Aggelos 2

Aggelos 2 is the kind of game I would play for hours as a kid, on a Saturday morning as the cold fall air slowly would seep in through the window and warm up the wood paneled family room. That's the kind of retro memories this game invokes. Love the classic music and retro feel. Really great control, responsive ranged and melee combat. The upgrades are really nice and exploring the Multi-layered giant map is rewarding. All upgrades are very useful. The Mega man style boss fights with a bullet hell inspired design are awesome without being too cheap or difficult. You also get to fly and it's just good classic fun. Recommended. VIdeo Review Here: https://youtu.be/X0sdw_309iM

While advancement in gfx and concepts its clearly visible, game rarely gives hearts, has no money or experience system from Aggelos 1 - making it artificialy difficult. Also keeping concept of "refreshing enemies" as you make a small jump etc. mistake here gives even more frustration. Decent Wonderboy style platformer however.

absolutely loved the first game as a wonder boy-esque adventure, but this game really feels like it found it's own groove <3 everything feels snappy, fun enemies, lots of secrets, rippin' music, and beautiful pixel art to boot (seriously loving a lot of the enemy designs!) definitely worth pickin up if ya want an old school metroidvania :)

Aggelos 2 is a solid B-tier Metroidvania that unfortunately is plagued with crashing issues on Steam Deck/Linux; I'm not sure how replicatable the bug is but it crashes from the map a LOT. I've lost probably an hour and a half's worth of progress from all the crashes added together. Putting that aside, I like how the energy blast almost gives the game a 'shmup' energy, especially at the midgame when you gain the ability to fly in any direction. It puts Aggelos in a unique niche, like if the Amiga's Thexder was actually fun to play (sorry, Thexder fans, for the sacrilege). The art direction now resembles the Wonder Boy/Monster World games of the Sega Genesis and I think it's a good upgrade. I like the biome art and the enemies are super cute. THOUGH, I do think additional environmental detail would improve some rooms-- you definitely get the sense that they were designed for enemy encounters first and utility second, kind of like the IGAvania games. But unlike the IGAvania games, there's no XP, no gear/items dropped by enemies, though you can pay money to upgrade your sword/shield at different spots on the map and there are a few item shops to get extra upgrades from like heart containers. Importantly, you also can find these in the world so there is a reason to check every exit. The map is quite large for a medium-length game, which should satisfy people who want a bit of meat on the bone. Backtracking is not as satisfying as it is in other Metroidvanias, but at least you can unlock fast travel between every save point by the midgame, and that is a very good boss reward. Other boss rewards include heart containers, key fragments, and sometimes important switches that open new paths, sort of like the big buttons from Super Mario World. There are 100 eggs to find and bringing them back to the town hub will reward you at certain milestones with additional currency or hearts. I do like this, in the same way I liked the collectathon angle of Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark, but unlike that game, there's still plenty of other upgrades to find via exploration. THOUGH, I think there could have been even more. My only real major issues are the crashing, and a somewhat limited enemy variety. New enemies are introduced with most biomes, but rooms across those biomes tend to have the SAME ones. I at least noticed that some enemies from later biomes started spawning in earlier biomes ala Raider Kid & the Ruby Chest, so I appreciated that. But it can definitely verge on tedium to go through 8-10 rooms fighting the same skeleton with a dark axe throw, some rooms of which look nearly identical. I'm also not sure yet at my point in the playthrough if there's any way to charge up healing beyond just getting more vials. Their base heal is 3 hearts which starts to feel anemic by the time you have a max of, say, 10. But in the absence of a true killer Metroidvania this year, I'm happy to have solid releases like Aggelos 2 to tide us over until the next Big Thing arrives, whatever that may be. It's a definite improvement on the original and it has its own special charm to it, it just won't be topping my GOTY list.

