Jomseph
had a blast with this. what it perhaps lacks in presentational polish, it more than makes up for with rough-hewn charm and what i think might just be the deepest, most satisfying combat i've ever encountered in a 2d platformer. sincerely implore people to try this one out, the demo is free so there's no excuse to sleep on it. really looking forward to the full release!
Review written after around 40 hours, SSS ranked all levels of the Act 1 demo.
Magenta Horizon enemy roster is extremely well thought out. They are aggressive, come in high numbers and they all feel like pieces of a greater whole. What Magenta does well is that it doesn’t forget that enemies are not good just in a vacuum but work better in the interplay between each other. Enemy compositions are always engaging and make each of the chess pieces shine. They control space in different ways, hit you with projectiles or obstruct movement by sheer size alone. They also come in combinations that bolsters each other covering up weaknesses.
Big bats are easy to stagger but shoot out projectile even after you bring them to the ground, small fodder enemies come in high numbers and and can easily overwhelm you on the ground, Lobsters physically block you impeding your mobility, ranged enemies need to be dealt with fasts and high tier enemies work well both on the ground and on the air, can create hazard or support each others.The game builds on this more and more with arenas becoming way more dense of enemies, creating a system that is both chaotic and intentional, forcing you to adapt, make split second decisions and constantly re-evaluate target prioritization.
The enemy that most exemplifies this is the Propeller Demon, a small helicopter that damages and staggers you if you come in contact with its propeller blade. Alone they are easily dealt with by attacking them from below. However in combination with other enemies they become a priority as they control air space forcing you to rethink the way you move and position yourself.
The focus on enemy design doesn’t mean the player’s kit is lacking. Gretel has a lot of different moves both in the air and on the ground; strings aren’t long, instead you have different attacks that all feel distinct, useful and flow into each other seamlessly. The option while on the air especially shines through, inspired by Hollow Knight, you can pogo enemies to stay in the air but Magenta also adds two more options that open up aerial play even more. The diagonal dive builds on the pogo by having similar properties and opening up both more mobility and more approach options. The hook, instead, doubles as both an offensive and defensive tool pulling you towards enemies and letting you pass through some of them creating yet another approach option. While the lack of a movelist can be frustrating it also makes discovering new moves more organic and interesting, it will most likely be patched in later tho.
A sub weapon system supports the melee, each with their own meters that recharge by hitting enemies. In act 1 there are four of them, a simple projectile, a grenade, a spike attack and a propeller blades that work similar to a boomerang.
They also work in combination: hit a grenade with a projectile and it will create a bigger AOE explosion staggering enemies in his path, skewer the propeller blade with a well timed spike and it will spin in place dealing heavy damage all around.
As a way to customize your playstyle you also have necklaces pieces you can equip in the style of Hollow Knight that modify your moves, give you more offensive and defensive options, make moves behave differently depending on the combo counter and so on.
The slots are limited but the low number of options at the moment don’t create meaningful choices, but this will most likely change as the game gets updated.
This offensive option is also supplemented by an incredibly smart healing system, instead of using consumable items, by hitting enemies you increase a meter that gives you up to 3 charges of a healing grenade. Toss it to an enemy and for a time any damage you do to it will spawn healing orbs. Obviously this promotes aggressive play and makes it so you always need to take a risk if you want to replenish your health, but the true beauty of the system comes from the more offensive application . Equip a specific necklace piece and healing bomb will start to deal heavy stagger to enemies,you can now using it proactively taking a risk by spending a charge when you don’t need to heal , stopping a group of enemies charging at you, creating space in a chaotic situation or setting up for a combo
The same thought and care is put on the defensive options you have at your disposal together with the aforementioned pogo, dive and hook you also have an iframe dash. Dodging itself can’t be done without thought, larger or blocking enemies can’t be dodge through, once again controlling space in an interesting way.
The breadth of options means that any single one is never over centralized even more so thanks to the importance of correct positioning. Where and when you position yourself is paramount both for avoiding and punishing enemies. Harder enemies are designed with this in mind having attacks dependent on your position in relation to them that can’t be dodged on reaction alone.
This is even more apparent during boss fights.
All of the fights are engaging and fun to fight, testing you in different ways and most of the time having to split your attention to different targets playing to the system strengths.
Bulcher the train, mascot of the game, is a favorite of mine, having you continuously rethink your approach as you jump over him, avoid his charges and position yourself fishing specific attacks, all in a split seconds situation all the while dealing with propeller blades that control aerial space. Reminiscent of classic Monster Hunter is a robust system that sees the boss stagger once a secondary bar is depleted, timing your attack correctly will even make you stop a charging train.
Of the entire boss roster only one of them feels on the more mediocre side, mainly ‘cause it’s easily dealt with by just keeping in the air and doesn’t play in the controlled chaos as much as it could.
The arena design doesn’t disappoint either. Especially on the higher difficulties, Magenta plays with interesting ideas. Instead of simple carenas, you also have cramped spaces, environmental hazards and small platforms over spikes with aerial enemies forcing you to stay on the move. Bolstering the already incredible enemy design even more and creating always fresh situations.
These arenas together with the non combat areas are also fun to traverse. Levels are simple mazes that offer choices in how to route, together with cool optional fights and hidden items.
While the art direction is both unique and well made, the levels can be confusing to traverse at time, routing the level to obtain a better time rank is fun however so some frustration at first does increase the overall enjoyments on replays.
The ranking system frames the entire experience. Other than on time spent, it also ranks your style points and deaths. Interestingly damage taken is not ranked and this works twofold.
It makes it possible to keep enemy count and aggression high as taking damage becomes expected.
