I’m sad to report that outside of the graphics there is absolutely nothing interesting about “Ravenlok”. And for some it may be enough - the levels, the enemies, the NPCs are all well designed, very colorful and clearly drawing inspiration from the craziness of “Alice in Wonderland”. It’s very pleasant to look at and the environments are varied.

Those beautiful environments are populated by forgettable NPCs that spout out the most unimaginative lines about saving the kingdom and a bad witch, the plot throwing you from one level to another just because you need to reach the next macguffin, and a protagonist that lacks any characterization or opportunity to make any meaningful choices (you can level up your character and the menu resembles that of an RPG, but this is not at all a representative of the genre).

The combat - unlike in Cococucumber’s previous game, “Echo Generation” - is real-time, and feels very undercooked. There is one type of attack you can do with your sword plus 4 special attacks that you gain access to throughout the game. You can also dash and use your shield, however I don’t recall using the latter outside of the early training section. The simplicity of the combat systems makes fighting your enemies feel like a chore from early on, especially since the game seems to take great joy in throwing dozens of them at you regularly. It’s also fair to say the enemies aren’t too varied - you basically use the same tactic for all of the encounters, i.e. use your ‘specials’, dash around while waiting for them to be available again, repeat. There are a good number of boss fights that provide some desired change, but they’re usually too easy and the baddies go down on the first go without too much of a hassle. And yes, even on the highest difficulty the game is way too easy.

There are also some odd design choices regarding the combat system, e.g. there is a stamina bar that only gets depleted when you use the shield. When you attack, use your special attacks or dash around the stamina doesn’t seem to be affected at all, which takes away the necessity for strategizing your movements - think of the most obvious point of comparison, i.e. the soulslikes, where it’s an extremely important part of the game. It’s a shame, because otherwise it would’ve added some flavor and challenge to the combat which is rather plain and boring as it is. You also can’t lock on enemies, which is a nitpick, but I always like having this option in games with melee combat.

The game contains a handful of puzzles, most of them quite easy, which is a shame since had the developers put more emphasis on them at the cost of the combat sections, the game would’ve had a much better flow and the mediocrity of the combat could’ve stood out less. There are also some pretty poor stealth sections that try to break the monotony, but since there is no way to figure out the enemy’s visibility cone they prove more annoying rather than a meaningful way to expand the gameplay.

The quest design is lackluster as well. You’ll be mostly asked to slay X enemies, collect Y items or something of the like. The exploration is also rather limited, with the only real collectible being small rabbit figurines in front of which you need to dance. It’s neat, but I’d love more opportunities to explore these beautiful levels.

At the very end of the story you end up sitting at a table with the NPCs that you aided on your journey, and looking at them I started asking myself - who are these characters? The game fails to build any sense of investment in this world. With vapid writing and boring, unchallenging gameplay, you should only give this a shot if you really, really love voxel art.