A video review can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfIqsGQqwos For those who do not want to watch the video: Playtime: 10 hours and 20 minutes Completion Rate: 93% (Story Completed) Pros: - Fantastically nostalgic colorful visuals and a matching, wistful soundtrack to really hammer home that 90s vibe. - I honestly cannot remember the last time I had so much fun exploring a metroidvania world like I did in Aggelos 2. Every single nook and cranny of the setting hides a variety of collectibles for you to claim, ranging from health, magic power and equipment upgrades, all the way to enigmatic artifacts whose use you’ll have to uncover yourself, as well as spells and tools that vastly improve combat and traversal. - Excellent balance between collectibles discovered in the wild and those available at merchants, with the items found across the setting significantly outnumbering the merchant offerings, a ratio which I feel should be set as an example to be followed by games that incorporate NPC traders in order to avoid making investigation of the map for optional treasure meaningless. - Unbelievably satisfying traversal ability acquisition progression, on top of the abilities themselves being quite entertaining. For example, early in the game you acquire a chain that works as a hook-shot which allows you to latch onto walls from a distance. I initially found it to be a bit awkward to use and thought it would have been much cooler if I could also climb up a wall after latching onto it, only to eventually find an additional upgrade that allowed me to do exactly that. - Early in the story you gain access to a corrupted version of yourself that has its very own special skills and modes of attack, with you being able to switch between your good and bad self at will. Each form is not only capable of interacting with specific parts of the environment, like different trap types, but also able to negate specific enemy attacks, with the latter being mainly related to bosses, as we’ll see later on. This corrupted version also opens up the way for you to explore a second map by allowing you to enter specific portals, with that new setting being in similar size to the main world, only much darker and more hostile. On that note, I should say that I didn’t really use the evil form that much since I found the good one to be more efficient in combat and just as effective in platforming, and once I got stronger I could face-tank, or avoid, most of the traps and attacks relevant to my bad side if necessary, so no problems there. Whether that’s a positive or a negative is in the eye of the beholder, but for me it was the former. - Platforming-wise, there’s really not much to say here since, while the game does feature some acrobatic gauntlets, they tend to mainly be on the simpler side of things. There are a few of them that might make you sweat just a little bit, and, overall, all of them are fun in a generic way, but platforming is definitely not one of the game’s strong suits, especially since your flight ability can take a lot of the bite out of nearly all of it, and once you’ve significantly upgraded your armor, health points and health potions you can just take the hurt head on, for the most part. - Combat-wise, this is the second most entertaining aspect of Aggelos 2, mainly because it is simple, destructive fun. On a basic level, our angel is capable of fighting in, both, melee as well as ranged fashion. Your ranged attack is carried out via a bracelet that shoots energy blasts, Mega Man style, and your sword takes care of close quarters engagements. While I did use my blade from time to time when necessary, the vast majority of my fights were spent shooting at monsters from afar, not just because it was safer and more convenient but also because it was incredibly enjoyable in a straightforward, back-to-basics kind of way that will never get old. Your battle arsenal is complemented by a few spells you will acquire, which are powerful and can be unleashed at the cost of energy. Your weapons and armor can be upgraded by finding some hidden shrines and paying a fee, and your spells are improved by visiting an alchemist. - Lack of any death penalty and a generous checkpoint system for keeping collectibles gathered before perishing. - Bosses are quite entertaining to face off against, though there is one thing that could probably be tweaked a bit to make the fights against them more meaningfully entertaining. More specifically, many of the villains you’ll have to deal with here have attack patterns that I can only describe as insanely chaotic and bordering to bullet hell situations. The idea behind these bouts is to force you to quickly switch between your two forms in order to negate the assaults relevant to each one and then retaliate, but the pacing is so hectic that it would require an insane amount of quick switches to do that, thus, I just opted to stay in my good version, avoid what I could and just use potions to mitigate damage while trying to defeat the bosses as fast as possible, which I’ll admit was a challenge I did enjoy, but probably not what the developers had in mind. Cons: - The game’s control scheme becomes somewhat convoluted the more abilities you acquire, since there are quite a few of them and they all correspond to different buttons, which led to some frustrating situations of me accidentally activating the wrong skill during hectic instances of going through trap and enemy-infested areas. - While, both, the good and bad versions of Aggelos have mostly shared elements that do more or less the same thing, a few of them, like your healing potions, have a different effect, with your good side using them to recover health and your bad side consuming them to gain a speed boost, which led to some wasted usage as I found myself in situations where I wanted to heal but got a speed buff instead due to muscle memory. - While I really liked the juxtaposition between the two maps I explored, since each one featured radically different themes and hazards, I will say that both worlds could sometimes feel very punishing as they threw numerous enemies and pitfalls at you simultaneously in a chaotic way. - The map overview is kind of a mixed bag and could definitely use some quality-of-life improvements. Overall, the overview uses the classic castlevania design, which I know a lot of people dislike but I personally love. Said map allows you to place a total of twenty manual markers, which is great since, aside from save points, portals and your own location, nothing else is marked on it automatically, so make sure to start using them immediately to save yourself some future troubles if you plan on going for 100% completion. Also, there’s no zoom, which can get tiresome for the eyes as you squint in order to detect places you may not have visited, as well as when placing manual markers, since you see everything in very small size. This is problematic for fast-travelling as well, which you carry out through save points, since, once again, the zoomed-out map can make it hard to distinguish the little green mark that pinpoints the save-spot you’ve currently selected. - One of your spells requires of you to point the analog stick up while pressing the ranged attack button in order to perform it. Problem is, controls are too sensitive when registering the movement of the stick, and will often consider it pointed upward even if you aim it up at an angle by accident, which did lead to some random spell attacks when all I wanted to do was move forward and shoot. - Some minor bugs (see comments). In conclusion, Aggelos 2 is an incredibly fun metroidvania game that pays glorious homage to some of the best action RPGs of the late 80s and early 90s while infusing lots of modern sensibilities to the formula, effectively resulting in a concoction that exudes nostalgia without being bound to its limitations! Final Grade: 8.5/10