It makes going for high ranks not frustrating at all as minor mistakes don’t force you to reset each time, instead rewarding you for your mastery of the combat system and level. With the added bonus of not making, as many games do, the health and healing system obsolete when going for SSS.
If it isn’t clear enough I’m enamored with the game and the potential it has and I urge you to try it out . The demo is free on both Itch and Steam, and it’s rare to see such well designed passion project type of action games with such level of polish and design, especially from a solo developer. So download the demon, and go enjoy the controlled chaos of a dance in purple.
Magenta Horizon enemy roster is extremely well thought out. They are aggressive, come in high numbers and they all feel like pieces of a greater whole. What Magenta does well is that it doesn’t forget that enemies are not good just in a vacuum but work better in the interplay between each other. Enemy compositions are always engaging and make each of the chess pieces shine. They control space in different ways, hit you with projectiles or obstruct movement by sheer size alone. They also come in combinations that bolsters each other covering up weaknesses.
Big bats are easy to stagger but shoot out projectile even after you bring them to the ground, small fodder enemies come in high numbers and and can easily overwhelm you on the ground, Lobsters physically block you impeding your mobility, ranged enemies need to be dealt with fasts and high tier enemies work well both on the ground and on the air, can create hazard or support each others.The game builds on this more and more with arenas becoming way more dense of enemies, creating a system that is both chaotic and intentional, forcing you to adapt, make split second decisions and constantly re-evaluate target prioritization.
The enemy that most exemplifies this is the Propeller Demon, a small helicopter that damages and staggers you if you come in contact with its propeller blade. Alone they are easily dealt with by attacking them from below. However in combination with other enemies they become a priority as they control air space forcing you to rethink the way you move and position yourself.
The focus on enemy design doesn’t mean the player’s kit is lacking. Gretel has a lot of different moves both in the air and on the ground; strings aren’t long, instead you have different attacks that all feel distinct, useful and flow into each other seamlessly. The option while on the air especially shines through, inspired by Hollow Knight, you can pogo enemies to stay in the air but Magenta also adds two more options that open up aerial play even more. The diagonal dive builds on the pogo by having similar properties and opening up both more mobility and more approach options. The hook, instead, doubles as both an offensive and defensive tool pulling you towards enemies and letting you pass through some of them creating yet another approach option. While the lack of a movelist can be frustrating it also makes discovering new moves more organic and interesting, it will most likely be patched in later tho.
A sub weapon system supports the melee, each with their own meters that recharge by hitting enemies. In act 1 there are four of them, a simple projectile, a grenade, a spike attack and a propeller blades that work similar to a boomerang.
They also work in combination: hit a grenade with a projectile and it will create a bigger AOE explosion staggering enemies in his path, skewer the propeller blade with a well timed spike and it will spin in place dealing heavy damage all around.
As a way to customize your playstyle you also have necklaces pieces you can equip in the style of Hollow Knight that modify your moves, give you more offensive and defensive options, make moves behave differently depending on the combo counter and so on.
The slots are limited but the low number of options at the moment don’t create meaningful choices, but this will most likely change as the game gets updated.
This offensive option is also supplemented by an incredibly smart healing system, instead of using consumable items, by hitting enemies you increase a meter that gives you up to 3 charges of a healing grenade. Toss it to an enemy and for a time any damage you do to it will spawn healing orbs. Obviously this promotes aggressive play and makes it so you always need to take a risk if you want to replenish your health, but the true beauty of the system comes from the more offensive application . Equip a specific necklace piece and healing bomb will start to deal heavy stagger to enemies,you can now using it proactively taking a risk by spending a charge when you don’t need to heal , stopping a group of enemies charging at you, creating space in a chaotic situation or setting up for a combo
The same thought and care is put on the defensive options you have at your disposal together with the aforementioned pogo, dive and hook you also have an iframe dash. Dodging itself can’t be done without thought, larger or blocking enemies can’t be dodge through, once again controlling space in an interesting way.
The breadth of options means that any single one is never over centralized even more so thanks to the importance of correct positioning. Where and when you position yourself is paramount both for avoiding and punishing enemies. Harder enemies are designed with this in mind having attacks dependent on your position in relation to them that can’t be dodged on reaction alone.
This is even more apparent during boss fights.
All of the fights are engaging and fun to fight, testing you in different ways and most of the time having to split your attention to different targets playing to the system strengths.
Bulcher the train, mascot of the game, is a favorite of mine, having you continuously rethink your approach as you jump over him, avoid his charges and position yourself fishing specific attacks, all in a split seconds situation all the while dealing with propeller blades that control aerial space. Reminiscent of classic Monster Hunter is a robust system that sees the boss stagger once a secondary bar is depleted, timing your attack correctly will even make you stop a charging train.
Of the entire boss roster only one of them feels on the more mediocre side, mainly ‘cause it’s easily dealt with by just keeping in the air and doesn’t play in the controlled chaos as much as it could.
The arena design doesn’t disappoint either. Especially on the higher difficulties, Magenta plays with interesting ideas. Instead of simple carenas, you also have cramped spaces, environmental hazards and small platforms over spikes with aerial enemies forcing you to stay on the move. Bolstering the already incredible enemy design even more and creating always fresh situations.
These arenas together with the non combat areas are also fun to traverse. Levels are simple mazes that offer choices in how to route, together with cool optional fights and hidden items.
While the art direction is both unique and well made, the levels can be confusing to traverse at time, routing the level to obtain a better time rank is fun however so some frustration at first does increase the overall enjoyments on replays.
