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You have seen this land, you know what one can do in search for power.

Odallus: The Dark Call is an Action-Adventure Platform Game developed by Joymasher, makers of Oniken, Blazing Chrome and Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider. The game was released on 15 July 2015 on Steam and GOG.com. It was developed in Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion 2, with Joymasher planning to migrate to Unity to make use of its advantages.

Set in a medieval world that has been abandoned by its gods, it became infested by grotesque demons when darkness spread and began collecting human souls for its army. The game follows Haggis, a retired warrior who must wield his sword once more to search for his lost son, and solve the mystery of the Odallus stone to bring an end to those who are at the helm of this madness.

Odallus is a classic exploration/action game, inspired by Ghosts 'n Goblins, Demon's Crest, and Castlevania. The game is divided in 4 top stages, 4 bottom ones and a final stage. It is necessary to thoroughly explore the hellish landscapes in order to find the secrets and abilities needed to progress further.

A Sega Genesis remake has been announced.


The game provides examples of:

  • 1-Up: There are a few hidden through the levels. Each can only be collected once, so you'll have to buy more from the merchant.
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The merchant's items will become slightly more expensive every time you buy from him. Money isn't that hard to come by, but one should probably restock items with him sparingly.
    "...Our people are being massacred and you only care for some profit?"
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: Implied with the game over screen. And once you beat the game, And Then Haggis Was A God occurs.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: The prize for clearing Veteran mode is a skin that makes Haggis look like Zaku from Oniken.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Odallus stone. Its pieces are held by powerful creatures that were once normal people.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Every monster boss has some weak point on their body. At least two have to be slashed until a second weakness temporarily pops out of them. The last boss' weakness is the Odallus floating around it.
  • Badass Cape: Haggis wears a fur cape as shown by the artwork and cut scenes. The in-game sprite doesn't do it enough justice unfortunately.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames: Stage 1 is set on a burning town.
  • Bears Are Bad News: One Mini-Boss is a bear made of ice.
  • BFS: Haggis's claymore.
  • Big Bad: Gael is the presumed one, but the ultimate villain is Priscus, the leader of the new gods.
  • Big Red Devil: The boss of Dark Forest Area 2 is a towering, red-skinned demon with horns.
  • Block Puzzle: Certain areas require for blocks to be pushed along a certain path to be used as platforms, crush barriers or press buttons. A particular puzzle requires a block to be pushed down a series of holes in the order pointed out by statues in the previous room.
  • Boss Rush: Planned for the Unity version.
  • Cast from Hit Points: The Blood Armor uses 5 subweapon units instead of 10 for each charged attack but also drains Haggis' health.
  • Charged Attack: The Dark Armor grants a different charged attack for each subweapon (a Dash Attack for the Axe, a Fire Shield for the Torch and a Laser Rain for the Spear), at the cost of 10 subweapon units. The Blood Armor does the same thing while also draining HP.
  • Checkpoint: A statue whose eyes fire up when you use it.
  • Checkpoint Starvation: There are noticeable gaps between checkpoints and mini bosses.
  • Completion Meter: The level select screen has a counter for how many secrets in each level have been found.
  • Continuing is Painful: Getting a Game Over in Veteran mode sets your orb count to 0.
  • Crapsack World: The game is set in a land that has been forgotten by gods and is infested with terrifying demons, which means non-badass people will either live in hiding and fear, or meet cruel ends.
  • Dark Fantasy/Medieval European Fantasy
  • Determinator: Neither his village burning down nor a veritable army of monsters and dark gods will stop Haggis from reaching his son. Too bad his son was possessed by an ancient god and aged up.
  • Doomed Hometown: The first level, Glenfinnan.
  • Double Jump: One of the last abilities required to finish the game.
  • Easter Egg: There are a series of mysterious stars in 5 levels that must be found and watched in a certain order. Finding them all gets them together at Gael's Castle, where they cause a glitch distortion and something to quickly flash on the screen, netting the player an achievement.
  • Flunky Boss: What makes boss battles in Veteran mode so hard is that the worst Goddamned Bats in the game will regularly spawn nearby to hinder and corner you.
  • Game-Over Man: The continue screen shows a close up of Haggis' sword laying on the ground. If you do continue, Haggis then picks it up.
  • Heart Container: One item increases your max HP. Another lets you carry more subweapons.
  • Hell Is That Noise: Provided in a way only possible through a faux-NES era soundchip
  • The Hero: Haggis.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Haggis' weapon of choice is a claymore. It's steel upgrade is faster and the silver one is also stronger.
  • Infinity +1 Sword: The secret Dark Armor, earned by defeating the Ghost Knight. It allows Haggis to perform powerful charged attacks. The Fire Shield in particular can be a Game-Breaker. In Veteran mode the Dark Armor is replaced by the Blood Armor, which costs less for each charge but also drains HP.
  • Intrepid Merchant: Who sells healing items, subweapons and extra lives. He also gives hints on the game's secrets.
  • Kill It with Fire: Haggis' third subweapon is a torch. It hits multiple times and is required to melt snow blocks.
  • Konami Code: Unlocks Veteran mode in an unclear file.
