Aztaka

Tags: Sidescroll - Survival & Questing Additional Tags: Delete Local Content & Remove from Library TLDR: Worst of a Metroidvania with no controller support, QTE combat, grind unbalance issues, unclear level progression and thin story. This is almost like a sidescroll version of a action hack&slash. You fill an XP bar, buy stat points and level a limited loadout of skils through levels. Loot seems randomized by your level and has name like "Ring of the Fox" kind of thing... There arent a whole ton to it, you may customize more magic oriented, you can tank a lot or you can increase your damage. However the magic involves having to trap your mouse around your target click and then float it around a bunch of bubbles touch-screen style until you "tapped a pattern" sort of... Melee is equally clunky as your lateral slashes are not aimable and prone to terrain change although. While balancing both could prove rewarding you could also just stat your heal skill and your endurance and sort of power your way out that way. Which is what I ended up doing. Problem is the journal is not always very good at giving you a firm nod at where your objectives are and even then levels are often subdivided in magical minigames in which you must drag&drop orbs of matching colors unto environment to modify it a little. Like light up light sources or grow vegetation to use as a platform. Some unused orbs can be simply dragged and dropped towards little status which act as inventory slots to hold a few of each color which gives you a reserve pool to pilfer from if you have to start casting more liberally. Falling into pits can have varying consequences between dropping to a lower more dangerous floor to being redropped in the same screen with no seeming consequence. I found the itemization to be a bit lacking, even with early investments in +itemtech level to have more potential for high stuff to be usable. Shopkeepers are far and few between. Some items unlock feature on the character such as the ability to run or the way your jump works which can complicate your guesswork a bit further if you get stuck somewhere not knowing how to proceed. The animation work was rather pleasant, as was the color palette, the general tone of the game and the music. Sounds were basic but appropriate and did not grate. Jumping worked okay but lacked granular precision. The sort of ancient astronaut, god-avatar strange story has potential and I like the general concept of it however. Given that many point&click sidescroll adventures will have much heavier story and dialogue while real metroidvanias would give me slick controls and action, I find it difficult to warrant keeping this around my permanent library. The experience falls short on itself, and stumbles on occasion with ambitious but somewhat slap-dash implementation of rpg-lite mechanics.

I liked it. It's not the best metroidvania in the world and it has it's flaws, but it's solid and fun. So if you like the genre and are itching to play something new, you could do worse than this.

Interesting game. Very fluid control and combat. Encounted an error 98% of the way through, too long to restart, but I assume the story wrapped up nicely. Nonetheless enjoyed the journey.

Very nice game

I liked it, wasn't the best but you are not getting many 2D mesoamerican games these days so might as well buy it. The game had some graphical issues and crashes, it started to crash so heavily towards the end that the game doesn't even run anymore. Nonethless it was fun while it lasted, and for less than a dollar it exceeded my expectatives by a lot.

I pirated this a long time ago, and then actually paid for it years later because I never bothered to play even the download I had, and I felt bad that I had done that. The game has a great art style and I enjoy it so far. The price tag is not bad at all, and I think it gives a good presentation for the five bucks it costs.