Teslagrad is a 2D, hand-drawn, metroidvania, puzzle platformer developed by Rain Games, released in 2023, and sequel to the original Teslagrad. Set years after the first game, you now play as Lumina, the daughter of the original Teslamancer, after her airship crash lands in the land of Wyrmheim after she is blasted out of the sky.
This time around, the game is more of a metroidvania from the start, and takes place both outdoors and indoors, in towers, towns, caves and even a flying ship.
Like the first game, the major mechanic of the game is magnetism and electricity. Lumina starts off with electric powers, and obtains upgrades throughout the game as she explores.
This video game contains examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features: Normally, if you die to the final boss, even in his second form, you have to rewatch the cutscene and start the fight over again. However, if you die to the True Final Boss after him, you restart right at that specific fight instead. Good thing too, as that fight's much harder!
- Black Bead Eyes: Pretty much everybody has these.
- Boomerang Comeback: Once you get a throwing axe, you can throw it in any direction, and it'll return like a boomerang if you press the button again. Also, it's magnetic, so you can repel yourself off it.
- Cypher Language: From time to time, you'll find writing on things such as walls and chalkboards in a runic script. This is actually a cypher for Norwegian, so there's actually a lot of backstory written in the game hidden in plain sight.
- Double Jump: One of the upgrades you can get is being able to jump once in midair.
- Evil All Along: The guy who's been giving you your upgrades? Turns out he wants you to use them... to serve him. Lumina makes it clear she's not up for that, and the final boss fight begins.
- Flash Step: Lumina earns this ability early on, simply by putting on her missing boot. This ability can be upgraded, and even allows you to do things like quickly travel through water and waterfalls, or across power lines.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: There's are 81 collectable cards, though getting the best ending also requires you to find hidden ability upgrades.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: In the opening cutscene, Lumina loses a boot during an attack. Once she gets it back in the game, she can perform one of her moves. Apparently her boots are connected to her powers somehow.
- Mage Tower: This game contains technological versions of these.
- Metroidvania: Featuring more combat than the previous game, and also more openness to the world, including shortcuts. There are also hidden upgradeable abilities.
- Multiple Endings: You earn an ending for beating the regular final boss, and a different one for fighting the True Final Boss.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Lumina dies in one hit, though she gets a second hit point right before boss fights.
- Rule of Three: Guess how many times you need to use the same moves against almost every boss.
- Sequential Boss: The final boss fight has two segments. If you earned the True Final Boss, then that's the third fight!
- Sprite/Polygon Mix: There's a small amount of this to give more depth to the backgrounds, particularly in the final boss fight. Most of the graphics are still hand-drawn.
- Story Breadcrumbs: They come in a few forms. There are some environmental hints as to what's going on. There are also some chalkboards with writing in a runic cypher for Norwegian that show the villains' plans written out. There are also 45 diary entries written on walls in the same script.
- True Final Boss: There is an additional boss and ending hidden behind collecting the hidden cards and earning all power upgrades.
- We Can Rule Together: Near the end, the Captain, who had previously been giving Lumina powers and upgrades throughout the game, shows her a painting of her looking quite badass and leading an army of shadow creatures with her powers. The implication being that he upgraded her because he wants her to work for him. She quickly rejects him, and the boss fight begins.
