Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists

Good game, lots of small interesting puzzle that require you to understand the game mechanics, pretty short but condensed. My only grip with the game is that reaching an ending lock the savefile, wich, I get it, symbolism and all, but F that ♥♥♥♥, player comfort should come first and gatting your whole save locked cause you wanted to see the bad ending before looking for that very last % is just demoralizing, I still enjoyed my time with the game but I just don't feel like making a whole new savefile, get EVERYTHING back, just because I have been punished for missing a single dewdrop and was curious about the bad ending before hunting for it. Or at least make it CRISTAL CLEAR that it's what will happen, the NPC in front of the final boss door pretty much telling you it's the bad choice only make you want to see it first before the good one... I had a few bug here and there but they are manageable, even when one happen to softlock me I could go back into action pretty fast without losing much progress so it's not that big of a deal to me, I was too focused enjoying the game.

This is an interesting one: overall, I liked it, but it's definitely short. It's filled with rock song references, and that's sort of cool? I guess? But sort of immersion-breaking, too. Where Alruna really excels is in its exploration/secrets. If you enjoy Metroidvanias stuffed with hidden rooms and secret shortcuts, you'll love it. It is also [i]surprisingly[/i] open for sequence breaking. I'm fairly certain I inadvertently circumvented the final boss/skipped to the ending while testing out some platforming tech. I could go back and do it "properly" but I'm satisfied to stop where I am. (Note: I had one possible bug: my sprite was able to wander into the title screen of the game and I wasn't sure whether it was an intentional easter egg or not. It felt like I couldn't get out of it unless I exited to the main title, but who knows?) Anyway, on the whole, if the above sounds good to you and the artwork is appealing, Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists is a decently fun, not-too-challenging Metroidvania.

A delightful little gem with great level design.

It's a fun Metroidvania, tightly designed rooms, retro sprites and cool chiptune music I really enjoyed which kept stuck in my head after playing. It's a bit short tho, I "completed" the game on short sessions over a weekend. The bosses were pretty easy, but what I enjoyed the most was the exploration, trying to find secrets and collectibles. The game has a few glitches, e.g. you can get stuck in some spaces when you try to slide into them. The weirdest glitches I found were, a room where you slide into a space with a dead end, the game loop crashes exiting the room and leaving Alruna in the main menu, able to walk and jump around. And the other one, which is unfortunate, as I read other review about the lock on the save slot which does not allow you to come back and explore further if you beat the game... well, I didn't even get to beat the final boss... I was able to reach a "high" room on the map, which I guess I wasn't supposed to reach yet, and triggered a cutscene and the credits, as if I had beaten the game... tried to open the save slot but it was marked as "cleared"... so I missed the final boss, a couple of collectibles and maybe some character interactions/lore. Overall I recommend picking up the game on sale.

M&K controls are horrible and you can't change them, cloud saves are not working.

A fun brief romp through a lovingly sprited retro world. Controls are a little awkward at times but don't ruin the experience. Looking forward to playing the next one.

airuna my girl

Just like most of the other negative reviews, it's the controls that I can't stand in this game. I used an XBONEX controller and keyboard and mouse both to try and find a way to make the controls at least passable, and couldn't do so. You're too tall for some jumps and don't have headroom. You have no I-frames and become stunlocked when you get hit, so you just wind up dying whenever an enemy moves over you, even if you started with full health. It just feels clunky. Pretty good music though!