  • Marathon Level: The bottom levels are all much longer than the top ones.
  • Metroidvania: Some paths seen early on are only accessible by finding abilities that allow Haggis to push large blocks, dash, breath underwater and double jump.
  • Minecart Madness: Featured in the Ice Mines. There are also areas in which Haggis rides a boat and has to clear obstacles on his way without losing it.
    "We estimate that 40% of the game's bugs were from this stage in particular. Danilo says that, from the technical standpoint, he regrets making the mine carts. No one cares, though, because mine carts are awesome."
  • Mini-Boss: The are a few you must defeat to unlock certain barriers.
  • Mirror Boss: The Ghost Knight shares Haggis' general movements and basic attacks. His Dark Armor then grants you use of his unique charged attacks.
  • Multiple Endings: You can only see what actually happens at the end by doing a 100% run.
    • Incomplete Ending: Gael Castle fades away into a pillar of light from the heavens. The end.
    • Full Ending: Haggis receives the powers of the Odallus and becomes a god. However, he uses this power in an effort to rid the world of the gods' influence. Then the castle fades into the light... and Haggis finds himself at a Eldritch Location, where a voice claims that the darkness Haggis sought to end is a part of him and that he must embrace it.
  • Nerf: A patch made it so charging the Dark Armor costs 10 subweapon units instead of 5. The game-breaking Fire Shield's duration was also lowered.
  • New Game Plus: A patch added a new difficulty mode named Veteran. Beyond adding more enemies all over the place, it adds and changes several features to make your life hell.
  • Nintendo Hard: Odallus is a fairly tough game, but it is also reasonable enough that most people won't have much trouble getting to the end. Veteran Mode, however, will sucker punch you in the face.
  • Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: The minecart and boat sections have those. The game otherwise has no other pits except for a small one at the beginning of the final level.
  • No Swastikas: The game is named after the odal rune, a symbol of heritage. Word of God is that the symbol appears upside-down in the game to avoid associations with its use in Nazism.
  • Offing the Offspring: In the end, Haggis reluctantly kills his own son who was forced into realizing his purpose as the reincarnation of an ancient god.
  • One-Winged Angel: Some of the human villains transform into monsters right before you fight them.
  • Optional Boss: The Ghost Knight tasks Haggis with finding his three secret rooms in Devil's Peak, Underground Temple and Frozen Mines. Once the three rooms are found, he challenges Haggis and rewards him with the either the Dark Armor or the Blood Armor upon being defeated.
  • Randomly Drops: Enemies may drop money when killed.
  • Retired Badass: Haggis before the game begins, according to the backstory.
  • Retraux: The game emulates the NES' 8-bits aesthetic, bending a few technical rules when necessary.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge: Clearing the game without using the sword and armor upgrades nets a couple Steam achievements.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The Berserk influence is palpable.
    • So is the Dark Souls influence. The final boss' helmet looks exactly like the helmet on a Black Knight.
    • And Faxanadu to complete the trifecta of eldritch medieval series.
    • Haggis is named after a Scottish dish, in reference to a dialogue between Connor and Ramirez from Highlander.
    • One of the Runestones says that fear is the little death that brings obliteration.
    • You can change Haggis' appearance to that of Trevor Belmont, the Red Arremer, or Arthur.
    • In one level, the merchant can say "What a horrible night to... Yeah, whatever." He also advices to not look at the "Death Star", because anything named "death" can't be good. And later he tells Haggis that a passage to the underwater temple must be Out There Somewhere©.
      • Death Star is actually a reference to the infamous line from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (which in turn was likely a reference to Hokuto no Ken).
    • In certain levels, you can see strange lights if you go high enough, which then quickly disappear. Seeing all 5 lights gets the "I want to believe" achievement.
    • At the beginning of Dark Forest 2, there is a monument dedicated to the three current top players of the game. If the player is offline, the monument is dedicated to Guts, Brienne and Siegfried instead. Amusingly enough, somebody bewildered the devs by getting Griffith to be the top name for the online ranks.
    • The Underground Temple boss is reminiscent of Mother Brain. First you go through several barriers protected by turrets, then you do battle against a giant face who is helped by more turrets. Its Steam achievement was even named "Maternal Brain".
    • Most of the Steam achievements' names are references to memetic quotes such as: "One does not simply...", "Giant Enemy Shrimp", "I see dead people"... Some of the references were cut out after an update, though.
    • On a 100% run, part of Priscus' last words is paraphrased from Roy Batty's dying monologue.
    • The achievement for obtaining all of the shards is Unforseen Consequences.
  • Status Effects: There are hazards that can poison Haggis. To cure him, the player must look for herbs in certain spots.
  • Stylistic Suck: Not the game as a whole, but the digitized voice clips are deliberately low-quality (and at times extremely amateurishly delivered) to evoke a 1990s-era video game aesthetic.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: An ability bestowed by one relic. Needed to explore the underwater levels.
  • Temporary Platform: Yoku Block-esque platforms and platforms that break when stepped on are seen late in the game.
  • Video Game Dashing: One relic allows Haggis to dash.
  • We Can Rule Together: Priscus repeatedly makes this offer to Haggis, but he refuses and the conflict escalates into a Duel to the Death.

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