A bird lost in the mountains explores the ruins of an ancient civilization and discovers its secrets… and the other animals are none too pleased about it.
Playing a bird in the forest. Feels natural enough.
Secrets of Rætikon is a creation of the studio Broken Rules and was released on January 7th, 2014 in Early Access, with full release in April of that year. It’s a combination of puzzle and exploration. Your protagonist? The aforementioned bird, which finds itself in an unknown area. You’re taught the important mechanics of the game: Fly with the arrows. Flap your wings with the Spacebar, and press E to dive down. Use Q to grab on to an item that you can then carry around as you fly. Your task is to collect little white triangles (known as slivers) scattered around the areas, which you can find by letting out a detecting bird cry with S; the slivers are later dropped into ruins with W. Still no clue how to attack any of the antagonistic wildlife.
Holy crap, this thing is huge!
Soon, the bird finds a giant construct with seven locked cages. Your task is to find idols that will open the seven cages, which themselves are locked into machines that must be opened with a certain number of slivers. On top of the white ones, your aviary protagonist can also collect blue slivers that indicate some sort of progress in the game, and red slivers that let it regain health. Where do you have to go next? You choose. This is basically a 2D open world. Explore, solve the little puzzles involving the ruins, find the idols, and open the cages.
A puzzle so simple, even a bird can solve it!
The positive aspect is that you can explore to your heart’s content, discover things as you go. The problem is that it becomes quite easy to get lost. Looking for your way back to the big machine so you can stick an idol into it? Don’t lose the idol, don’t die on the way back either… The local wildlife HAAAAATES you. The worst part is that I’ve never really figured out how to fight back against these threats.
The game has a lush art style. The nature around our bird, and the remnants of a civilization, everything’s vibrant. The music is also pretty good. The resulting world is actually quite enjoyable to explore, but it would be a lot better if you weren’t fearing for your life, defenseless, on every screen.
I felt myself wince just looking at this part of the game again.
I struggled to bring more than one idol back, because I couldn’t find my way around. Open worlds usually have maps for that reason. That’s not even getting into some of the challenges that await your bird as it tries to get the idols. I distinctly remember one of those: The idol appears between two tall trees. Another bird keeps trying to steal it from you. The trees are alive, and they try to catch your bird and steal back the idol every time you try to fly away. I hated that section.
I think I can read that, even without the code.
You can also find symbols that are code for letters of the alphabet, which you can then use to decipher the text on some of the steles you see on your way. But, to be fair, most of the letters were transformed only a little, so you could theoretically read the text even without knowing the code. An interesting idea, but it doesn’t add much to the game.
I tried to play this game some more, but no – I can’t. It annoyed me too much. The difficulty is unfair and the world, which they tried to make pleasant to observe, is anything but pleasant to visit. If you had a means of defense, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, but too many things can kill you and there’s nothing you can do against them. A map would have helped, more health would have helped. Speaking of health, the worst thing may be the pounding heartbeat sounds that never cease when your health is low. There is no fairness here. I really, really didn’t like it. Not even a recommendation, to be honest. But if you do feel like trying it, head over to Steam and get it for 9.99$.
Whatever happened to my goal of reviewing plenty of RPG Maker titles?
You may choose... but there's no difference.
Made by Senpai Studios and released on August 21st, 2015, Secret of Magia is the story of Kerzok or Kani (you choose your player character before the game starts; Kerzok is male, Kani is female). Kerzok/Kani dreams of a bird that asks them to bring the souls of the elemental deities. After they wake up and train for a bit, the protagonist is invited to join the local guild. As Kerzok/Kani discovers the world, they begin to learn about the local legends, and a greater story unravels…
The tricky part with discussing RPG Maker games, since they all share the same basic game design software, is to see how details change from a game to another. Some won’t bother with extra scripts in the software’s Ruby language, and keep their project simple. Others may go all-out and include everything they want.
Slash till this thing is dead!
