Advent NEON®

It honestly sucks to say it, but the game needs a negative review, and this is my first negative review. The only other negative review on Advent Neon was some goober that has no idea how to play this kind of game, and even then he got flamed. However, I have been personally hyped for this game for so long. I remember playing the demo back in 2021 and I was a lot younger. Even with that I have played the demo over 15 times because it was so good and I was extremely excited for it to come out. I loved the fast-paced action, the artstyle, the fluidity, it was all incredible. Advent Neon was the first game I ever Wishlisted on Steam. Fast forward to about two months ago. I found out that the game had officially dropped because I checked it. I bought it immediately ready to play. I was going to write this review after I 100%ed the game, but I only have one achievement to go and things I will mention plagued the game. BAD. Pros: - Artstyle: Incredible artstyle, great color contrast, really well put together, and really good customization, Cosmic Hazard looks incredible. - Combat: Really easy to pick up, very fun to see play out, lotta hits and great animations - Level Design: Originally, I thought the levels were too boring, long, and open, but they make sense, flow fluidly, and let the gameplay shine. Stage Rush makes you appreciate the levels more. Only bad stages I can think off is Helio's Stage Portion because it is too easy to miss the jumps or run out of dashes and Origin Seed because it is extremely tedious and relatively long. Cons: There are so many bugs that I can't even list them all. In trying to beat Stage Rush, my game crashed not 1, not 2, not 3, but 14 TIMES. I am not overexaggerating, it actually crashed 14 times. It wasn't my computer, I've played this game across 3 different computers (a acer laptop, and two different PCs, both with RTX 3090s) and it still crashes. Here are most of the times where I crashed or softlocked: - Using Final Safety Switch in stage rush - Dashing in Origin Seed at the very end - Collecting too many Nodes at once - Falling into the void (don't fully know why it crashes) - Dashing too far to the top of screen - Getting stuck between doors with buttons - Spamming jump on launchpads Small bugs: - Boss death animations not existing in Origin Seed - Phasing through teleport locations in Indra's Stage - Taking too long or not loading Cloud Miniboss in Origin Seed My own issues that I have a problem with (probably skill issue) - The last time stop in Origin Seed - The time stops in the Vaya's Stage - Consecutive wall-jumps - Teleporting back to the Main Hub after beating Central District - Every section with the board feels slippery and hard to control, especially Origin Seed Story: Originally I thought about putting the story into the pros, but in my opinion, the story is too linear. This one is more opinionated and maybe I am too used to more complex stories, but the story is too linear and the end, in my opinion, is dumb. None of the Robot Divas pose a threat, they are all fundamentally the same as Nyari: sparring partners. (excluding personality) The end goal is to revive Oganesson using the Origin Seed. Franca's goals and why she wants to stop you from reviving him went over my head hard. I cannot remember why she wants to stop you, or why she sends her Divas to protect the crystals, or why we break the crystals in the first place. That stuff is probably stated, so I won't hold it too hard over it's head. However, Helio's appearance at the very end is dumb. I get it, he's the one that beat us up in the beginning, but other than the first cutscene, he makes an appearance a whopping ONE TIME. The big bad final boss shows up once, and it's at the end of the Nyari fight, for 2 seconds. The next time you see him, its him trying to kill you and Oganesson. You fight him, do a chase scene, die, and then don't, and then kill him. Which brings me to this: There are so many question left to be unanswered, yet too much said. Helio dumps that he was the original SYN and that he did it all out of jealousy, leaving no room for backstory or past to dwell on. He states that he is an Astral, one of the strongest beings in the universe. WHAT IS AN ASTRAL? I can't remember a single statement about Astrals, other than that girl in Wall 3.5. Finally, how does Neon just, win? He pulls Final Safety Switch out of his ass because why? If it is that easy to beat Helio, why not do it earlier in the fight? Better yet, why not do it instead of getting bodied in the opening cutscene? He's just like, "Oh, I have a trick up my sleeve, I'm going to have the power to stop time whenever, dash for damage, break the 4th wall, and store and release damage for 10x the damage. But I won't mention it or even hint towards it in the main game." Overall, the game is good, but as someone who has been waiting for this game for 4 years, the game isn't up to what the demo showed. I enjoyed my time, but the game is not perfect yet the community praises the game like it's perfect and the second coming of Jesus Christ because it was made by one guy. CryoGX made a good game but even with all the patches, it is still like this. I believe that a few months of tests would've fixed all of these problems but I guess we'll never know.

Ok this is like the third time I have edited this review but HOLY this game is peak This is why I love indie games, without indie devs we would never have what is effectively OG sonic with combos and time stop Seriously, this game is addicting. I beat every level on keyboard (controller is absolutely necessary for the best experience though lol), most of which I got S rank+, and just when I thought, "this isnt hard enough!!!!!" I met a boss that requires perfectly timed time stops like how every souls/soulslike game requires parries (which I must say, this game is a breath of fresh air considering how many indie games have parry features, even though I do love parry features. and this STILL has parry features!) But yes, this game was absolutely worth the money. Even if I beat every level in only 6 hours, I absolutely feel like 100%ing the game (unless you consider Z ranking everything as a requirement for that... because I am not Z ranking anything starting with Indra LOL). I am so glad I remembered the Friday Night Funkin mod for this game and thought, "I wonder how much progress has been made with the game." (By the way, advertising the game with a mod for a heavily hyped game is nothing short of genius)

robot is canonically a slur in this game

It's a Sonic-like with a Witch Time mechanic, parrying and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy boss fights......why are you not playing this yet?

its like sonic if it was good

my favorite sonic game

dude i cannot begin to describe how HYPED i was for the full game to come out in 2021. the wait was DEFINITLY worth it. cant wait to figure out how to mod the game myself to make it crazier than it is already

This is peak fiction.

THIS GAME IS THE MOST UNDRERATEED MASTERPEACE EVER MADE. I have been following this game for about 5-6 years and I first found this game on Newgrounds. If the dev is seeing this you need to get a team bc your are talented with the art sounds and more you need to get a team dude. But I do wish some parts had more polish but overall this game NEEDS at lest a Overwhelming positive rating. (Also that ending was PEAK)

This game is literally THE BEST game i've played in Febuary