These days, I had an itch for a good Metroidvania, and this game managed to scratch it pretty well.
Starting with the positives: the art direction is phenomenal, the atmosphere is relentlessly oppressive and gloomy, and the artists managed to capture an extremely specific gory catholic-esque aesthetic in a vivid manner.
The gameplay is fine, if a bit clunky at times. Some attack moves are slower than you'd expect (like the downward thrust), others are finicky to pull off (like the dodge-thrust), and others are just bizarre (having to hold R2 to gain height when smacking something in midair).
Contrary to many other metroidvanias, there aren't any significant upgrades to trasversal mechanics, and all the "environmental locks" are unlocked by equippable items (that you'll often, annoingly, have to switch around, since you only have three slots for them). Gameplay at the end of the game looks quite similar to gameplay from the start of the game, movement-wise.
There is a quite varied cast of enemies and bosses, all of them very visually interesting. The bosses are kind of hit and miss: some of them are boring cakewalks, others are annoying, randomic spammers (the final boss is one of those, unfortunately), and a few of them are well balanced and engaging (with Quirce being my favourite).
Unfortunately, I found quite a lot of bugs and glitches, I even softlocked myself a couple of times. In quite a handful of situations the game seemed to just have no idea of how to make the enemies behave.
While the atmosphere is thick and captivating, the storyline is way too cryptic, and exposition is just a blend of esoteric, faux-religious gibberish that just failed to stick in my memory. This unfortunately spills over into gameplay: at one point the game required me to complete a vague sidequest that I had to look up. This happened again when going for the "good" ending, which requires some ludicrously obscure steps (e.g. dying a number of times with a certain item equipped).
Another example of the atmosphere getting in the way of gameplay is the rosary beads. These are modular upgrades that you can equip, each one having a unique effect, sort of like rings in RPGs. Switching these beads around is unnecessarily bothersome because their item description doesn't plainly state their effect, you'll have to find it buried in lore information that really should be on its separate page (like it already does for regular inventory items)
All things considered, this is a competently crafted Metroidvania, with a refreshing style and a few setbacks that keep it from being great.
Starting with the positives: the art direction is phenomenal, the atmosphere is relentlessly oppressive and gloomy, and the artists managed to capture an extremely specific gory catholic-esque aesthetic in a vivid manner.
The gameplay is fine, if a bit clunky at times. Some attack moves are slower than you'd expect (like the downward thrust), others are finicky to pull off (like the dodge-thrust), and others are just bizarre (having to hold R2 to gain height when smacking something in midair).
Contrary to many other metroidvanias, there aren't any significant upgrades to trasversal mechanics, and all the "environmental locks" are unlocked by equippable items (that you'll often, annoingly, have to switch around, since you only have three slots for them). Gameplay at the end of the game looks quite similar to gameplay from the start of the game, movement-wise.
There is a quite varied cast of enemies and bosses, all of them very visually interesting. The bosses are kind of hit and miss: some of them are boring cakewalks, others are annoying, randomic spammers (the final boss is one of those, unfortunately), and a few of them are well balanced and engaging (with Quirce being my favourite).
Unfortunately, I found quite a lot of bugs and glitches, I even softlocked myself a couple of times. In quite a handful of situations the game seemed to just have no idea of how to make the enemies behave.
While the atmosphere is thick and captivating, the storyline is way too cryptic, and exposition is just a blend of esoteric, faux-religious gibberish that just failed to stick in my memory. This unfortunately spills over into gameplay: at one point the game required me to complete a vague sidequest that I had to look up. This happened again when going for the "good" ending, which requires some ludicrously obscure steps (e.g. dying a number of times with a certain item equipped).
Another example of the atmosphere getting in the way of gameplay is the rosary beads. These are modular upgrades that you can equip, each one having a unique effect, sort of like rings in RPGs. Switching these beads around is unnecessarily bothersome because their item description doesn't plainly state their effect, you'll have to find it buried in lore information that really should be on its separate page (like it already does for regular inventory items)
All things considered, this is a competently crafted Metroidvania, with a refreshing style and a few setbacks that keep it from being great.