The first, and most notable, difference in Secret of Magia might be the combat mechanics. Instead of turn-based combat, the game employs action RPG mechanics. Rather than wait for their turn, Kerzok/Kani will slash at whatever’s in front of them, inflicting damage, and must then wait to reload. Oh, enemies can hit back – if the protagonist is unlucky enough to be in an enemy's line of view, they can become a prime target. (The Slimes, an early enemy, are particularly annoying as they can hit multiple times in quick succession in a way that the protagonist can't escape, showing the system's flaws early on.) The hero’s HP, MP and EXP progress – all is shown on the main screen.
One of the only three times the hookshot will be used.
Other differences: Save points are in the overworld, instead of being a menu option. There’s a crafting system to build items and improve weapons. The game has a quest log, allowing you to gather quests from NPCs. The character’s equipment page is different, adding an extra accessory slot as well as a slot for tools. The protagonist can equip special items that will help their progression. Stuff like lanterns, bottles, a hookshot… Yes, a hookshot. Like in The Legend of Zelda. It’s acquired early on. Secret of Magia is thankfully sparse in its homages to that series...
The story here is pretty bland overall, something that involves elementals and gathering the souls of the powerful monsters. Nothing that stands out all that much. (I would also like to note the many, many spelling mistakes in the text. Hey, game; it’s “Guard”, not “Gaurd”.)
The bosses merely try to overpower you with large-range, hard-hitting attacks.
The action RPG battle system makes the game feel different, even if it lack finesse; most battles will end with the enemy trapped in a corner and hit over and over till it dies. Removing the Save option from the main menu and replacing it with save points spread across the game might have been a choice to prevent the characters from ending up in an inescapable situation, but it adds unnecessary difficulty and ends up feeling archaic and impractical. The quest log is nice, but you’ll end the game with only 5 or 6 quests, at best. The idea behind the tools system is barely utilised, as the only two Tools you get are the lantern and the shovel. The hookshot? You use it three times, at most, in the entire game. The extra inventory items for accessories? You NEVER get accessories anywhere.
How the fuck do you want me to craft a better scythe when the recipe for a better scythe... does not include the fucking scythe?
The crafting system has an EXP system and levels so you can improve your ability to craft, but some crafting recipes don’t work due to missing information. Want to upgrade your scythe? Can't; the Tier II Scythe recipe is missing the Scythe ingredient. Invest in swords instead. Also, there’s only one forge in the whole game – in the second town. You can never upgrade weapons past the second tier, not even by leveling up like crazy at the forge – you don’t unlock new crafting recipes. It would have been nice to be able to craft further improved weapons, and it would also have been nice to have more than one forge. You can craft potions at an alchemy station later (again; only one in the whole game), but I've never found some of the materials required to make them!
Credit where due, the final boss fight is a decent challenge. ....Because it's incredibly unfair!
There are several things that were overlooked. In one town, you can enter in one house and, when you leave, you'll be leaving from a different house. I never figured out how to get Kerzok tol use magic spells. At least, some weapons earned for defeating bosses can cause status effects, which does help a lot against later bosses, especially the (extremely unfair) final one. I was also never able to meet the King in the third town, something at least hinted as possible. Some secrets seem to have no answer, such as how much money you must give a Sacred Tree to obtain something in return, or what’s the code an old man asks for so you can get something from him. The worst part? There isn’t even an ending. You beat the (again, extremely unfair) final boss, and… Back to the Title Screen.
I like that this game tried to do as many fresh things as possible, things that aren’t in the average RPG Maker game. There’s a few nice things to it, but it feels very half-baked in execution. Too many things either barely work, or don’t work at all, or could have been expanded on. I don’t recommend it. But hey, if you want to see what it’s like (because you’re intrigued by RPG Maker games like I am), it’s on Steam for a dollar.
This entire concept feels like a mashup of robot-based movies and I don’t know which ones to pick.
Since when are there plants in this robot world?
Developed by Egidijus Bachur and Alexey Davydov, published by Flazm, and released on May 6th, 2016, Scrap Garden is the story of a little solar-powered robot who was about to get decommissioned due to its archaic power source… only to wake up 54 years later and realize that mot of the other robots have stopped working and nature has retaken its rights. He soon discovers that the red gem that served as the new power source for the population of this robotic world has been shattered by a dragon, and he must, with the help of the rare few functional robots, restore the gem and, probably, kill the dragon. I didn’t know machines could become Dragonborns.
That rat was waiting to sneak on me!
