Sorry to learn the game didn't quite hit for you... for me I loved it. I absolutely loved the challenging platforming and bosses. The gems were fun..I enjoyed the exploration and length of the game....I went on to platinum the game I enjoyed it so much.. it's one of my all time fave metroidvania's. I do agree with the corpse running though, as much as I love Soulslikes, this mechanic doesn't have a place in MV's imo and it needs to stop.
I'm glad you love the game. There's a lot to love here (no pun intended lol) and I did like it. If its size and platforming aren't an issue for you, I can definitely see how this could be your favorite MV because it does so many things right. I can't wait to see what they do in the sequel.
@@fores7ght Here ya go! th-cam.com/video/khL_f4E4pZk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0p6uRrjNw6pSazVH There’s also a rogue-like game, but I don’t know if it’s a prequel or sequel or what lol.
So glad to finally find someone with genuine complaints about this game. I see everyone talk about it as a masterpiece and I'm like "what are these people seeing that I'm not". I spent 50 hours on this, mostly because the game has very few quit moments when you're playing. There's a lot annoying you (such as particle effects obscuring well everything, including bosses many of which would have taken me half the time without it) but there's just enough to keep you playing like the bosses really are great and there are some inventive areas and the platforming is something I would love in a precision platformer. WHILE you're playing. I decided not to any longer around 50 hours but returned after an update and it was just obnoxious to me. I love both MVs and precision platformers but the combination really didn't work out well, especially when it's also with demanding combat so you constantly have to redo both when retraversing. And a lot of things (like how the teleport arrows is set up or the area in space) really isn't accessible if you have say reduced cognitive reaction speed (autistic). Also special shout out to the dev that announced an accessibility improvement making me think "ok, maybe I'll return to it" only to stick it in the upgrade tree, meaning if people need accessibility they need to play the game until they can unlock it (I never figured out what it was, once the dev responded to me asking where it was I quit the game in disgust). If this game was a 10, 15, or 20 hour experience it would be SO much better, because the complaints really wouldn't matter as much. Hopefully the devs will learn their lessons for the sequel, but I don't know if I'll go with it. Sorry for the long rant, but I have thoughts on this.
Sorry to hear about the accessibility inclusion being allocated to the skill tree. I had no idea. That does seem very counterintuitive. Yeah, there's a lot to like about this game, but I think it just tried too hard to be epic. If the devs can rein themselves in for the sequel, they may have a genuine masterpiece on their hands.
I absolutely adored AN. I played it on Noctis mode and it remains my proudest platinum so far. Length is a very important plus for me, which makes this and Afterimage some of my favorite MVs of all time. AN environment and music somehow grabbed me like nothing else since Ender Lilies. For me, this is a masterpiece MV.
quite the same. 105.2% completion, around 42hours, and one of my personal favs. LOVED the music and environment too. Itll stick with me for a while. Playin through Afterimage till I start liking it 😅 6h in, and I'm not exactly lovin it, but ig ill give it time.
@@kevinclapson There are some optional hair pullingly frustrating parts, but even the late game is challenging in its own right. It never feels impossible, though. Afterimage platforming doesn't really compare.
You just got a new sub from Norway (hope I'm the first 😄). I've seen some of your videos, and as a fan of metroidvania-games, you give the games a good, honest review. As you pointed out in another video, game reviewers has only so many hours to make up their opinion about a game, so it's nice to see a review of a game some time after release. Keep up the good work 🙂
They thought most Metroidvania gamers in the world are masochists. Maybe "Summum Aeterna" is easier and better suited for non-hardcore players with less leisure time.
Very solid video! You are criminally underviewed channel! I picked this up at lauch played a good beat. As I recall they added the "easy" mode later on since the game was criticized heavily for the difficulty. And because of the lenght and difficulty it was hard to find video reviews of the game of people that had completed it. I guess it was still too hard and they changed the easy mode to normal mode to brainwash the masses to play this :D I kinda hoped it worked. I really liked a lot what I saw during first 5 hours. I doubt I am going back to this anytime soon and the next instalment from the same game studio seems to be roguelight set in the same world. I honestly cant stand roguelights most of the day but prefer metroidvanias. Next metroidvania I try is Pseudoregalia! its 6€ on steam. You should take a look! It's more platformer than fighting metroidvania though there is some combat. It has N64 theme.