The ranking system frames the entire experience. Other than on time spent, it also ranks your style points and deaths. Interestingly damage taken is not ranked and this works twofold.
It makes it possible to keep enemy count and aggression high as taking damage becomes expected.
It makes going for high ranks not frustrating at all as minor mistakes don’t force you to reset each time, instead rewarding you for your mastery of the combat system and level. With the added bonus of not making, as many games do, the health and healing system obsolete when going for SSS.
If it isn’t clear enough I’m enamored with the game and the potential it has and I urge you to try it out . The demo is free on both Itch and Steam, and it’s rare to see such well designed passion project type of action games with such level of polish and design, especially from a solo developer. So download the demon, and go enjoy the controlled chaos of a dance in purple.
This game is so awesome! There is so much that is amazing here, and playing this game made me happy. The final game will definetly be an instant purchase for me.Playing this game it is immediately obvious that the developer is a hardcore action game fan, and I think this game holds up with the other great action games I've played so far. I have only one complaint, and I'll leave it after my waves and waves of praise.
My favorite component is the soundtrack, which is just full of pure bangers. I love how the music transitions from exploration to combat, especially with the spike of more metal as a you get into a combat. I consistently listen to the ost for this game, and get boosted by it's energy. it is one of only two soundtracks I've purchased.
The base mechanics lead to an excellent combat system. The movement options are really nice. This has everything I enjoy about hollow knight combat, but with the addition of a couple exceptionally interesting moves and surprising amount of depth in variants for each verb to elevate this to a new level. I'll specifically call out two moves which are incredible and make this game standout a lot.
Dive attack: Having a diagonal downwards dive shakes things up a bunch. It takes a bit to get used too, but once you have a good feel for it {and there are some neat platforming sections that help you get used to it}, combat is injected with this incredible sense of motion. It serves as a great way to leave a pogoing in the air state, either to be incredibly aggressive or as a panicked escape. It also encourages more horizontal movement in general to complement an aerial strategy which makes combat more exciting.
Hook-dash: {a straight hook attack that dashes you through an enemy or obstacle on contact}. This move is a beautiful work of genius. It's shade dash's {from hollow knight} cooler sibling. There's quite a bit of skill to utilizing it because a few moments of wind up {to launch the hook}, so it's not an instant escape tool. Yet the nuances of this move make it loop back around to something that you can use slightly before you're in danger and need to move immediately. I love the momentum you get from using this, and again like the dive attack it encourages horizontal movement across the battle in a great way. Then on top of having this your character still has a normal dash that can also go through enemies, I like how this move takes more skill to use, and is a massive repositioning + evasive maneuver.
The best part is that the enemy design is fantastic and properly challenges and complements this move set. The above mentioned hook maneuver has certain enemies that are immune to it. Yet this is incredibly intuitive and always 100% obvious from visuals {long lads can not be hooked through, but any thin section of any enemy can always be hooked through}. Speaking of well-done visual design, there are helicopters in this game that just jaw droopingly genius in how their design naturally makes them immune to a certain type of attack {pogos}. Each enemy justifies their existence, and creates a certain type of pressure and challenge. Yet these enemies aren't used in isolation , but together in crazy and hectic battles where you have to manage the diversity and scale of problems from tons of enemies all at once. There's quite a few severe difficulty spikes, yet you feel awesome constantly and get huge rushes of satisfaction from managing to clear a chaotic arena or tough boss. The main gameplay here is so strong that I find myself sometimes just opening magenta horizon, doing a random stage, and quickly feeling awesome.
The visual style here is weird in a really exciting and awesome way. I specifically love the vibrant use of colors to create the strange setting. Too many games lack a nice use of color, and that along with some other personal taste has made generally uninterested in the type of setting this game has, but the art style of this game sells me on it. Instead of playing the game despite grotesque things that aren't really my vibe, I was excited to see what strange and twisted thing would be next. Some of the stages are sweet surprises that really standout too .
Now for my one complaint: the checkpoint system sucks and fills me with an indescribable rage. I hate constantly having to redo sections. It really deflates my enjoyment of the game to have to constantly go through battles again and again to get back to the actual part that I want to be playing after I die. The design of the system here is so ridiculous that I could often save time by just restarting the whole level and going for a more optimal checkpoint usage. Sometimes I'll get aggravated with the game and stop solely due to this, but I always return eventually excited to play. The boss battles are a highlight for me because you respawn right outside of the beginning of the fight. If I could play this game in a cheat mode where there were checkpoints before every fight I would be very happy.
Also to not end on negativity, I'll throw in some more lightning round praise
The ranged skills are cool, and there's tons of cool interactions and uses of them that I'm still discovering new stuff for after finishing act 1
The stage select is handy -> especially because you can select difficulty for playing that stage and also still have your characters unlocks
The hard post-game difficulty is interesting and well designed {so far it seems like too much for me but I am enjoying exploring it}
The bosses are chaotic and aggressive which makes them much more interesting than 50% of video game bosses. I can tell that the developer is a fellow GPZ {hollow knight boss} enjoyer.
Finally this game is incredibly impressive as a solo passion project. From studying game dev I'm intimately aware of so many pain points and have a big appreciation for the difficulty of creating a game. So by default I have a respect for any solo game, but this holds up to my actual favorites on top of that, so it is even more impressive. To be honest I idolize the developer a bit, and put them on the same pedestal of all the other monumental developers and games which inspire me to work to get to that level. [Also it should be noted that they are a cool person who I enjoy talking too, and supporting this game is incredibly emotionally satisfying]
My favorite component is the soundtrack, which is just full of pure bangers. I love how the music transitions from exploration to combat, especially with the spike of more metal as a you get into a combat. I consistently listen to the ost for this game, and get boosted by it's energy. it is one of only two soundtracks I've purchased.