This is a 3D platformer in which your little hero, C4N (also known as Canny), explores, gathers rubies, defeats enemies, and must fulfill some tasks in each level. He moves with WASD, jumps with Space, picks up items and tosses them with the left click button, and the camera is controlled with the mouse. You do need to gather red gems, too, as they’re necessary to unlock the path going forward. Can’t just get from Point A to Point B, that would be too easy, come on now.
Ahhh! A giant worm!
The first part of each level thus involves collecting enough red gems. In the second party, Canny must find a red gear that will allow him to reactivate beams to repower the main red gem. The game will often throw gameplay changes at the player, especially when it comes to boss battles; the first two are fairly straightforward, but the following ones involve, respectively, setting up explosives, a stealth-like segment, and (oh God no) quick-time events. Some levels also experiment with gameplay, including things like puzzles and a mine cart section. So props for creativity there. The difficulty of the game is just right, as I struggled in places but it wasn’t too bad. Some sections were annoying, but nothing rage-inducing.
If only the camera helped me a little...
On rare occasions the camera will be fixed, which does make things easier in some sections (levels or boss fights).
On the topics of camera, physics and AI. One of the issues is having a camera that moves constantly, since it's controlled with the mouse. You’ll always keep a hand on the mouse as you’ll frequently need to throw items, but it can make platforming segments a lot tougher than they would be. The camera can make or break a 3D platformer; it could have been worse here, but it could have been so much better.
The physics are okay. Tossing items can be a pain at times (partly due to the camera issues it can cause). Canny can double jump just fine in outdoor areas, but can’t do so indoors... Which is troublesome since indoor areas switch to an almost 2D view played in 3D, and are often full of enemies. Some platforms are also tough to reach
Gotta be stealthy, or the giant frog will gobble up Canny!
On to artificial intelligence. The AI of regular enemies is bad. All they'll do is run at Canny when he comes close. They'll also stay in place right beneath Canny if he jumps, so they're usually easy to beat. It would be fine, if it weren’t that several enemies are darkly-colored and, frequently, also hard to see in dimly-lit areas. The less said about them in indoor 2D segments the better, as Canny’s jump is limited there and enemies love to wait where you can’t see them. This doesn't apply to the bosses, which have much better AI overall.
Here, this is what I mean. Canny jumps, the scorpion goes at him, stops right beneath him, Canny lands on the scorpion, done. That's the extent of the regular enemies' AI in this game.
The graphics are fine, the music is actually quite good, and the plot, while basic, actually has some interesting twists. As mentioned earlier, the difficulty is just right. The game plays fairly well overall, barring a few annoying sections (the QTE boss comes to mind, so does the mine cart bit). It’s got a fair number of flaws, some of which can taint your experience a tad, but overall it’s alright.
A pretty long title that means “Dodgeball with robots on flashy fields”. Hm, that title would be even longer, and not nearly as interesting.
He's over there! Must throw something at him!
Developed by Erik Asmussen, published by 82 Apps and released on Steam on February 19th, 2015, Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball is exactly what it says on the tin. You’re a robot. You move around rolling on a wheel. You play dodgeball against other robots. The arenas are full of bright, flashy colors, with techno music blaring. The title’s misleading, though, that’s not disco music!
There’s no story to this one. There’s a handful of Single Player modes to play against CPU opponents, and several options to have multiplayer matches either locally or online. In the Single Player options, you've got a Training mode that explains the basics; an Arcade mode in which you play against a single opponent, then two, then three, and so on; a Challenges section in which you can choose the stage and the mode; and a Botmatch that you can create against up to 11 opponents, although apparently that mode is up on multiplayer and players can join in by replacing NPC robots.
Too bad it's so difficult to get a clear shot.
Multiplayer matches can be played in any of 21 modes, with the possibility to create your own as well. Per the game’s nature, a lot of work went into creating plenty of different experiences for the players. It also allows players to create their own modes, which is a pretty good addition. That said, I can’t think of many ways to innovate on dodgeball games…
There are tons of customization options for your robot, from setting its overall color to giving it a unique set of facial features. You can even give it a “team” by choosing a Steam group you’re a part of, and that group’s avatar will appear on its back! That said, I was disappointed that so many customization items had to be bought with real money.