Thanks for the compliments! Feel free to sahre with your friends LOL So you're saying I played an even EASIER version than what it originally was!? Yikes... Same on the Roguelikes. Very few do I actually like. Pseudoregalia, eh? Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to check it out :)
I was really struggling with certain platforming sections and getting certain collectibles, but once I equipped that gem that slows time when using the arrows the game became sooooo much easier. It's a godsend. I'm loving the game.
One of the best metroidvania i've ever played. The platforming is impossible but rewarding with time. Honestly i disagree with what you say. It's okay to have a hard ass game. The game had a ton of content and is very long. You have to be patient with this one. The soundtrack is gorgeous and the controls are tight. The movement and bioms are gorgoeus. The wobble the king does at the end of running is dumb. The art is bomb and boss battles are harder than hollow knights. Worth the run through for anyone who likes the genre.
I don’t disagree with any thing you’ve said. Genre fans should absolutely check it out. And it’s fine to have a hard game. It being difficult AND long is what did me in, though I did finish it. The game definitely has its fans, and it deserves every one of them.
Cool review & channel 👍. Have you played or going to play Blast brigade vs evil legion of dr cread? - another brutally hard metroidvania in that some of the later bosses are impossibly tough no matter what weapon or upgrade has been accumulated. I actually gave up but still recommend the game to metroidvania fans
Good review. The bleeps hurt my ears. I'd say for a game like this, there is no shame in turning the difficulty down, though myself I wish I could just turn off the lost experience. Tricky platforming deaths can be quite frustrating in the first place.
Love your content. However I have one gripe. You loved Afterimage, a similarly very long game, with no complaints about length, but not the same for AN? Pls clarify, NO offense. Cus AN has been one of my personal favourite metroidvanias so far, and I've played a few. CV SotN, Aria of Sorrow 20 ish times, Metroid Fusion 30+ times, Super Metroid, AM2R, Samus Returns, HK, B1 and B2 for bigger names, etc etc metroid fanmades even. Im a bit biased towards AN sure but Afterimage's combat is just tedious so far with boring weapons (save for the dualblades and its combos) and hilariously tanky normal enemies even. (though bosses are fun) I cant bring myself to love the game even though I want to, I'm like 6hr in. As for AN, I finished it with 105.2% (109 is the most you can get I believe) with around 42h. Sry this tangent was more Afterimage than AN lol
Glad you like the content. And I’m not offended. I like to think my channel can be used for discussion. To clarify, it’s not just the length of AN that got to me. It was the length + the platforming difficulty + repeating difficult platforming sections while backtracking, the furnace area being an example. Afterimage, though long (even longer), never let exhaustive platforming detract from its exploration. I hope that helps 😊
I’m a mad lad. I’m trying to play all metroidvanias. The harder the better. My favorite so far has been Ender lillies, not hard, but really nice music and ambience
I really enjoyed Aeterna Noctis until i got to the heaven biome. I can't continue because my game keeps crashing instantly after i load back in... It's really a shame. I'd love to experience the ending but im Not playing through 30 h again
I played the game on the switch until i came to a bug that deleted my map. Since the map is basically your most important progression toolI had to stop at that point.
You complain it's too big, but also you loved After Image which is also huge. The difference is that traversal in Noctis is punishing enough that being big isn't necessarily funner.
Dude i couldn't agree more. All i play are metroidvanias. I love them but this map is waaay too big. If they cut it down and made it more focused it would be 10/10
Just completed this game on it's hard mode/Noctis and I'm so glad it's over. Aeterna has all of the components ( minus the character art, which imo is kinda ugly ) to be a masterpiece, but the game insists on being unbearably difficult most of the time playing. When I played Hollow Knight a while back, it was a pretty difficult game, but it only felt like that for about 25% of my time playing it, while this it was 75% of the time. I got this on sale and got 32 hours out of it, and despite how rage inducing it was, in a general sense, I did enjoy my time playing it, so I got my moneys worth. Honestly any other metroidvania game I play from here on out will be a breeze, because I'll just use this game as a reference: "but it's not as hard as Aeterna Noctics in hard mode" lol, so guess I got that going for me. Plan on playing Afterimage next, since I heard good things from your review
Impressive. I don’t think I could play this on the hardest difficulty on my first run. I plan on trying it, but, gosh, it’s such a time commitment lol I hope you like Afterimage. It’s another long one, and the story isn’t delivered the best, but it has so many good qualities.