The base mechanics lead to an excellent combat system. The movement options are really nice. This has everything I enjoy about hollow knight combat, but with the addition of a couple exceptionally interesting moves and surprising amount of depth in variants for each verb to elevate this to a new level. I'll specifically call out two moves which are incredible and make this game standout a lot.
Dive attack: Having a diagonal downwards dive shakes things up a bunch. It takes a bit to get used too, but once you have a good feel for it {and there are some neat platforming sections that help you get used to it}, combat is injected with this incredible sense of motion. It serves as a great way to leave a pogoing in the air state, either to be incredibly aggressive or as a panicked escape. It also encourages more horizontal movement in general to complement an aerial strategy which makes combat more exciting.
Hook-dash: {a straight hook attack that dashes you through an enemy or obstacle on contact}. This move is a beautiful work of genius. It's shade dash's {from hollow knight} cooler sibling. There's quite a bit of skill to utilizing it because a few moments of wind up {to launch the hook}, so it's not an instant escape tool. Yet the nuances of this move make it loop back around to something that you can use slightly before you're in danger and need to move immediately. I love the momentum you get from using this, and again like the dive attack it encourages horizontal movement across the battle in a great way. Then on top of having this your character still has a normal dash that can also go through enemies, I like how this move takes more skill to use, and is a massive repositioning + evasive maneuver.
The best part is that the enemy design is fantastic and properly challenges and complements this move set. The above mentioned hook maneuver has certain enemies that are immune to it. Yet this is incredibly intuitive and always 100% obvious from visuals {long lads can not be hooked through, but any thin section of any enemy can always be hooked through}. Speaking of well-done visual design, there are helicopters in this game that just jaw droopingly genius in how their design naturally makes them immune to a certain type of attack {pogos}. Each enemy justifies their existence, and creates a certain type of pressure and challenge. Yet these enemies aren't used in isolation , but together in crazy and hectic battles where you have to manage the diversity and scale of problems from tons of enemies all at once. There's quite a few severe difficulty spikes, yet you feel awesome constantly and get huge rushes of satisfaction from managing to clear a chaotic arena or tough boss. The main gameplay here is so strong that I find myself sometimes just opening magenta horizon, doing a random stage, and quickly feeling awesome.
The visual style here is weird in a really exciting and awesome way. I specifically love the vibrant use of colors to create the strange setting. Too many games lack a nice use of color, and that along with some other personal taste has made generally uninterested in the type of setting this game has, but the art style of this game sells me on it. Instead of playing the game despite grotesque things that aren't really my vibe, I was excited to see what strange and twisted thing would be next. Some of the stages are sweet surprises that really standout too .
Now for my one complaint: the checkpoint system sucks and fills me with an indescribable rage. I hate constantly having to redo sections. It really deflates my enjoyment of the game to have to constantly go through battles again and again to get back to the actual part that I want to be playing after I die. The design of the system here is so ridiculous that I could often save time by just restarting the whole level and going for a more optimal checkpoint usage. Sometimes I'll get aggravated with the game and stop solely due to this, but I always return eventually excited to play. The boss battles are a highlight for me because you respawn right outside of the beginning of the fight. If I could play this game in a cheat mode where there were checkpoints before every fight I would be very happy.
Also to not end on negativity, I'll throw in some more lightning round praise
The ranged skills are cool, and there's tons of cool interactions and uses of them that I'm still discovering new stuff for after finishing act 1
The stage select is handy -> especially because you can select difficulty for playing that stage and also still have your characters unlocks
The hard post-game difficulty is interesting and well designed {so far it seems like too much for me but I am enjoying exploring it}
The bosses are chaotic and aggressive which makes them much more interesting than 50% of video game bosses. I can tell that the developer is a fellow GPZ {hollow knight boss} enjoyer.
Finally this game is incredibly impressive as a solo passion project. From studying game dev I'm intimately aware of so many pain points and have a big appreciation for the difficulty of creating a game. So by default I have a respect for any solo game, but this holds up to my actual favorites on top of that, so it is even more impressive. To be honest I idolize the developer a bit, and put them on the same pedestal of all the other monumental developers and games which inspire me to work to get to that level. [Also it should be noted that they are a cool person who I enjoy talking too, and supporting this game is incredibly emotionally satisfying]
I will put 3 on this because I made this game so giving this a huge score is cheating. Also, the game development is not finished and I'm not fully satisfied with this yet.
============================
2022-04-21
Gotta update half-star up, because this game is getting closer to my ideal with enough dev works.
============================
2023-02-20
Magenta is an uncertain color. It’s a color spectrum beyond the visible purple, and since our eyes can’t receive it, we just replaced it with the average of red and purple and call it that way. It’s a recent day I found out that my second favorite color (the first being deep blue) has that story behind it, but knowing the story made me think of a thread for the conceptual work; the land of uncertainty.
When I was making that concept work, I was miserable, as my main job wasn’t satisfying at all and my side projects were ruined by a chain of misfortunes and my terrible choices. Chaotic overthinking was devouring my life, and my failure as a game dev cast a shadow over my confidence.
One thing good about being an artist is that there’s a way to express negative emotions via mediums, and it can be a catalyst for personal growth or even a pride of conqueror.
At that moment, I wanted to express the feeling of navigating through the uncertainty, organizing the chaotic situations with improvised methods, and the frenetic flow of my train of thought.
And I had to do it all alone because only I can make this work to be true, only I would take the burden of work, and only I wanted to conquer it.