[i]---See where this game landed on my Metroidvania Tier List beneath this rec!---[/i] I was pretty bored at first, but with that second hour of play the game really ramped up and hooked me. Aggelos 2 is a great [i]retro[/i]vania that I'd rank somewhere alongside [b]Alwa's Legacy[/b], [b]Elliot Quest[/b], [b]After Death[/b] and [b]Raider Kid and the Ruby Chest[/b]. One thing that differentiates this from most other metroidvanias is that your character will learn to momentarily fly. It's well implemented and the world is designed around this mechanic. The game does the [b]Deedlit[/b] thing, where you toggle between two forms that are a little different from one another. While in red form, you can destroy red bullets, while in pink form you can destroy pink bullets. You're working on 2 different maps throughout your playthrough (a light and dark world) which is pretty cool! The map is quite basic like the original [b]Castlevania[/b] & [b]Metroid[/b] grid maps. Biomes aren't distinguished on it and everything is in the same colour. Save points and warp portals are marked, as well as some key NPCs and upgrade spots. Missing collectables aren't tracked in any way, but you can place markers on your map. I found myself 1 egg short at the end and had no way to tell where it was without revisiting every single tile of the game again. The dev has stated that they plan to patch into the game a way to help you find your missing collectables. After I killed the final boss, there was plenty more for me to do to get the good ending: map to explore, bosses to kill. I played on Hard difficulty. Some of the bosses got decently challenging and took multiple tries, though nothing was too crazy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [i]There isn't enough space in a Steam Rec to post my entire Tier List, so I cut off the bottom tiers and just left the games I liked. You can find the latest (and better) version of the Tier List on this google doc which I routinely update, located here:[/i] [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/14l87nn/my_large_metroidvania_tier_list/]Tier List[/url] ===================== [b]My Metroidvania Tier List (PC)[/b] [i] (excluding Metroid & Castlevania titles)[/i] ===================== [i]-Not an objective list, purely how much I enjoyed the games-[/i] [b]S+[/b] Aeterna Noctis | [b]S Tier [i](Truly Special)[/i][/b] Astalon: Tears of the Earth | Hollow Knight: Silksong | MIO: Memories in Orbit | Hollow Knight | Master Key³$ | Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom | [b]S-[/b] Solateria | Blasphemous 2 | Cathedral | Crypt Custodian³ | [b]A+[/b] Afterimage | The Last Faith | Supraland³ | Supraland: Six Inches Under³ | Oolo³ | Frogmonster³ | [b]A Tier [i](Amazing)[/i][/b] Elderand | Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Doomblade^ | BioGun | Zexion | Chronicles of the Wolf | Kotama and Academy Citadel | Blossom Tales 2³$ | [b]A-[/b] Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights | Depths of Sanity | F.I.S.T. | Pampas & Selene | Ender Magnolia | Mandragora | [b]B+[/b] Blast Brigade | Haak | Turbo Kid | Nine Sols | Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus | Biomorph | Minishoot’ Adventures³ | Banjo-Kazooie³ | Banjo-Tooie³ | Donkey Kong 64³ | [b]B Tier [i](Really Enjoyed)[/i][/b] Animal Well | Alwa’s Legacy | [b]Aggelos 2[/b] | Steamworld Dig 2 | Islets | Blasphemous | After Death | Pronty^ | Mortal Manor* | Escape From Tethys | Outbuddies DX* | Monster Sanctuary | Elliot Quest | Rebel Transmute | Moonlight Pulse | Environmental Station Alpha | Twilight Monk | Death’s Door³ | Pipistrello and the Cursed Yo-yo³ | Yooka-Laylee³ | Raider Kid and the Ruby Chest | [b]B-[/b] Shadow Labyrinth | Haiku, the Robot | Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | The Mobius Machine | Ultros | Voidwrought | Crystal Project³ | Shattered Divinities | Unsighted³ | Tunic³ | Prey (2017)³ | Possessor(s) | Before I Go | [b]C+ [i](Fun)[/i][/b] Lone Fungus | Lone Fungus: Melody of Spores | Guns of Fury | Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night | Laika: Aged through Blood | Ghost Song | Kunai | Kingdom Shell | Axiom Verge | Treasure Adventure Game | GigaSword* | Infernax | Flipwitch# | Momodora 4 | Momodora 5 | HunterX | HunterX: code name T | Gestalt | Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists | Super Roboy | BladeChimera | AntiChamber³ | Blossom Tales³$ | Mask of Soul | Tiny Dangerous Dungeons Remake | MF-01 Aerostrike^ | Infinitevania* | Fatal Claw | Xanthiom 2 | [b]C Tier [i](Enjoyed)[/i][/b] The Throne | Plague of Yamorn* | Constance | Column on the Sea | 9 Years of Shadows | Jrago* | Xanthiom Zero | Carrion^ | Chasm | Wuppo | The Mummy Demastered | Catmaze | Curse of the Sea Rats* | Death’s Gambit: Afterlife | Castle In The Clouds DX# | Omega Strike | Aggelos | Midnight Castle Succubus# | Overbowed | Rabi-Ribi | TEVI | Far Star | Sheepo | Skelethrone: The CoE* | Unworthy | Undivine | Somber Echoes | Oirbo* | Ato | Side Scape³$ | And All Would Cry Beware³ | Lycanthorn 2³ | Gravethorn | Vomitoreum³ | Maid of Salvation³ | Kalinur | 100 Pumpkins 2 | Grumpy Jack³ | Sealed Bite | Jedi: Fallen Order³ | Little Nemo and the Guardians of Slumberland | Arkham Asylum³ | Omnigon | SJ-19 learns to Love | Paradox Vector³ | The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest | Hargrave | Bread Adventure | EldritchVania |