Although I was annoyed by some parts of this game, I really enjoyed it. There’s a gem that gets rid of the corpse run, and that made the game a lot more enjoyable for me.
I remember following this game and the first iteration was much smoother, I talked with the devs about the new itineration being too heavy on the platforming aspect. I agree the heavy platforming aspects take away for the metroidvania aspects, which is annoying because had they not pushed it out so much the game would feel good, also some , also some parts felt way too long and some levels unnecessary, the action gameplay was also on the soft side being imprecise and not very fleshed out. This really is a case of less is more. But like afterimage it's too long and becomes too boring quickly, also most of the world feels just bland. I respect those who love it, I get their point, but they won't convince me this is a pure metroidvania game this is more platforming than metroidvania.
The beginning of this video pretty much sums up the game. The platforming is some kaizo level of bs I've played in a while. Still stuck on the robot boss with the two nodes you have to destroy to attack the core. This is basically a soulsborne game disguised as a metrovania game.
@@MetroidvaniaGuru It's not a bad game. Got more deaths on the platforming than anything else. Combat is pretty good and the double jump and crystal arrows are a godsend once you get access to those abilities. Probably doesn't help that I'm playing on Noctis mode (hard mode).
I understand your criticism and some of it is valid . This game was made for seasoned veterans of the genre , not beginners . I have beaten this game twice , not because I wanted to but because on my first playthrough the Slime Queen boss and I killed each other at the same time and the quest got bugged so I couldn't 100% the game , I was furious to say the least so I finished it quickly and decided to go again but was making a backup save file roughly every hour to make sure nothing will screw me over this time , luckily there were no bugs and I 100% the game . This game is hard , it is definitely the hardest metroidvania I have ever played but I never felt it was ,, too hard ,, just consistently hard . I played it on its original release so before any patches and the default mode was hard mode , they added the normal mode ( Aeterna ) later . Noctis was the default but on release the game was harder than it was later on ( Noctis ) mode since they made a lot of quality of life changes and I refused to patch it until the dlc ( Pit of the Damned ) came . On my first playthrough I died roughly 1200 times and on my second roughly 350 so of course I got better and knew what I was doing but also once you reach mid game especially the way it was on release when melee felt way underpowered , the range build was the way to go . It made the game so much easier both for platforming and enemies / bosses . They buffed the melee dmg and nerfed ranged dmg a bit later so now melee overall is better . Personally I loved this game , it is my second favorite metroidvania after Hollow Knight but I guess this game was made for people like me , who likes a challenge and wants that kind of consistent experience , not that I mind non challenging games but I do like it when it is harder in general . Also the difficulty you were playing on had a lot of it's platforming made easier and it was added because people were complaining that the game was too hard , and I think this is where the developers sort of shot themselves in the foot . They made a hard a$$ game for a more niche audience , they should have just added 2 difficulties right from the get go and the game would have been a more commercial success but I heard despite this the studio was pleased with the sales so I am glad to hear that . This game does a lot of things right imo , it is massive which I liked , it felt grandiose , I have never played a mv of such size , the art was beautiful , there was a lot of variety with the enemies and the bosses were overall great . I have finished the Pit of the Damned dlc and beat the Mythic bosses in Virtuoso the newly released dlc and oh boy they were extremely hard , too hard for most people to handle . The Katana that you mentioned is a great situational weapon , if there is a boss that likes to be above you it can melt it's hp like butter , it is beyond broken , it was my go to tool for mythic bosses , it is extremely broken if you have a lot of blood to spam it with the right gems and a lot of crit chance and damage . I enjoyed the quests and the story , there is a lot to like in this game , I also got every plat time in Pit of the Damned dlc which was very difficult to get . That being said of course there were some issues I had with the game , it wasn't all great . I would say the biggest issue in this game is that a lot of the effects from enemy attacks look too similar to the environment which makes it hard sometimes to see what is going on , it feels cheap to get hit like that and the same goes for platforming sometimes where you get hit by something that looks