Teslagrad is a title that I hadn't touched in like 8 years, back when it was a PS Plus offering, and even then, it was only for like 3 minutes before I went back to playing The Witcher 3 or something.
Now that enough time has passed for it to receive a next-gen remaster to coincide with the sequel, I felt that it was high time to give it a longer chance than 3 minutes.
I'm glad I did, since I found Teslagrad to be a solid entry into the pantheon of difficult side-scrolling puzzle platformers that masochists the world over can enjoy.
Seriously though, Teslagrad has a lot going for it. Gorgeous hand-drawn art style, great soundtrack, intriguing setting, and well-designed mechanics and boss fights.
The only thing that really lets Teslagrad down for me is the uneven difficulty and, by proxy, the lack of accessibility options. The latter is understandable for the original since it predated the push for the inclusion of accessibility settings for those that need them, but it would have been a nice feather in the cap for this remaster.
Especially since Teslagrad is one of those games that you have to play 100% to get the 'true ending', something that I had tried to do along the way, but since, in true Metroidvania fashion, it gates progression to certain areas until a new tool is available to you, I simply lost track of the ones that I had missed.
Unfortunately, since there's no real way to see the ones you have missed on the map, I lacked the motivation to go hunting for them after the final boss, so I just settled for the standard ending. While yes, that was more down to me than the game itself, it still would have been nice for the game to cut me some slack in the backtracking department.
Qualms aside, however, I still had a great time with Teslagrad. While there were issues with backtracking and difficulty spikes outside of the boss fights, it still left a positive enough impression to be a great time in a lovingly crafted world, set to a moving score.
7.5/10
Now that enough time has passed for it to receive a next-gen remaster to coincide with the sequel, I felt that it was high time to give it a longer chance than 3 minutes.
I'm glad I did, since I found Teslagrad to be a solid entry into the pantheon of difficult side-scrolling puzzle platformers that masochists the world over can enjoy.
Seriously though, Teslagrad has a lot going for it. Gorgeous hand-drawn art style, great soundtrack, intriguing setting, and well-designed mechanics and boss fights.
The only thing that really lets Teslagrad down for me is the uneven difficulty and, by proxy, the lack of accessibility options. The latter is understandable for the original since it predated the push for the inclusion of accessibility settings for those that need them, but it would have been a nice feather in the cap for this remaster.
Especially since Teslagrad is one of those games that you have to play 100% to get the 'true ending', something that I had tried to do along the way, but since, in true Metroidvania fashion, it gates progression to certain areas until a new tool is available to you, I simply lost track of the ones that I had missed.
Unfortunately, since there's no real way to see the ones you have missed on the map, I lacked the motivation to go hunting for them after the final boss, so I just settled for the standard ending. While yes, that was more down to me than the game itself, it still would have been nice for the game to cut me some slack in the backtracking department.
Qualms aside, however, I still had a great time with Teslagrad. While there were issues with backtracking and difficulty spikes outside of the boss fights, it still left a positive enough impression to be a great time in a lovingly crafted world, set to a moving score.
7.5/10