Why is customizing robots so expensive?
Fuck you, I was stuck in the corner!
As for gameplay now. The characters move very quickly; therefore, it’s a challenge to control your robot around the often complex arenas, all while picking up balls and throwing them at other fast-moving robots, and avoiding the balls thrown at you. The bright and flashy colors on the arenas often make it difficult to see around, which can be a hindrance. Seeing these flashing colors hurt my eyes after a while. The very fast-paced gameplay takes a LOT of practice to get used to. For the time I spent playing, I was bad at aiming, even worse at avoiding. (I think I was better at dodgeball in real life, and I suck at sports!) There are several trick shots that the player can try, and a lot of mechanics that exist to be used in team play and more complex strategies (such as tossing the ball to teammates, or fake-tossing to keep an opponent guessing). All of it would require hours and hours of practice, and unfortunately I don’t have enough free time for that.
Still no clear shot? Damnmit!
Not that I’d have a chance to play this game much in online multiplayer, since it’s become somewhat barren, unfortunately. I couldn’t find a lot of players. The single player modes are fun, even if I turned out to be pretty bad at them. Still, the game is a pretty clever idea overall. From the 21 different modes (or 27? Even the Steam store page doesn’t seem sure) to the large customization options for your robot (although most of them must be purchased), I can feel there was a lot of creativity put in this. That said, my personal experience was punctuated by moments of disorientation as I struggled to find my way around the often-labyrinthine arenas, doubled by the speed at which everything was going. My experience wasn’t helped by the constant changing colors that were too flashy for my poor eyes that had to stare at them for so long. That last one could be improved in the Options menu, obviously, by dimming the lights and colors ever so slightly. Even then, I couldn’t adapt to the speed of the game.
That said, just because I am bad at it doesn’t mean the game itself is bad. The graphics and music are pretty nice, and while I didn’t enjoy the gameplay much, I like that it has so many options for players who want to go pro. I doubt I’ll be dedicating a lot of time to it personally, but I see what the idea was and I applaud the effort, even if I think there could have been some tweaks brought to it, or some changes to make it less disorienting and confusing. I doubt I'll play more of it, but if you think you could find something to your liking in this, head over to the Steam page on which the game is sold for 9.99$.
In a world where everyone excels at controlling one of the four base elements, a world of constant struggle between the lands and their inhabitants, some shadowy trouble is brewing beneath the surface…
Rivals of Aether is a creation of Dan Fornace and was released on May 28th, 2017. It’s a fighting game with everything you’d expect from one: Online or local multiplayer, a Story Mode, the creation of profiles, and the most important of all, a thriving community of users.
Gras versus grass. Brothers against brothers?
Not a lot of characters, but hey, every fighting franchise has to start somewhere.
The main roster is comprised of eight characters, two for each element: Forsburn and Zetterburn (Fire), Maypul and Kragg (Earth), Wrastor and Absa (Wind), Orcane and Etalus (Water). Readers of the blog might remember Orcane being one of the characters in Indie Pogo, another fighting game reviewed on here last year. There are six characters that can be purchased as DLC on Steam as well. The first four belong to the elements: Clairen, Sylvanos, Ellianna and Ranno. The last two are indie guest star fighters: Ori (from Ori and the Blind Forest) and Shovel Knight.
The Story Mode is a plot that ties six of the fighters into a single adventure. A tale of betrayal and danger, with the characters crossing paths throughout as they try to make sense of mysterious shadow clones that have appeared. Each character fights the other five, one at a time, culminating in a boss fight against a Rival (hence the game's name) that has two lives instead of one.
Unlike Smash, it can still take a while for someone to go flying after reaching 100%.
The game uses a system akin to Smash’s damage percentage. Unlike Smash however, in the Story Mode of Rivals of Aether, a fighter’s damage percentage doesn’t return to zero between fights, which adds another layer of difficulty. You have three lives. While some battles are justified by plot, some character storylines will feature battles that are there only to fill space, which is unfortunate. Still, the six characters come together at the end against a common foe: A final boss made of darkness, which has a long health bar and summons shadow copies of fighters. You switch between the six characters to defeat it.
Trouble is afoot!