safe because the environment looks too similar to the platforming you are doing , these were probably the biggest issues with the game . I really did not enjoy the inverted world in space , it was my least liked section after the Dream which I did not like , same as you but I get they did try something different . The inverted world tho was just annoying with the controls being inverted and it was more frustrating than difficult because when you were bellow the center of a planet your controls became inverted as well , it was annoying to say the least . For such a massive game I only experienced one bug which I mentioned with the Slime Queen and that was it so the game was polished from the get go for the most part it just needed some balancing adjustments . Overall I loved the game but as I wrote it wasn't perfect , heck even Hollow Knight needed a lot of patching and new dlc to improve it drastically . You could tell that a lot of work was put into this game , I have never seen a metroidvania so big and so complex especially with the platforming where they added those crystals for teleporting and that made it unique as I have never experienced something like that , that mechanic alone made it stand out from other mv in the genre . This game was clearly made by gamers who like challenging games not just developers who made a game for everyone . I am sure they have learned a lot from the feedback they have received and will make 2 difficulties with their new mv game where you play as the queen of Light , and that both the platforming and the bosses will be a significantly different experience but with the more difficult difficulty being the recommended experience . I forgot to mention the game time and yes if you play on the hard mode and do 100% I guarantee you , you can get well over 40 hours , heck my first playthrough took 70 hours and my second took roughly 40 but of course then I had a lot more knowledge about the game and now with all the dlcs it will take a lot more than that . I know I wrote a lot of text and I apologize for that but this game for me was special despite it's flaws .
On november 9 there will be a DLC - Aeterna Noctis Virtuoso - challenging old bosses in a rush mode + new patterns (difficulty) and some new bosses to test your metroidvania player skill to the maximum. Try to check it out!
I tried the game but it's such a bloated mess that i gave up after 10 hours. Some environments can be pretty indeed but most of the time they're kind of "ugly" and inconsistent. It's too much clutter and objects on screen that make the scenes hard to read and traverse. The color balance it's also all over the place and chaotic. As an artist and developer myself i learned a lot from this game what things to avoid.
This game needed to be about 1/3 as big, half as hard and about 5 more years of working on it to make it good. As it stands it’s a game with some I good ideas and visuals that is just buried under the idea that more is better and no, no it isn’t.
@@MetroidvaniaGuru The easy mode was added way after the game launched. It is not just an easy mode, in terms of what others games normally do, like weakning enemies and making the player a tank. It changes the entire level design. As a guru, you know what level design is to a metroidvania.
The premise was so boring. I played the demo and it was crap and nearly put me to sleep. The art is very overrated, incredibly cluttered and too dim even with brightness. Combat too dull. Finally someone else complains about the stupid dropped soul/money/xp mechanic. It's so awful I hate how it caught on. By far the worst mechanic ever invented. Lol, yeah that stupid wobble looked terrible. Your ending bit about the chore of traversal is super important.
Was such a good video. Production values are so high!! I loved the intro video. Just really solid work this is one of my favorite indie game channels.
That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me! I'm glad you enjoy the vids :)
Sorry to learn the game didn't quite hit for you... for me I loved it.
I absolutely loved the challenging platforming and bosses. The gems were fun..I enjoyed the exploration and length of the game....I went on to platinum the game I enjoyed it so much.. it's one of my all time fave metroidvania's.
I do agree with the corpse running though, as much as I love Soulslikes, this mechanic doesn't have a place in MV's imo and it needs to stop.
I'm glad you love the game. There's a lot to love here (no pun intended lol) and I did like it. If its size and platforming aren't an issue for you, I can definitely see how this could be your favorite MV because it does so many things right. I can't wait to see what they do in the sequel.
@@MetroidvaniaGuru there's a sequel coming!? how may I find out more about this?
@@fores7ght Here ya go!
th-cam.com/video/khL_f4E4pZk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0p6uRrjNw6pSazVH
There’s also a rogue-like game, but I don’t know if it’s a prequel or sequel or what lol.
Awesome content , you should have (at least)100,000subscribers! Please keep making these! Thanks!
