Alruna: End of History

I loved the first! Couldn't wait for this and it didn't disappoint. Hoping for a thrid.

Like the first game, but more! More screen, more moves, more slamming soundtrack!

An improvemnt in some ways over the previous game, and a regression in others. First of all there's no more ♥♥♥♥♥♥ whip, now you have a gun which is way easier and less clunky to use. You can fire the gun downwards while in the air to get a boost, which can be done about 5 times before you start losing height. These boost jumps make traversing the world a lot easier because you're no longer constantly charging super jumps. Speaking of super jumps, I still don't know why they're in the game. Just like last time, the number of situations where they're required is few and far between. Why wouldn't the normal just just have a variable height by holding or tapping the button? Would make the game so much smoother. Still on the topic of traversal, getting around might be much faster but navigation is way slower. Gone is the warp that let's you easily travel to the central point of the map. Instead you pretty much have to walk everywhere, which takes forever, and is not always straightforward due to many one-way paths which required you to go around or loop back through them. There are warp points in the game, but they're basically useless as they're not linked together, they both only go to one other warp point. Needless to say, backtracking is a huge pain so you better clear out every dungeon before you leave. Another thing that I didn't love was the power-ups. The game relies heavily on elemental power-ups to solve certain puzzles be melting ice, putting out fires, or giving power to electical conduits. This is a fine idea in theory but the time limit is pretty short and you lose the power-up if you get hit, change forms, or touch water. I found it to be more annoying that anything. Finding a power up and then scrambling around trying to remember where to use it, it runs out, you have to go collect it again, whoops you got hit by a random flying enemy, gotta go back, etc etc. It's just not executed very well. The bosses are... still garbage. Maybe even worse than the first game. They basically just sit there while you shoot them and dodge some projectiles. There's not much variation at all. The game is about the exploration of course but I felt like the boss design was a major weakness of the first game and it's sad to see no progress on that front. A new feature that I really like is the upgrade castle. Blue gems can now be converted into currency which can be used to buy different upgrades in the castle - such as extra damage, more health, and other useful abilities like extra power up time, the ability to shoot through walls, more heart drops, etc. I love the ability to customize your build, and none of them are required to finish the game so you can do whatever you want. There's a re-spec available too, which costs nothing, so you're totally free to experiment with which loadout you like best. The abilities are a mixed bag. Some return from the first game and some are brand new. Without spoiling, I'll say that the returning abilities aren't that useful, but one of the new ones is super cool. It is unfortunately the last one you recieve but it's a ton of fun to play around with. Overall I don't think this game is meaningfully better or worse than the first one. They both have their strangths and weaknesses. The first game is pretty clunky, but has great exploration and can be completed in a single afternoon. This game is longer both due to backtracking, but also due to more complex puzzles which can be a good or a bad thing depending on the player. The movement is also a lot smoother and the combat is generally improved. Still an 8/10, worth the price of admission.