So that’s how the concept of Magenta Horizon was born and the world was set in the afterlife. It’s a good place to start the concept work as the purple spectrum has some connotation with death in many cultures, but also there is an excuse to draw tons of grotesque monstrosity -my go-to drawing subjects-.
Personally, I’m not spiritual at all, but the afterlife setting can be a canvas for the world of aimless chaos, especially if the world after death is only a purgatory full of demons, and no heaven or hell exists. It’s a story about a little reaper from a human-led soul sanctum, and she has to find the meaning of her existence in this barren land. Even though in a literal sense, I didn’t suffer as much as the protagonist of this scenario, I tried to reflect my own experience in the story about tidying up the uncertainty and overcoming the odds.
Also, I wanted this setting to be expressed via my favorite genre of video game - Combo-action games. Not many games can provide the feeling of conquering and mastering hectic situations like the Devil May Cry series or the 3D Ninja Gaiden series do. Enemies come from below to rip and tear you apart. At first, you will feel panic. The erratic movement of foes doesn’t make sense at all and your options are too broad and vague to fully utilize at first. But you get a grip one by one. Each erratic chess piece reveals its pattern one by one, and you start to punish them accordingly. And then, you start to play with them, making your own comfort zone in the most stressful situation. Failures will be there, but that’s okay. You still learn from it. And after all that, the mountain of enemies is no more, chaos is calmed down, and the game pats your back with a good score.
That’s the feeling of conquering Magenta I wanted to capture.
This work might not be the most intuitive thing you will ever find in the market.
The tutorials are rough, the visuals and music are both noisy, and the obstacles don’t wait for their turns and rush at you. It will be an intimidating experience for most people.
But if you are ready to accept and embrace the premise I’m pitching, I urge you to try it out.
"Soar over purgatory and reap all the foes."
============================
2023-05-31
4/5. I'm getting there.
============================
2022-04-21
Gotta update half-star up, because this game is getting closer to my ideal with enough dev works.
============================
2023-02-20
Magenta is an uncertain color. It’s a color spectrum beyond the visible purple, and since our eyes can’t receive it, we just replaced it with the average of red and purple and call it that way. It’s a recent day I found out that my second favorite color (the first being deep blue) has that story behind it, but knowing the story made me think of a thread for the conceptual work; the land of uncertainty.
When I was making that concept work, I was miserable, as my main job wasn’t satisfying at all and my side projects were ruined by a chain of misfortunes and my terrible choices. Chaotic overthinking was devouring my life, and my failure as a game dev cast a shadow over my confidence.
One thing good about being an artist is that there’s a way to express negative emotions via mediums, and it can be a catalyst for personal growth or even a pride of conqueror.
At that moment, I wanted to express the feeling of navigating through the uncertainty, organizing the chaotic situations with improvised methods, and the frenetic flow of my train of thought.
And I had to do it all alone because only I can make this work to be true, only I would take the burden of work, and only I wanted to conquer it.
So that’s how the concept of Magenta Horizon was born and the world was set in the afterlife. It’s a good place to start the concept work as the purple spectrum has some connotation with death in many cultures, but also there is an excuse to draw tons of grotesque monstrosity -my go-to drawing subjects-.
Personally, I’m not spiritual at all, but the afterlife setting can be a canvas for the world of aimless chaos, especially if the world after death is only a purgatory full of demons, and no heaven or hell exists. It’s a story about a little reaper from a human-led soul sanctum, and she has to find the meaning of her existence in this barren land. Even though in a literal sense, I didn’t suffer as much as the protagonist of this scenario, I tried to reflect my own experience in the story about tidying up the uncertainty and overcoming the odds.
Also, I wanted this setting to be expressed via my favorite genre of video game - Combo-action games. Not many games can provide the feeling of conquering and mastering hectic situations like the Devil May Cry series or the 3D Ninja Gaiden series do. Enemies come from below to rip and tear you apart. At first, you will feel panic. The erratic movement of foes doesn’t make sense at all and your options are too broad and vague to fully utilize at first. But you get a grip one by one. Each erratic chess piece reveals its pattern one by one, and you start to punish them accordingly. And then, you start to play with them, making your own comfort zone in the most stressful situation. Failures will be there, but that’s okay. You still learn from it. And after all that, the mountain of enemies is no more, chaos is calmed down, and the game pats your back with a good score.
That’s the feeling of conquering Magenta I wanted to capture.
This work might not be the most intuitive thing you will ever find in the market.
The tutorials are rough, the visuals and music are both noisy, and the obstacles don’t wait for their turns and rush at you. It will be an intimidating experience for most people.
But if you are ready to accept and embrace the premise I’m pitching, I urge you to try it out.
"Soar over purgatory and reap all the foes."
============================
2023-05-31
4/5. I'm getting there.
Magenta Horizon is one of my favorite action games, perhaps even the most fun I’ve had in the genre. It’s a whirlwind of chaos and skill that is incredible to master.
Music that goes hard, wonderfully weird aesthetics, an expertly designed move set, a dizzying cast of delightfully devilish enemies, interesting stages + world, and a maniacal ceiling for challenge… this game is just packed with things to love.
Magenta Horizon is the full power of an action-game fiend, blasted at you without restraint. Each enemy type is cleverly designed to present you with a threat that deserves your attention… have fun dealing with an entire arena of them at the same time. There is a truly staggering number of monsters in this game, and they’re eager to gang up on you with their impressive diversity and powerful synergies.