I'm getting there, one sub at a time LOL
So glad to finally find someone with genuine complaints about this game. I see everyone talk about it as a masterpiece and I'm like "what are these people seeing that I'm not". I spent 50 hours on this, mostly because the game has very few quit moments when you're playing. There's a lot annoying you (such as particle effects obscuring well everything, including bosses many of which would have taken me half the time without it) but there's just enough to keep you playing like the bosses really are great and there are some inventive areas and the platforming is something I would love in a precision platformer. WHILE you're playing. I decided not to any longer around 50 hours but returned after an update and it was just obnoxious to me. I love both MVs and precision platformers but the combination really didn't work out well, especially when it's also with demanding combat so you constantly have to redo both when retraversing. And a lot of things (like how the teleport arrows is set up or the area in space) really isn't accessible if you have say reduced cognitive reaction speed (autistic). Also special shout out to the dev that announced an accessibility improvement making me think "ok, maybe I'll return to it" only to stick it in the upgrade tree, meaning if people need accessibility they need to play the game until they can unlock it (I never figured out what it was, once the dev responded to me asking where it was I quit the game in disgust). If this game was a 10, 15, or 20 hour experience it would be SO much better, because the complaints really wouldn't matter as much. Hopefully the devs will learn their lessons for the sequel, but I don't know if I'll go with it.
Sorry for the long rant, but I have thoughts on this.
Sorry to hear about the accessibility inclusion being allocated to the skill tree. I had no idea. That does seem very counterintuitive.
Yeah, there's a lot to like about this game, but I think it just tried too hard to be epic. If the devs can rein themselves in for the sequel, they may have a genuine masterpiece on their hands.
I absolutely adored AN. I played it on Noctis mode and it remains my proudest platinum so far. Length is a very important plus for me, which makes this and Afterimage some of my favorite MVs of all time. AN environment and music somehow grabbed me like nothing else since Ender Lilies. For me, this is a masterpiece MV.
That’s awesome! A lot of people love it, and I can see why. I’m excited for the sequel.
The platinum for pc requires you to no damage boss fights so I'm unsure if I really wanna try this game 😅
quite the same. 105.2% completion, around 42hours, and one of my personal favs. LOVED the music and environment too. Itll stick with me for a while. Playin through Afterimage till I start liking it 😅 6h in, and I'm not exactly lovin it, but ig ill give it time.
How would you rate the platforming difficulty against After Image?
@@kevinclapson There are some optional hair pullingly frustrating parts, but even the late game is challenging in its own right. It never feels impossible, though. Afterimage platforming doesn't really compare.
You just got a new sub from Norway (hope I'm the first 😄). I've seen some of your videos, and as a fan of metroidvania-games, you give the games a good, honest review. As you pointed out in another video, game reviewers has only so many hours to make up their opinion about a game, so it's nice to see a review of a game some time after release. Keep up the good work 🙂
As my first Norwegian sub, I'd like to say "Velkommen!"
"Let's make this beautiful game that almost no one will see all of because we made it so freaking hard!"
I started 8doors, and I think Vision Soft Reset is on my wishlist.
They thought most Metroidvania gamers in the world are masochists. Maybe "Summum Aeterna" is easier and better suited for non-hardcore players with less leisure time.
That's what makes it unique and legendary. Stop whinning, the sequel should be as if not challenging!
Very solid video! You are criminally underviewed channel! I picked this up at lauch played a good beat. As I recall they added the "easy" mode later on since the game was criticized heavily for the difficulty. And because of the lenght and difficulty it was hard to find video reviews of the game of people that had completed it.
I guess it was still too hard and they changed the easy mode to normal mode to brainwash the masses to play this :D I kinda hoped it worked. I really liked a lot what I saw during first 5 hours. I doubt I am going back to this anytime soon and the next instalment from the same game studio seems to be roguelight set in the same world. I honestly cant stand roguelights most of the day but prefer metroidvanias. Next metroidvania I try is Pseudoregalia! its 6€ on steam. You should take a look! It's more platformer than fighting metroidvania though there is some combat. It has N64 theme.
Thanks for the compliments! Feel free to sahre with your friends LOL
So you're saying I played an even EASIER version than what it originally was!? Yikes...
Same on the Roguelikes. Very few do I actually like.
Pseudoregalia, eh? Thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to check it out :)
Playing this on switch right now and holy cow it's amazing so far. No crashes and no complaints
I was really struggling with certain platforming sections and getting certain collectibles, but once I equipped that gem that slows time when using the arrows the game became sooooo much easier. It's a godsend. I'm loving the game.
