This review contains spoilers
This game was fun for the most part. I enjoyed unlocking new abilities and fighting the bosses. The levels themselves were overall fine, but some parts of the levels were not designed very well, causing them to be very frustrating.
The story was good. It gave a compelling reason for everyone to be acting the way that they were. The characters are all likable and had their own completely different personalities. I also really like the designs of all of the characters (take that however you will). All of the pixel art in the game is very well-done.
The combat is decent, but has its moments where it feels terrible. If you get swarmed by multiple enemies, there aren’t many options for you. Even if you get hit, the invincibility frames are almost nonexistent, so it can be a challenge to even retreat when you need to. This becomes apparent in Mud Bog Island since it is full of big monsters that are hard to dodge. A lot of enemy placement ties back into some level design segments feeling not great to go through.
I would be able to look past all of my other complaints, but the one thing that really bothered me was the fact that the collection of the dark magic is a soft requirement for beating the game. While technically not needed, beating the final boss without all of the dark magic results in a few lines of dialogue and then the credits roll. This left a bad taste in my mouth, so I had to go back and collect all of the dark magic. I don’t like when games require or kind of require the collection of collectibles to complete the game as it is meant to be completed. I had already collected half of them by the time I reached the final boss and I already had my fun exploring all of the levels by then, but I had to go back to all of the levels I already explored and explore them more now that I had all of the abilities. While already feeling like a huge chore, some of the magic was easy to find, but the rest was getting annoying to the point of me just looking up a guide. This also annoyed me since I don’t like using guides as they make me feel like I’m cheating and not really playing the game, but by then I was just tired of looking around. Beating the final boss after all of that was actually fun since the boss was an actual challenge the second time and the story was actually resolved nicely after winning.
The story was good. It gave a compelling reason for everyone to be acting the way that they were. The characters are all likable and had their own completely different personalities. I also really like the designs of all of the characters (take that however you will). All of the pixel art in the game is very well-done.
The combat is decent, but has its moments where it feels terrible. If you get swarmed by multiple enemies, there aren’t many options for you. Even if you get hit, the invincibility frames are almost nonexistent, so it can be a challenge to even retreat when you need to. This becomes apparent in Mud Bog Island since it is full of big monsters that are hard to dodge. A lot of enemy placement ties back into some level design segments feeling not great to go through.
I would be able to look past all of my other complaints, but the one thing that really bothered me was the fact that the collection of the dark magic is a soft requirement for beating the game. While technically not needed, beating the final boss without all of the dark magic results in a few lines of dialogue and then the credits roll. This left a bad taste in my mouth, so I had to go back and collect all of the dark magic. I don’t like when games require or kind of require the collection of collectibles to complete the game as it is meant to be completed. I had already collected half of them by the time I reached the final boss and I already had my fun exploring all of the levels by then, but I had to go back to all of the levels I already explored and explore them more now that I had all of the abilities. While already feeling like a huge chore, some of the magic was easy to find, but the rest was getting annoying to the point of me just looking up a guide. This also annoyed me since I don’t like using guides as they make me feel like I’m cheating and not really playing the game, but by then I was just tired of looking around. Beating the final boss after all of that was actually fun since the boss was an actual challenge the second time and the story was actually resolved nicely after winning.