Each arena is an incredibly crafted challenge. You aren’t only facing a purposeful onslaught of great enemies, often the arena layout itself is ready to join the fight against you. There’s a great sense of variety as you encounter various line-ups of enemies, strange environmental hazards, and interesting gimmicks. Especially amusing is the occasional flagrant disregard of occupancy limits… arenas that cram these enemies into a painfully tight space.
Gretel’s powerful moveset is what allows the game to have these mad challenges. She has a wide array of fantastic feeling moves that flow into each other as a non-stop stream of violence. Over the course of the game, you’ll unlock 8 (!) awesome magical spells that each provide a powerful ability… which also can synergize with each other to create awesome crowd devasting effects. Finally, Magenta Horizon has the greatest healing mechanic in all of video games. The glorious healing bomb promotes aggression so well that it puts things like DOOM’s glory kills to shame.
Speaking of aggression, this game has excellent bosses. None of the nonsense common to games where it feels like you and the boss are taking turns. Instead, both of you are wildly and relentlessly aggressive.
Magenta Horizon also has one of the best hard modes. Reaper difficulty is a beautiful force to be reckoned with, it cranks the wonderful challenge to a whole new level… here the enemy and arena design truly shine. It feels awesome to overcome these gauntlets which all prompt a “are you serious” reaction from me.
Finally, I must point out that Act 2 absolutely rules. This review applies to act 1, which you can check out for free… somehow Act 2 is even better. The levels are much more interesting to navigate, the musical style is even more developed, the necklace system starts to offer interesting decisions and build choices and of course the enemies are simply evil.
Music that goes hard, wonderfully weird aesthetics, an expertly designed move set, a dizzying cast of delightfully devilish enemies, interesting stages + world, and a maniacal ceiling for challenge… this game is just packed with things to love.
Magenta Horizon is the full power of an action-game fiend, blasted at you without restraint. Each enemy type is cleverly designed to present you with a threat that deserves your attention… have fun dealing with an entire arena of them at the same time. There is a truly staggering number of monsters in this game, and they’re eager to gang up on you with their impressive diversity and powerful synergies.
Each arena is an incredibly crafted challenge. You aren’t only facing a purposeful onslaught of great enemies, often the arena layout itself is ready to join the fight against you. There’s a great sense of variety as you encounter various line-ups of enemies, strange environmental hazards, and interesting gimmicks. Especially amusing is the occasional flagrant disregard of occupancy limits… arenas that cram these enemies into a painfully tight space.
Gretel’s powerful moveset is what allows the game to have these mad challenges. She has a wide array of fantastic feeling moves that flow into each other as a non-stop stream of violence. Over the course of the game, you’ll unlock 8 (!) awesome magical spells that each provide a powerful ability… which also can synergize with each other to create awesome crowd devasting effects. Finally, Magenta Horizon has the greatest healing mechanic in all of video games. The glorious healing bomb promotes aggression so well that it puts things like DOOM’s glory kills to shame.
Speaking of aggression, this game has excellent bosses. None of the nonsense common to games where it feels like you and the boss are taking turns. Instead, both of you are wildly and relentlessly aggressive.
Magenta Horizon also has one of the best hard modes. Reaper difficulty is a beautiful force to be reckoned with, it cranks the wonderful challenge to a whole new level… here the enemy and arena design truly shine. It feels awesome to overcome these gauntlets which all prompt a “are you serious” reaction from me.
Finally, I must point out that Act 2 absolutely rules. This review applies to act 1, which you can check out for free… somehow Act 2 is even better. The levels are much more interesting to navigate, the musical style is even more developed, the necklace system starts to offer interesting decisions and build choices and of course the enemies are simply evil.
HOLY SHIT YOU CAN FIGHT V1 IN THIS GAME
Played for ~60 hours, SSS rank on hardest available difficulty for all levels. Runs here.
Really, really solid piece of work, especially for a game with 2/3rds of its planned content still forthcoming. Considering the game is free, there is no reason not to try it if you're an action game fan.
Magenta Horizon holds a deep reverence for two of the most fundamental pillars of action games: positioning and dynamism. Hollow Knight's influence on the movement (and the game in general) is obvious, but the addition of a diagonal dive and a hook attack that pulls you through enemies makes things significantly more interesting than simply jumping and pogoing around. DMC-like strings with various useful properties also add much-needed nuance and agency to the ground combat. The tension between safety/mobility in the air and options/damage potential on the ground informs almost every decision you make, and you'll find yourself constantly evaluating which is better suited for the moment.
A varied and volatile enemy roster puts this into context, and each disrupts you in different ways with melee attacks, speed, projectiles, or sheer size. The small helicopters are a favorite of mine: their simple attacks aren't much threat, but their spinning propellers will hit you on contact, making aerial getaways from more oppressive enemies deceptively challenging. Arenas filling up with hordes of different foes, all acting independently, gives rise to the delightful controlled chaos that so many of the action game greats are known for. Bosses are also pleasantly dynamic, with varied attack patterns and a Souls/Monster Hunter-style stagger system to keep things fresh. Once you beat the middle difficulty, give the highest a shot, it's where the game truly shines. Each encounter is completely redone, with tough enemies from the last stage suddenly appearing in the very first. Some of the best and most creative fights are found here, as the dev starts to go wild with cramped arenas, oppressive environmental hazards, enemy spawning setups, and synergistic compositions.
Each of the subweapons in the game are distinct, and have multiple situationally useful properties rather than explicitly hard countering anything. Creating the spike in midair will slam you to the ground (invaluable for movement), and the boomerang can be aimed in different trajectories to deal general damage over a wide area or stagger fliers quickly. Some even combine with each other: for example, timing your spike to skewer a boomerang creates a stationary spinning blade that deals massive DPS to anything in reach. A la Alien Soldier, each weapon can be assigned to one or more of 8 possible slots, and each slot has its own meter. The frightening levels of lethality you can achieve by maximizing this brings combat to a blistering speed, especially in later stages where tough arenas reward clean speedkilling.