Seems cool
One of the best metroidvania i've ever played. The platforming is impossible but rewarding with time. Honestly i disagree with what you say. It's okay to have a hard ass game. The game had a ton of content and is very long. You have to be patient with this one. The soundtrack is gorgeous and the controls are tight. The movement and bioms are gorgoeus. The wobble the king does at the end of running is dumb. The art is bomb and boss battles are harder than hollow knights. Worth the run through for anyone who likes the genre.
I don’t disagree with any thing you’ve said. Genre fans should absolutely check it out. And it’s fine to have a hard game. It being difficult AND long is what did me in, though I did finish it. The game definitely has its fans, and it deserves every one of them.
I agree with the review, the game is just exhausting to play.
It’s tough, buddy
Cool review & channel 👍. Have you played or going to play Blast brigade vs evil legion of dr cread? - another brutally hard metroidvania in that some of the later bosses are impossibly tough no matter what weapon or upgrade has been accumulated. I actually gave up but still recommend the game to metroidvania fans
It’s on the list!
And thanks for the compliment! Hope to see you around!
Good review. The bleeps hurt my ears. I'd say for a game like this, there is no shame in turning the difficulty down, though myself I wish I could just turn off the lost experience. Tricky platforming deaths can be quite frustrating in the first place.
Sorry about that. I’ve since changed the censor bleeps to duck quacking.
I unintentionally had the difficult setting. No shame lol
Love your content. However I have one gripe. You loved Afterimage, a similarly very long game, with no complaints about length, but not the same for AN? Pls clarify, NO offense. Cus AN has been one of my personal favourite metroidvanias so far, and I've played a few. CV SotN, Aria of Sorrow 20 ish times, Metroid Fusion 30+ times, Super Metroid, AM2R, Samus Returns, HK, B1 and B2 for bigger names, etc etc metroid fanmades even. Im a bit biased towards AN sure but Afterimage's combat is just tedious so far with boring weapons (save for the dualblades and its combos) and hilariously tanky normal enemies even. (though bosses are fun) I cant bring myself to love the game even though I want to, I'm like 6hr in. As for AN, I finished it with 105.2% (109 is the most you can get I believe) with around 42h. Sry this tangent was more Afterimage than AN lol
Glad you like the content. And I’m not offended. I like to think my channel can be used for discussion.
To clarify, it’s not just the length of AN that got to me. It was the length + the platforming difficulty + repeating difficult platforming sections while backtracking, the furnace area being an example.
Afterimage, though long (even longer), never let exhaustive platforming detract from its exploration.
I hope that helps 😊
@@MetroidvaniaGuru thanks! Gotta finish afterimage before forming an opinion.
I’m a mad lad. I’m trying to play all metroidvanias. The harder the better. My favorite so far has been Ender lillies, not hard, but really nice music and ambience
I really enjoyed Aeterna Noctis until i got to the heaven biome. I can't continue because my game keeps crashing instantly after i load back in... It's really a shame. I'd love to experience the ending but im Not playing through 30 h again
I played the game on the switch until i came to a bug that deleted my map. Since the map is basically your most important progression toolI had to stop at that point.
Unfortunately this happens alot with the switch & newer games getting released. Bought a steamdeck but switch is still king in portably.
You complain it's too big, but also you loved After Image which is also huge. The difference is that traversal in Noctis is punishing enough that being big isn't necessarily funner.
Exactly! Just regular traversal in AN could be a chore 😆
Dude i couldn't agree more. All i play are metroidvanias. I love them but this map is waaay too big. If they cut it down and made it more focused it would be 10/10
Just completed this game on it's hard mode/Noctis and I'm so glad it's over. Aeterna has all of the components ( minus the character art, which imo is kinda ugly ) to be a masterpiece, but the game insists on being unbearably difficult most of the time playing. When I played Hollow Knight a while back, it was a pretty difficult game, but it only felt like that for about 25% of my time playing it, while this it was 75% of the time. I got this on sale and got 32 hours out of it, and despite how rage inducing it was, in a general sense, I did enjoy my time playing it, so I got my moneys worth. Honestly any other metroidvania game I play from here on out will be a breeze, because I'll just use this game as a reference: "but it's not as hard as Aeterna Noctics in hard mode" lol, so guess I got that going for me.
Plan on playing Afterimage next, since I heard good things from your review
Impressive. I don’t think I could play this on the hardest difficulty on my first run. I plan on trying it, but, gosh, it’s such a time commitment lol
I hope you like Afterimage. It’s another long one, and the story isn’t delivered the best, but it has so many good qualities.
