro modo).
E qui un altro punto a sfavore a mio avviso ricade proprio nel level design. Queste statue serviranno non solo a ripararci, ma anche a salire di livello e fungeranno anche come punti di viaggio rapido per poterci spostare velocemente presso altre statue. Il problema qui è il seguente: le statue non solo sono poche a mio avviso, ma sono anche posizionate in posti "scomodi", lontani da molti punti d'interesse principali, lontani da punti di salvataggio, rendendo il backtracking per ripararsi (magari prima di un boss) davvero tedioso e pericoloso se abbiamo perso i Nanogel (le anime) in precedenza. Aggiungo inoltre che anche i punti di salvataggio sono posizionato distanti dai boss e poche volte mi è capitato di trovare degli shortcut particolarmente efficaci per poter tornare ad un boss senza troppi problemi, inoltre non capisco proprio la scelta di rendere il Level Up disponibile solo alle statue sopra citate piuttosto che ad ogni punto di salvataggio avendo essi la sola funzione di salvare il gioco, valere come checkpoint e ripristinare vita e Healing Core. Meccaniche e design di gioco che rendono l'esperienza spesso davvero frustrante , e al solo scopo di allungare il brodo, essendo che probabilmente privati di queste limitazioni il gioco durerebbe anche metà delle 8 ore che ho speso per finirlo [MINOR SPOILER: Quando dovremmo recuperare delle parti per completare la quest principale, non avremo neanche la possibilità di usare il viaggio rapido, in quanto finchè non porteremo quell'oggetto a destinazione quest'ultimo sarà totalmente disattivato].
Non ho approfondito molto le quest secondarie degli NPC, ne ho portate a termine un paio e mi sono sembrate abbastanza godibili, senza infamia nè lode.
Piccola nota anche sui comandi, piuttosto legnosi e, per mia infinita rabbia, non modificabili...
In conclusione, Ghost Song è un Metroidvania che poteva aspirare a molto più di quello che ha mostrato. Non mi sento di bocciarlo in quanto il sistema di combattimento, dopotutto, funziona relativamente bene e l'esplorazione mostra comunque lati interessanti. Un peccato che cada sotto il peso delle sue stesse meccaniche rindondanti, obsolete e a tratti frustranti.
Davvero un peccato.
Voto finale: 6.5/10
I enjoyed it a lot for the atmosphere, the soundtrack really delivered on exploring a desolate wild world, with melancholic tracks that matched wonderfully with the game's cool colour palette and detailed, eerie backgrounds. I loved the characters too, it was a colourful cast that helped flesh out the world and offered very welcomed moments of respite and reflection among the games gloom and often rather grueling combat encounters.
Which was the thing that really held this back for me, the game is hard and on top of the health spongy enemies I often felt like I was struggling against the controls for combat. The max health reduction from each death until you can repair at the sparsely placed statues didnt add anything for me except for tedious backtracking while dealing with boss encounters either, and while I did like the idea of the variety of weapon options the game has, most didn't offer a big enough jump in fire power to make dealing with rooms any less tedious or to justify using them over more basic starting tools. Honestly someone else might enjoy the slower, more deliberate pace of combat but it lead to moments of frustration for me.
However, getting to see more of this beautifully crafted world was enough motivation for me to push through. Theres a lot to love here but most people would be better served with the game's easier difficulty option.
Which was the thing that really held this back for me, the game is hard and on top of the health spongy enemies I often felt like I was struggling against the controls for combat. The max health reduction from each death until you can repair at the sparsely placed statues didnt add anything for me except for tedious backtracking while dealing with boss encounters either, and while I did like the idea of the variety of weapon options the game has, most didn't offer a big enough jump in fire power to make dealing with rooms any less tedious or to justify using them over more basic starting tools. Honestly someone else might enjoy the slower, more deliberate pace of combat but it lead to moments of frustration for me.
However, getting to see more of this beautifully crafted world was enough motivation for me to push through. Theres a lot to love here but most people would be better served with the game's easier difficulty option.
Personally, I enjoyed Ghost Song quite a bit. The artstyle was nice, the gameplay was fun in my opinion (although the spongier enemies were annoying), and I enjoyed the different areas. However, the ending felt disappointing, and I feel like more could've been done with the characters - especially since some of the very key lore conversations revolve around you being in the right place at the right time, meaning that exploring a section and being done with it too early could mean you miss out on a character being there later on. The fact that a few characters got "you heard all my dialogue and possibly helped with a sidequest, have a reward" while others were left with nothing also felt a bit odd to me. The voice acting for characters was generally solid, nothing exceptional but not bad at all. My biggest disappointment in the character department revolves around a (spoiler) character who seems like they'd be a major force, but they only have a single conversation with you where they drop plot points.
The bosses and minibosses seem to be one of the more divisive things from what I saw, but personally I enjoyed them. They usually had some good designs, and the bosses had some pretty fun fights most of the time. The game's atmosphere was also great, and areas such as the far left one left me with a heavy sense of dread thanks to one of the enemies found within.
tl;dr good art and atmosphere, fun gameplay, spongy enemies, some disappointments when it came to characters and the storytelling method
The bosses and minibosses seem to be one of the more divisive things from what I saw, but personally I enjoyed them. They usually had some good designs, and the bosses had some pretty fun fights most of the time. The game's atmosphere was also great, and areas such as the far left one left me with a heavy sense of dread thanks to one of the enemies found within.
tl;dr good art and atmosphere, fun gameplay, spongy enemies, some disappointments when it came to characters and the storytelling method
cool art but the combat feels like it was not meant for human consumption