I stopped all other games I'm playing just to get my teeth deep into this castle. I love how the layout design is done. I'm getting lost. But in a good way! It's entertaining and it doesn't hold my hand. Exploring is rewarding, movement is snappy and addicting, unlocking new abilities feels like a dream! I just want to play the full version already!
I stopped all other games I'm playing just to get my teeth deep into this castle. I love how the layout design is done. I'm getting lost. But in a good way! It's entertaining and it doesn't hold my hand. Exploring is rewarding, movement is snappy and addicting, unlocking new abilities feels like a dream! I just want to play the full version already!
This mini-metroidvania is just lovely, I can hardly believe it was made in the span of a month.
First off, the MOVEMENT. God the movement, the star of the show. The evolution of the moveset here is wonderful; fairly straightforward jumps evolve into blissfully fluid displays of momentum, long chains of wall kicks and dashes and slides strung together to cruise through the environment. It's certainly not without its pain points: trying to grab poles and gauging relative positioning to them while in midair was a notable one. There were also some fairly frustrating wall kick sections that, in hindsight, were likely intended for the wallrun acquired later on.
The world is surprisingly big for a game that was conjured up within such a short time. There are definitely some areas that lack variety in textures, lighting, or structure, and this combined with the lack of a map led to many long-winded excursions to find one particular room I remembered stumbling on an hour earlier. Despite this I ultimately didn't mind it too much, as it provided an excuse to zip around and grow more acquainted with the growing moveset. If you decide to head into this, definitely be prepared to get lost (though you may have much better spatial awareness than I do!)
Overall the presentation very charming!! The whole game looks delightfully fuzzy, and the N64 inspiration absolutely comes through. The character you control is SO DAMN CUTE I'm love them so much. Animations-- especially when chopped down to a lower framerate-- are very well done (jumping up and flipping from a ledge grab is so, so good). Sounds were crunchy, the music is hauntingly beautiful, and both evoke a sound very reminiscent of the era. As for environment design I have to give a special commendation to one particular area: the Underbelly. It's such a particularly memorable environment, a claustrophobic folded maze with very bold, saturated colors in the last place you would expect to see them. I love the vibe here so much.
Pseudoregalia can be a lil rough around the edges, but it's very impressive for what it is, and the time it took to make it. I understand there are plans to finish things off with a steam release, so I very much look forward to that!!
The devs have made something very special here. To me it's obvious that they've got a ton of potential for great things.