Although I was annoyed by some parts of this game, I really enjoyed it. There’s a gem that gets rid of the corpse run, and that made the game a lot more enjoyable for me.
Same. Some parts were annoying, but overall I liked it. I’ll definitely play the sequel when it comes out.
I remember following this game and the first iteration was much smoother, I talked with the devs about the new itineration being too heavy on the platforming aspect. I agree the heavy platforming aspects take away for the metroidvania aspects, which is annoying because had they not pushed it out so much the game would feel good, also some , also some parts felt way too long and some levels unnecessary, the action gameplay was also on the soft side being imprecise and not very fleshed out. This really is a case of less is more. But like afterimage it's too long and becomes too boring quickly, also most of the world feels just bland. I respect those who love it, I get their point, but they won't convince me this is a pure metroidvania game this is more platforming than metroidvania.
The beginning of this video pretty much sums up the game. The platforming is some kaizo level of bs I've played in a while. Still stuck on the robot boss with the two nodes you have to destroy to attack the core. This is basically a soulsborne game disguised as a metrovania game.
Yeah, it'll beat you down. That's for sure...
@@MetroidvaniaGuru It's not a bad game. Got more deaths on the platforming than anything else. Combat is pretty good and the double jump and crystal arrows are a godsend once you get access to those abilities. Probably doesn't help that I'm playing on Noctis mode (hard mode).
@@TheOmegaDragon I played on Aeterna mode. I know my limits lol
The Goat of metroidvanias.
I understand your criticism and some of it is valid . This game was made for seasoned veterans of the genre , not beginners . I have beaten this game twice , not because I wanted to but because on my first playthrough the Slime Queen boss and I killed each other at the same time and the quest got bugged so I couldn't 100% the game , I was furious to say the least so I finished it quickly and decided to go again but was making a backup save file roughly every hour to make sure nothing will screw me over this time , luckily there were no bugs and I 100% the game .
This game is hard , it is definitely the hardest metroidvania I have ever played but I never felt it was ,, too hard ,, just consistently hard . I played it on its original release so before any patches and the default mode was hard mode , they added the normal mode ( Aeterna ) later . Noctis was the default but on release the game was harder than it was later on ( Noctis ) mode since they made a lot of quality of life changes and I refused to patch it until the dlc ( Pit of the Damned ) came . On my first playthrough I died roughly 1200 times and on my second roughly 350 so of course I got better and knew what I was doing but also once you reach mid game especially the way it was on release when melee felt way underpowered , the range build was the way to go . It made the game so much easier both for platforming and enemies / bosses . They buffed the melee dmg and nerfed ranged dmg a bit later so now melee overall is better .
Personally I loved this game , it is my second favorite metroidvania after Hollow Knight but I guess this game was made for people like me , who likes a challenge and wants that kind of consistent experience , not that I mind non challenging games but I do like it when it is harder in general .
Also the difficulty you were playing on had a lot of it's platforming made easier and it was added because people were complaining that the game was too hard , and I think this is where the developers sort of shot themselves in the foot . They made a hard a$$ game for a more niche audience , they should have just added 2 difficulties right from the get go and the game would have been a more commercial success but I heard despite this the studio was pleased with the sales so I am glad to hear that .
This game does a lot of things right imo , it is massive which I liked , it felt grandiose , I have never played a mv of such size , the art was beautiful , there was a lot of variety with the enemies and the bosses were overall great . I have finished the Pit of the Damned dlc and beat the Mythic bosses in Virtuoso the newly released dlc and oh boy they were extremely hard , too hard for most people to handle . The Katana that you mentioned is a great situational weapon , if there is a boss that likes to be above you it can melt it's hp like butter , it is beyond broken , it was my go to tool for mythic bosses , it is extremely broken if you have a lot of blood to spam it with the right gems and a lot of crit chance and damage .
I enjoyed the quests and the story , there is a lot to like in this game , I also got every plat time in Pit of the Damned dlc which was very difficult to get .
That being said of course there were some issues I had with the game , it wasn't all great .