This game really rugpulls you. For the first 5-10 hours I had a blast, the metroidvania aspect is well done, the gameplay is entertaining, it really hits that colourful, fun Wonder Boy vibe, and even on hard mode it's challenging but fair. Although the dark/light mode swapping mechanic is annoying, it's used well in some of the puzzles. I would have made some different level design choices and it could use some QoL improvements, but nothing major. Suddenly around mid-game, though, it just hits a wall. Although previous bosses utilize the form swapping mechanic, they're pretty fair. Then you run into a boss that just spams the entire screen with an overlapping bullet hell mess of attacks, requiring you to juggle switching forms every 1-2 seconds, while evading and blocking, and also trying to keep track of which form you're in so you don't waste a charge on the wrong skill when trying to heal. Not to mention it has such a spongey health bar that I thought I must have missed some prerequisite. The sudden difficulty spike combined with needing a mastery of the frustrating swap mechanic to deal with an objectively badly designed boss fight completely halts progression. The pacing is completely ruined and it doesn't even feel like the same game. I'm not necessarily mad about the design choices. If you want to make a hair-pulling bullet hell game, sure knock yourself out. But don't just drop it into a totally different game that could stand very well on it's own merit, after players have already sunk hours into it. It feels like aging a steak for 60 days, cooking it to a perfect medium-rare, and then dumping a bottle of ketchup on it.

Great game. Reminds me of Super Adventure Island for the SNES, but if Megaman was the protagonist.