Beating the Story Mode unlocks Abyss Mode, in which you pick a character that will then go through several different challenges, gain experience from winning said challenges, and level up. Abyss Mode ends when the character is KO’d, but they retain any experience earned and can keep on earning more. Levels allow a character to equip items that will allow them to get further into the mode.
What does the game offer, multiplayer-wise? Local matches, which can be done with Steam’s Remote Play. The Online multiplayer has multiple possibilities: Ranked, Casual, Friendly and Team matches.
As far as customizing characters goes, Rivals of Aether goes a step beyond!
In the Extras Menu, it’s possible to completely change a fighter’s color palette, see your stats and achievements, watch the Story Mode cutscenes, and so on. The most appreciated feature of this game, however, may be its Steam Workshop, thanks to which users can create their own fighters, stages, helpers, and so on.
Oh no, everything is on fire! *insert your own 2020 joke here*
I played the game for a few hours, and I could see that each fighter had its gimmicks, little details you had to get used to in order to be really good when using them. There is a very wide array of moves, which are thankfully taught in the Tutorial available in the solo player section. Admittedly, I would need several more hours of practice with each fighter before I can safely say I’ve got any talent with any of them. The basics are already complex; I feel like this game requires a higher level of skill in general. That’s not a problem per se, but it can make the game feel less accessible. That said, maybe I’m just not good at it. That happens. The complexity of this game's fight moves is all to its honor, though it comes with the associated need to practice a LOT.
Wrastor clearly thinks he's the best.
The game is rendered in very good pixel art; the Story Mode cutscenes, in particular, are beautiful, though the whole game looks fantastic. The music is wonderful as well. I feel like the roster is rather small, with 8 characters available and 6 to purchase (on four DLCs costing roughly 20$ in total, on top of the game’s base price). But, to be fair, each character has a personality and gimmicks, and a lot of work went into making their movesets interesting and balanced. The stages are available in a regular version with dangers and hazards, and a basic form without. The many modes and the near-infinite possibilities for customization are a great touch. It’s also nice to know that fan-made items can be added to the game through Steam Workshop, as I’ve seen videos showcasing well-made fighters who almost fit in as well as the official characters!
It’s a very good game, I’m just not good at it, and I unfortunately don’t have as much time as I’d like to practice it. Rivals of Aether is available for 14.99$.
Have fun seeing rays of colored lights everywhere.
Developed and published by Yaeko and released on March 8th, 2017, ReThink begins in the year 2275. In this far future, prisoners in government facilities can prove, at the end of their sentence, that they can be useful to society. They must therefore… not prove that they can be functional members of society again, or that they are no longer at risk of repeating what landed them in prison in the first place, or undergo any sort of official procedures… Nah, they only need to prove they can solve some puzzles involving cubes and colored lasers. That’s where you come in: It’s your turn to show that you can return to society.
Gee, let’s hope for the world of Earth Year 2275 that you’re not a murder-happy psychopath with an incredible talent for solving puzzles. I hope I’m not the only one seeing the flaw of that idea here? It doesn't sound right. Red flags all over.
Three lasers? That's nothing yet.
Puzzles on three levels? That's still easy.
On each level, there are cubes already in place emitting colored lasers. You are given a number of cubes that you can place around the level, on any of the set squares; these cubes will redirect the lasers in the direction you set them. The first levels are fairly standard, with one color that must be redirected at first, then two, then three, and you redirect the lasers to the corresponding colored goals. Eventually, the game starts to throw in color combinations that involve crossing lasers into a cube that will then emit the combined color (example, red and blue lasers to get purple). And all the way to brown and, even, white.
Now things get interesting.
Then the game throws in cubes that emit two diagonal lasers instead of one straight line. You need to take into account the directions taken by all the lasers. Still not difficult enough? Try cubes that emit three lasers of the same color… and, even further down the line, a cube that splits a white light into its three component color lights! I’ll be honest, after some time, I fared much better with trial-and-error than with any sort of plan. The first-person view does make it tricky, often forcing you to learn the exact layout of a room before you can think up a solution.