Artwork and music are both obvious standouts that anyone can appreciate, and lend the game a distinct character. Pinks and purples cover otherworldly vistas, and the enemy menagerie is both delightfully creative and a treat to watch in motion. The progressive metal soundtrack is also fantastic, one of the best in recent memory.
There are definitely still some kinks to be worked out. As a new player, especially one without high-level action game experience, the initial experience is extremely overwhelming with the amount of options and movement you have. Almost nothing can be canceled out of, which works great as a design decision but feels punishing early on. UI needs some polish, and can feel cheap and awkward to navigate. Early level design is both needlessly confusing to traverse (especially since there's no map) and doesn't stand out much in terms of creative fights. Luckily, both of these improve as you get further in. Bugs pop up every so often since the game's still in heavy development, but in my experience these rarely affected gameplay. You can report any you find to the dev and he'll usually fix it quickly. The necklace system (equippables with playstyle-altering buffs) simply doesn't have enough options yet to provide meaningful tradeoffs. The game is also a bit light on content currently, as expected, but what's there is high quality.
Overall, I'm extremely impressed at the level of achievement here so far, especially in the context of a solo dev project. I can't wait to see where the project goes next, I only see things getting better from here.
TLDR just go play it, it's free. https://maddison-baek.itch.io/magenta-horizon
Really, really solid piece of work, especially for a game with 2/3rds of its planned content still forthcoming. Considering the game is free, there is no reason not to try it if you're an action game fan.
Magenta Horizon holds a deep reverence for two of the most fundamental pillars of action games: positioning and dynamism. Hollow Knight's influence on the movement (and the game in general) is obvious, but the addition of a diagonal dive and a hook attack that pulls you through enemies makes things significantly more interesting than simply jumping and pogoing around. DMC-like strings with various useful properties also add much-needed nuance and agency to the ground combat. The tension between safety/mobility in the air and options/damage potential on the ground informs almost every decision you make, and you'll find yourself constantly evaluating which is better suited for the moment.
A varied and volatile enemy roster puts this into context, and each disrupts you in different ways with melee attacks, speed, projectiles, or sheer size. The small helicopters are a favorite of mine: their simple attacks aren't much threat, but their spinning propellers will hit you on contact, making aerial getaways from more oppressive enemies deceptively challenging. Arenas filling up with hordes of different foes, all acting independently, gives rise to the delightful controlled chaos that so many of the action game greats are known for. Bosses are also pleasantly dynamic, with varied attack patterns and a Souls/Monster Hunter-style stagger system to keep things fresh. Once you beat the middle difficulty, give the highest a shot, it's where the game truly shines. Each encounter is completely redone, with tough enemies from the last stage suddenly appearing in the very first. Some of the best and most creative fights are found here, as the dev starts to go wild with cramped arenas, oppressive environmental hazards, enemy spawning setups, and synergistic compositions.
Each of the subweapons in the game are distinct, and have multiple situationally useful properties rather than explicitly hard countering anything. Creating the spike in midair will slam you to the ground (invaluable for movement), and the boomerang can be aimed in different trajectories to deal general damage over a wide area or stagger fliers quickly. Some even combine with each other: for example, timing your spike to skewer a boomerang creates a stationary spinning blade that deals massive DPS to anything in reach. A la Alien Soldier, each weapon can be assigned to one or more of 8 possible slots, and each slot has its own meter. The frightening levels of lethality you can achieve by maximizing this brings combat to a blistering speed, especially in later stages where tough arenas reward clean speedkilling.
Artwork and music are both obvious standouts that anyone can appreciate, and lend the game a distinct character. Pinks and purples cover otherworldly vistas, and the enemy menagerie is both delightfully creative and a treat to watch in motion. The progressive metal soundtrack is also fantastic, one of the best in recent memory.
There are definitely still some kinks to be worked out. As a new player, especially one without high-level action game experience, the initial experience is extremely overwhelming with the amount of options and movement you have. Almost nothing can be canceled out of, which works great as a design decision but feels punishing early on. UI needs some polish, and can feel cheap and awkward to navigate. Early level design is both needlessly confusing to traverse (especially since there's no map) and doesn't stand out much in terms of creative fights. Luckily, both of these improve as you get further in. Bugs pop up every so often since the game's still in heavy development, but in my experience these rarely affected gameplay. You can report any you find to the dev and he'll usually fix it quickly. The necklace system (equippables with playstyle-altering buffs) simply doesn't have enough options yet to provide meaningful tradeoffs. The game is also a bit light on content currently, as expected, but what's there is high quality.
Overall, I'm extremely impressed at the level of achievement here so far, especially in the context of a solo dev project. I can't wait to see where the project goes next, I only see things getting better from here.