I would say the biggest issue in this game is that a lot of the effects from enemy attacks look too similar to the environment which makes it hard sometimes to see what is going on , it feels cheap to get hit like that and the same goes for platforming sometimes where you get hit by something that looks safe because the environment looks too similar to the platforming you are doing , these were probably the biggest issues with the game . I really did not enjoy the inverted world in space , it was my least liked section after the Dream which I did not like , same as you but I get they did try something different . The inverted world tho was just annoying with the controls being inverted and it was more frustrating than difficult because when you were bellow the center of a planet your controls became inverted as well , it was annoying to say the least .
For such a massive game I only experienced one bug which I mentioned with the Slime Queen and that was it so the game was polished from the get go for the most part it just needed some balancing adjustments .
Overall I loved the game but as I wrote it wasn't perfect , heck even Hollow Knight needed a lot of patching and new dlc to improve it drastically .
You could tell that a lot of work was put into this game , I have never seen a metroidvania so big and so complex especially with the platforming where they added those crystals for teleporting and that made it unique as I have never experienced something like that , that mechanic alone made it stand out from other mv in the genre .
This game was clearly made by gamers who like challenging games not just developers who made a game for everyone .
I am sure they have learned a lot from the feedback they have received and will make 2 difficulties with their new mv game where you play as the queen of Light , and that both the platforming and the bosses will be a significantly different experience but with the more difficult difficulty being the recommended experience .
I forgot to mention the game time and yes if you play on the hard mode and do 100% I guarantee you , you can get well over 40 hours , heck my first playthrough took 70 hours and my second took roughly 40 but of course then I had a lot more knowledge about the game and now with all the dlcs it will take a lot more than that .
I know I wrote a lot of text and I apologize for that but this game for me was special despite it's flaws .
I couldn’t finish this game. It’s just too much.
On november 9 there will be a DLC - Aeterna Noctis Virtuoso - challenging old bosses in a rush mode + new patterns (difficulty) and some new bosses to test your metroidvania player skill to the maximum.
Try to check it out!
Nice! Thanks for the heads up!
Game on ps4 keeps crashing and freezes you out of your ps4 so you have to do a hard shutdown of your console do not buy its no joke
Dang. I heard horror stories about the game on launch. That’s why I waited a minute before playing it.
Now game has crashed and wont load past starting screen i give in
@@mrmagoomc4 FR!? You should try and get your money back.
@@mrmagoomc4 Man, that sucks. Contact support and get your money back. I hate that this is happening to you.
Any game that involves me to hold the jump button for a higher jump is a no no for me. Yes, you too hollow knight.
Why? It gives players more control and is considered platforming 101.
@@Gnidel I prefer the double tap for high jump, not hold. Hold always fails me.
looks liike a game for me. I love emtroidvanias, precision platformers and long games. Corpse running aside. fuck that mechanic I hate it
Totally agree. The combat was clunky and platforming could be awkward at times. Blasphemous series and moonscars was far superior
I tried the game but it's such a bloated mess that i gave up after 10 hours. Some environments can be pretty indeed but most of the time they're kind of "ugly" and inconsistent. It's too much clutter and objects on screen that make the scenes hard to read and traverse. The color balance it's also all over the place and chaotic.
As an artist and developer myself i learned a lot from this game what things to avoid.
Your not the first dev I’ve heard who complained about its clutter and noise. And I agree.
Thise graphics look like they're 9noy second to Hollow Knight. I'm sure I would dislike the gameplay though 😢
This game needed to be about 1/3 as big, half as hard and about 5 more years of working on it to make it good. As it stands it’s a game with some I good ideas and visuals that is just buried under the idea that more is better and no, no it isn’t.
Now do a real review of the game the way it was designed to be played.
On the hardest difficulty? I don’t think I have the patience 😆
@@MetroidvaniaGuru The easy mode was added way after the game launched. It is not just an easy mode, in terms of what others games normally do, like weakning enemies and making the player a tank. It changes the entire level design. As a guru, you know what level design is to a metroidvania.
The game has far too much and difficult platforming. The combat also shallow and offers nothing interesting.
The premise was so boring. I played the demo and it was crap and nearly put me to sleep. The art is very overrated, incredibly cluttered and too dim even with brightness. Combat too dull. Finally someone else complains about the stupid dropped soul/money/xp mechanic. It's so awful I hate how it caught on. By far the worst mechanic ever invented. Lol, yeah that stupid wobble looked terrible. Your ending bit about the chore of traversal is super important.