Being a long-time fan of Metroidvanias and a not-so-much-anymore fan of anime, Afterimage was pretty much everything I thought it was going to be. I was sure the game would be fun, it would look nice, but it would be a little campy in certain areas cough voice acting cough while doing its darnedest to tell a story I did not pay much attention to. While I couldn’t really tell you what was going in in the story beat for beat, other aspects of the game made up for it and made the game an overall enjoyable experience.
Gameplay is pretty fun. You have many different weapons to choose from and you can mix and match weapons and armor to fit your play style. The boss battles were tense and varied. There was also quite a lot of variety in the enemies you faced. It never felt like you were fighting the same enemies over and over again across environments. They felt perfectly crafted to be where they were...most of the time, at least. You can upgrade various skills to suit your style. If you want to use scythes then go to the scythe tree and make them stronger. Greatswords, blades, whips, staffs, magic? Same deal. Upgrade and get yourself new abilities for the weapons and find cooler ways to fight your way through to the end. The game isn’t too challenging if you do a bit of grinding. I never felt like I had to redo a whole lot if I died.
One thing I didn’t like was the lack of sounds for some of the enemies. It’s like they put their entire sound budget into the soundtrack and the voice acting. Some enemies had no sound to them other than some generic swiping sound. Big enemies would open their mouths to assert their soon to be short-lived dominance and would make no noise whatsoever. Some of the boss battles were just forgettable because their music wasn’t cutting it.
The visuals are the absolute strongpoint of this game. Right off the bat the game throws good music and breathtaking visuals to tell its story. Every area in the game is visually unique from one another, they have been crafted in a way that gives them their own identity. Every area has unique enemies, music and even gear. You’ll find certain weapons that mirror the environments in which they were found. The music was very well done, but maybe a bit too soft. I had similar problems with Ender Lilies and Breath of the Wild. The music given is good, but it just didn’t evoke that sense of action or adventure in me. The soft pianos didn’t quite fit with the struggle against some enemies. Some of the music, especially in places like Town of the Exiled and Field of Pyro, stand out as more engaging music.
And yeah, the environments were beautiful, but they just seemed to keep popping up. I don’t want to say there were too many, but I think the game would have benefitted from omitting a few. Just when you thought you saw everything and were close to finishing the game, you’d run into a brand new area with brand new everything and brand new hours of gameplay. I don’t want to come off as ungrateful or make it sound like playing this game is a slog, but I personally got a little annoyed every time after the 10th environment when I’d stumble into a new location. Like, I get it, you’re good at environmental design, now may I please finish this game? I’m not even talking about extremely detailed areas like Forest Foregone, I mean areas like Heart of Veins or Halcyon Veins, which have fewer than five enemies. I don’t even think the Albedo Tower needed to be included. I spent just under 30 hours to get most of the endings, but the game felt a lot longer. I was six areas in and the place I was supposed to go to was still barely visible on the world map from where I was. Speaking of maps, the option to enable a mini map (if one wished) isn’t necessary, but would have been nice.
Despite seeing heavy influences from other Metroidvanias like Ori, Hollow Knight and Ender Lilies, Afterimage manages to feel like it’s own game. I never got the feeling I was playing Hollow Knight: Afterimage Edition. I’d recommend it.
Gameplay is pretty fun. You have many different weapons to choose from and you can mix and match weapons and armor to fit your play style. The boss battles were tense and varied. There was also quite a lot of variety in the enemies you faced. It never felt like you were fighting the same enemies over and over again across environments. They felt perfectly crafted to be where they were...most of the time, at least. You can upgrade various skills to suit your style. If you want to use scythes then go to the scythe tree and make them stronger. Greatswords, blades, whips, staffs, magic? Same deal. Upgrade and get yourself new abilities for the weapons and find cooler ways to fight your way through to the end. The game isn’t too challenging if you do a bit of grinding. I never felt like I had to redo a whole lot if I died.
One thing I didn’t like was the lack of sounds for some of the enemies. It’s like they put their entire sound budget into the soundtrack and the voice acting. Some enemies had no sound to them other than some generic swiping sound. Big enemies would open their mouths to assert their soon to be short-lived dominance and would make no noise whatsoever. Some of the boss battles were just forgettable because their music wasn’t cutting it.
The visuals are the absolute strongpoint of this game. Right off the bat the game throws good music and breathtaking visuals to tell its story. Every area in the game is visually unique from one another, they have been crafted in a way that gives them their own identity. Every area has unique enemies, music and even gear. You’ll find certain weapons that mirror the environments in which they were found. The music was very well done, but maybe a bit too soft. I had similar problems with Ender Lilies and Breath of the Wild. The music given is good, but it just didn’t evoke that sense of action or adventure in me. The soft pianos didn’t quite fit with the struggle against some enemies. Some of the music, especially in places like Town of the Exiled and Field of Pyro, stand out as more engaging music.
And yeah, the environments were beautiful, but they just seemed to keep popping up. I don’t want to say there were too many, but I think the game would have benefitted from omitting a few. Just when you thought you saw everything and were close to finishing the game, you’d run into a brand new area with brand new everything and brand new hours of gameplay. I don’t want to come off as ungrateful or make it sound like playing this game is a slog, but I personally got a little annoyed every time after the 10th environment when I’d stumble into a new location. Like, I get it, you’re good at environmental design, now may I please finish this game? I’m not even talking about extremely detailed areas like Forest Foregone, I mean areas like Heart of Veins or Halcyon Veins, which have fewer than five enemies. I don’t even think the Albedo Tower needed to be included. I spent just under 30 hours to get most of the endings, but the game felt a lot longer. I was six areas in and the place I was supposed to go to was still barely visible on the world map from where I was. Speaking of maps, the option to enable a mini map (if one wished) isn’t necessary, but would have been nice.
Despite seeing heavy influences from other Metroidvanias like Ori, Hollow Knight and Ender Lilies, Afterimage manages to feel like it’s own game. I never got the feeling I was playing Hollow Knight: Afterimage Edition. I’d recommend it.