TLDR just go play it, it's free. https://maddison-baek.itch.io/magenta-horizon
rebiew of Magenta Horizon (act 1)
I should preface this with saying that even though I have finished this game on its intended difficulty you should keep in mind that at the time of writing this, I have not yet played the two of the biggest listed inspirations for it, (Devil May Cry games and Hollow Knight) so take some of what I say with a pinch of salt
Magenta Horizon is like if banging your head against a wall repeatedly was somehow made satisfying, it's a tough game even on its standard difficulty which becomes apparent pretty quickly but I like that the game sets those expectations right off the bat, instead of having crazy difficulty spikes show up out of nowhere (which may be the experience for some but in my opinion it mostly wasn't)
the actual combat system offers a good amount of freedom, with flexible combos, many approaches to different enemy types that each offer unique challenges of their own, for example even the first enemy type you meet can prove to be disruptive in the later stages
MH is confident in its enemy design not only gameplay-wise but visually too, with every little creature looking weirder and more hellish than the last, which surely serves to create a memorable experience when coupled with the general aesthetic of the game (which I believe was inspired by the works of Tim Burton) that succeeds in creating a somewhat bleak, purgatory-like place filled with character, and if the later levels are anything to come by it looks like the atmosphere of the game will only get more interesting from here
the soundtrack to this afterlife is quite good with many solid tracks to its name, and all in all the sound design of it does its job pretty well I'd say
I haven't found a good way to mention the story and the world building but it is definitely intriguing in places, and even though there aren't many answers given to us just yet the main characters are charming enough for the time being and I'm interested to learn more about them
Magenta Horizon is a passion project made by one person and it shows that in the best possible ways, it's frankly impressive how good this game is already all things considered, I can't think of any major issues I have with it at the moment, pretty much all I have is praise so I apologise if this review is a bit boring to read because of that, but I do legitimately really like this game and want to see more of it, and I hope it becomes successful cause it damn sure deserves it
definitely keeping my eye on this
I should preface this with saying that even though I have finished this game on its intended difficulty you should keep in mind that at the time of writing this, I have not yet played the two of the biggest listed inspirations for it, (Devil May Cry games and Hollow Knight) so take some of what I say with a pinch of salt
Magenta Horizon is like if banging your head against a wall repeatedly was somehow made satisfying, it's a tough game even on its standard difficulty which becomes apparent pretty quickly but I like that the game sets those expectations right off the bat, instead of having crazy difficulty spikes show up out of nowhere (which may be the experience for some but in my opinion it mostly wasn't)
the actual combat system offers a good amount of freedom, with flexible combos, many approaches to different enemy types that each offer unique challenges of their own, for example even the first enemy type you meet can prove to be disruptive in the later stages
MH is confident in its enemy design not only gameplay-wise but visually too, with every little creature looking weirder and more hellish than the last, which surely serves to create a memorable experience when coupled with the general aesthetic of the game (which I believe was inspired by the works of Tim Burton) that succeeds in creating a somewhat bleak, purgatory-like place filled with character, and if the later levels are anything to come by it looks like the atmosphere of the game will only get more interesting from here
the soundtrack to this afterlife is quite good with many solid tracks to its name, and all in all the sound design of it does its job pretty well I'd say
I haven't found a good way to mention the story and the world building but it is definitely intriguing in places, and even though there aren't many answers given to us just yet the main characters are charming enough for the time being and I'm interested to learn more about them
Magenta Horizon is a passion project made by one person and it shows that in the best possible ways, it's frankly impressive how good this game is already all things considered, I can't think of any major issues I have with it at the moment, pretty much all I have is praise so I apologise if this review is a bit boring to read because of that, but I do legitimately really like this game and want to see more of it, and I hope it becomes successful cause it damn sure deserves it
definitely keeping my eye on this
This is genuinely one of the most fun games I've played in a while.
The gameplay is similar to games like Hollow Knight or Dust an Elysian Tail (don't tell Maddi I mentioned Dust), featuring DMC-like style mechanics. Even though, truthfully, some edges of it are still rough, it's still a great experience. Controls are well put together, enemies are responsive and challenging (doubly so for the bosses), the skills and combos add a lot of depth to the learning curve. My only complaint would be the blocky level design, but that's whatever.
Act 1 is not super long. It will probably take about 4-6 hours on your first playthrough, depending on how quickly you can learn the mechanics. Current speedrun time is about 40 minutes, if that helps. Then there's also the Reaper difficulty, but we don't talk about that.
Story and worldbuilding so far are very intriguing, and I adore the main cast and their banter. Following acts promise more insight into the Nest and other reapers so that's something I'm hyped for. Too bad they'll probably release about the same time as Silksong or JA's Witcher 3 video.
The music and art are probably the strongest parts of the game, honestly. Each stage has its own soundtrack in two variants, for exploration and for combat, and each one rocks. Same goes for the art. The game exudes its own unique style, especially so in enemy and character design. Just look at Blucher's portraits.
And do keep in mind, all of the above was made by just one person (sans for the cutscene art).
The gameplay is similar to games like Hollow Knight or Dust an Elysian Tail (don't tell Maddi I mentioned Dust), featuring DMC-like style mechanics. Even though, truthfully, some edges of it are still rough, it's still a great experience. Controls are well put together, enemies are responsive and challenging (doubly so for the bosses), the skills and combos add a lot of depth to the learning curve. My only complaint would be the blocky level design, but that's whatever.
Act 1 is not super long. It will probably take about 4-6 hours on your first playthrough, depending on how quickly you can learn the mechanics. Current speedrun time is about 40 minutes, if that helps. Then there's also the Reaper difficulty, but we don't talk about that.
Story and worldbuilding so far are very intriguing, and I adore the main cast and their banter. Following acts promise more insight into the Nest and other reapers so that's something I'm hyped for. Too bad they'll probably release about the same time as Silksong or JA's Witcher 3 video.
The music and art are probably the strongest parts of the game, honestly. Each stage has its own soundtrack in two variants, for exploration and for combat, and each one rocks. Same goes for the art. The game exudes its own unique style, especially so in enemy and character design. Just look at Blucher's portraits.
And do keep in mind, all of the above was made by just one person (sans for the cutscene art).