The game takes its core puzzle about as far as it could without making large changes to the gameplay, which is on par with what any good puzzle game ought to do. I don’t think the set-up story to justify the puzzles makes much sense, but it’s not really an issue. Though, to the game’s credit, apparently the game can end in more than one way…
My freedom better be worth all the effort I've put into solving threse things.
There is an issue I had with the game: It’s very demanding, resource-wise. The game ran terribly unless I set all of the graphical options at the lowest settings. On higher graphical settings, I wouldn’t even see lasers beyond the first cube. In fact, even at the lowest settings, the lasers would sometimes fail to show beyond the first cube set in place, or fizzle out, or they’d disappear once I've walked too far away. Since the whole game involves lasers being redirected around, that’s a problem. I don’t know why a puzzle game requires this much processing power from a gaming computer.
Ooh, a prism! Suddenly, I can hear Dark Side of the Moon in my head.
This is actually ReThink Reworked; the original ReThink can be accessed (as part of the package I got, at least), but even the devs from Yaeko don’t recommend it. I struggled to keep interest in this game, as I've played a lot of titles that felt very similar, but it's overall decent. If your computer can run it and you want a tough puzzle, you can get it on Steam for 9.99$. I went all the way to the end of the game, finishing the 38 puzzles, to see how it ended, but ultimately I'm feeling it's just okay. If you really want, you can try it out, and if you do end up enjoying it, this is a franchise with six more games to try out.
I don’t think it’s possible to talk about this game without spoiling what it’s actually about – so bear that in mind. If you want to avoid spoilers for this game released on January 4th, 2016, skip this review.
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We’re good? Okay.
Daniel Mullins Games is the studio behind Pony Island, a game with some ponies and some islands, but that's only part of the focus. This arcade cabinet isn’t quite right. In fact, it seems like it’s possessed by a whole bunch of demons. And a mere exorcism won't help it.
Pony Island is an interesting concept. The "Pony Island" within Pony Island is bland.
You spend the game in two ways: Either playing the titular Pony Island, Satan’s creation, which the demon will frequently mess around with, or hacking the game yourself, reprogramming it and accessing the files behind. You are contacted by a soul trapped within the game, asking you to delete the core files of the game in order to set them free. It's a good thing that Satan is a crappy developer who set up his game on a machine with several flaws that you can exploit! Not that the demons will make the act of deleting core files any easy, mind you.
Pony Island itself is kind of a platform/shmup game that will change with the modifications you make. The programming part is a puzzle game in which you move elements around. The goal is to make a code key reach the code lock at the bottom of the screen. You must move the key around using the elements, and make values change as the key passes by them, in order to open the path and "repair" the code of Pony Island. It’s tricky to explain, so here are some images.
An element telling the key to move down, an element telling the key to move to the right...
An element that takes the key back at the start, and one that takes it to the left. Things are about to get way tougher.
There is something cathartic in insulting a demon like this. (Yes, I wrote the F-words in.)
Most of your actions are done with the mouse, but the keyboard is used in places. Sometimes you can enter text, and I sure as Hell (no pun intended) tried telling the demons to go fuck themselves but they never replied. I am glad there’s an element of interactivity at all, that’s interesting. Still, when the entire concept behind a game involves trying to break said game, I would have loved to see more ways to “break” the system, even if it just means “demons get angry and give you an instant Game Over”. I would have deserved that for insulting each demon every way I could.
I felt the game was rather easy, but it's not really an issue. Some Pony Island levels and hacking sections later get trickier, but nothing I would classify as crazy difficult. If something gets really difficult, it’ll be for story purposes. The story takes every chance it can to break the fourth wall. It does so in pretty surprising ways at times, too, but I won’t spoil how.
Beware my brave beast's binary blast!
I can see why this game made it to several “Best of 2016” lists. It’s one of the best games I’ve played this year. The level of creativity and ingenuity behind it amazed me. There are very few flaws I can think of regarding this game. Of course, you must be fine with the wave of postmodernist games that focus a lot on the fourth wall and playing with the medium, like Undertale and Doki Doki Literature Club. I do like this type of game, but I can see why some people would grow tired of it since so many indie titles have gone that route. I think this game could have done with a couple more Easter Eggs (such as more responses to things one could write in the text segments), but that’s a very minor complaint as the game is already very good as is. Oh yeah, I recommend this one, definitely.
