I will start this review with the positives. The art is simply gorgeous, and the devs took great care of animating everything. From the main character, Otus, to the npcs, even the fruits wobbling lightly when they land, rarely you'll see animations being skipped, 'stilted' or just 'flipped'. Most characters, even the npcs, have multiple animations of different nature, be it flying, crouching, even going through a simple door (which could have been easily done with the fade-in-fade-out trick). The background and its events are quite a treat to see, even!
The soundtrack is really good as well, every dungeon not only having a different themes each, but sometimes the same dungeon will have two themes, not counting boss themes. The tri-dimensional flight mechanics hops (pun intended) over the usual hazards of 'metroidvania' games, the action is fast-paced, not allowing the player to get stuck anywhere, be it a 'puzzle' or a fight.
The soundtrack, mixed with the gorgeous art makes up really good and impacting scenes.
Sadly, the game is lacking in all other areas. The story is sadly not only short, but weak and sparsely shown (the heavy storytelling being in the end of it), and the bits where you interact with your companions are sadly misaimed in purpose, ending in a detrimental hit to the game. How so? You know little of your companions, who are they, except for the bits shown in their bios at the menu, but at the same time every two or three doors unlocked in a dungeon, everything will grind to a halt so your companions can banter. And sadly, most dialogues can be resumed in 'Yay! We opened a door!', 'I'm scared!', 'We must go forth!'. This, combined with one of the characters being a cowardlylion ended frustrating me to the point of trying to skip scenes. Even story scenes.
The action is quite easy, especially for veterans, with plenty of space for dodging and fast firing from your 'gunners'. Most (90%) 'puzzles' are just 'find the button', 'bring x to y' and 'dodge this', and with the interesting 'gunner mechanic' where you heave your friends in the air so they can shoot, that feels quite a wasted opportunity. And this is without mentioning the atrocious cannon minigame.
Overall, I enjoyed the game, but wouldn't recommend to people seeking something plot-heavy or hard, mostly for those who want something gorgeous, easy and chill-out. 6/10
Better suited for newer gamers, not bad, not superb, but definitely gorgeous to look at.
I will start this review with the positives. The art is simply gorgeous, and the devs took great care of animating everything. From the main character, Otus, to the npcs, even the fruits wobbling lightly when they land, rarely you'll see animations being skipped, 'stilted' or just 'flipped'. Most characters, even the npcs, have multiple animations of different nature, be it flying, crouching, even going through a simple door (which could have been easily done with the fade-in-fade-out trick). The background and its events are quite a treat to see, even!
The soundtrack is really good as well, every dungeon not only having a different themes each, but sometimes the same dungeon will have two themes, not counting boss themes. The tri-dimensional flight mechanics hops (pun intended) over the usual hazards of 'metroidvania' games, the action is fast-paced, not allowing the player to get stuck anywhere, be it a 'puzzle' or a fight.
The soundtrack, mixed with the gorgeous art makes up really good and impacting scenes.
Sadly, the game is lacking in all other areas. The story is sadly not only short, but weak and sparsely shown (the heavy storytelling being in the end of it), and the bits where you interact with your companions are sadly misaimed in purpose, ending in a detrimental hit to the game. How so? You know little of your companions, who are they, except for the bits shown in their bios at the menu, but at the same time every two or three doors unlocked in a dungeon, everything will grind to a halt so your companions can banter. And sadly, most dialogues can be resumed in 'Yay! We opened a door!', 'I'm scared!', 'We must go forth!'. This, combined with one of the characters being a cowardlylion ended frustrating me to the point of trying to skip scenes. Even story scenes.
The action is quite easy, especially for veterans, with plenty of space for dodging and fast firing from your 'gunners'. Most (90%) 'puzzles' are just 'find the button', 'bring x to y' and 'dodge this', and with the interesting 'gunner mechanic' where you heave your friends in the air so they can shoot, that feels quite a wasted opportunity. And this is without mentioning the atrocious cannon minigame.
Overall, I enjoyed the game, but wouldn't recommend to people seeking something plot-heavy or hard, mostly for those who want something gorgeous, easy and chill-out. 6/10