Castaway

All that potential wasted on a pseudo roguelike tower climb. Would have loved to push further in the tower, and almost got it, but the game excels at destroying all your hopes with glitches/bugs that completely fumbled an almost perfect run, all thanks to that one section where you have to crush enemies with the crystals. My character got stuck trying to push this one crystal, and guess what happened, all my hearts gone in seconds. Thanks game. My initial interest on this game, was that it looked like it was inspired on Classic Zelda's Links Awakening, and while the inspiration was there, my motivation crumbled as I realized that all there ever was for this game, was a badly designed tower climb with some light roguelike elements, and since dungeons are not randomly generated, going through the same levels climbing up, will eventually feel repetitive.

A game that reminds me a lot of the Gameboy Zeldas, which I liked. Overall it's not bad just very lacking. More of a free demo for a game than an actual game. I would hope in the future they flesh the game out or make something similar but much more substantial

Castaway is a 2D The Legend of Zelda lite game with 2 main modes. You have adventure mode that can be completed within 45 minutes. It has a small world and 3 dungeons to reclaim what you lost. Then you have tower mode where you go through 50 rooms. Although the rooms are not random generated, you do get upgrades and power-ups randomly. This makes it feel like a handcrafted roguelike. The controls are spot on, they’re responsive and work perfectly with a controller. The graphics are very beautiful and vibrant. The short cutscenes are especially impressive. The music does bring those Zelda vibes in a nostalgic way. I actually like the idea behind this game being bite sized and having another mode to sink your teeth into. Unfortunately, the game is not perfect on all fronts. It becomes noticeable in tower mode and the hardcore difficulty of adventure mode called unfair mode. With unfair mode, I don’t mind dying with one hit. But it doesn’t work well with the patterns of normal enemies and the first boss. The enemies can behave in unpredictable ways such as one minute being able to push them and the next you can’t etc. The first boss’ last phase works on normal difficulty, but it’s too unfair with one heart due to the boss moving unpredictably in high speed. The blow of this (and more examples) could have been softened if you were still allowed to upgrade your hearts like usual. With tower mode, there are a couple of very awkward and even unfair rooms at times, making it easy to experience cheap deaths. The consequence is restarting from floor 1 regardless of how far you made it. Overall, I quite like the game and I can still recommend it on sale. But I’m unhappy with the lack of balance and polish with certain modes. Attaching achievements to them makes things worse. It took me over 5 hours to get all achievements except for the one requiring you to complete unfair difficulty.

This game is too short.

[i] Castaway [/i] plays like a mini Link's Awakening type of clone. Another reviewer mentioned how [i] Xeodrifter [/i] was like a mini Metroid game, and that analogy kind of applies here. However, [i] Xeodrifter [/i] is a much better and more in-depth game than [i] Castaway. [/i] The main complaint you'll read about will be the length: you can beat the main game in around 30 minutes. You can play on Pacifist (with no enemies), Invincible, Normal, Speedrun, and Unfair (no checkpoints and one hit kills you so you have to replay the entire game again). So, there's some decent variety for this short romp, but the first two difficulties are kind of pointless. Having a randomizer mode or something would have been an awesome addition, but admittedly that would have required a lot of work to implement. Despite the short length, the main game is more like a Part 1 of the story. The Tower is Part 2 where you face off against the story's antagonists at the end and, if successful, you achieve the true ending. The Tower has 51 unique and set floorplans with roguelite elements of randomly generated upgrades upon leveling up. You slay enemies who drop experience coins that you collect to level up. The coins disappear after a short time, which can be frustrating, but the strategy of this mode partially lies in defeating the enemies in ways where you can collect the coins before they despawn. The Tower is decently fun, but it could use some reworking or some additional difficulty levels like Part 1 has. (Interestingly, Pacifist and Invincible could be better in Part 2 to allow for exploration and developing your strategy before tackling it for real.) Therein lies my personal issue with this game: it needs some thoughtful revision. I can appreciate that this was probably a passion project by a developer who had a vision for their game, and I think they succeeded at making a solid game overall. But it feels abandoned at this point, and it hasn't been out for all that long. To me, that comes across as a big negative: if you don't care about your game, why should the players invest their time and money into it? As a completionist, I put more time into this than maybe the average player would, so I feel like I got my money's worth by buying this game on sale for around $3. That being said, I can't really recommend this game. I would have chosen neutral if it existed, but my main reason to not recommend it is because the passion to continue to develop and flesh out the game is lacking. There are some really great bones here, but based on the discussion posts, it feels like maybe the developer does not respond very well to thoughtful or constructive criticism from players. I played this after finishing [i] Prodigal [/i] because I still had an itch for this style of game, and my expectations were low, but I was still left generally disappointed overall. If you're looking for a Link's Awakening type of feel, maybe check out [i] Prodigal [/i] - or look elsewhere. (Played on Steam Deck with no issues.)

Gorgeous little game. I played this on the Retroid Pocket 5 and it blew me away. I'm so glad I played this on a small handheld. It felt like how it was meant to be played. I was able to beat the base game in my liesure in 50ish minutes, which many might find too short and BOY could I not disagree more. I LOVE a short game that is just really really good and then gets the hell out of my way. All fun, no drag, no grind...Perfect game. The art, the cutscenes, the animations...Perfect. After beating the game, you open up an endless roguelike tower, which is such a perfect way to let people who love this game, but found it to be too short have more game to sink their teeth into.

Muito curto e repetitivo, ae Ter q zerar o jogo 3x para poder platinar é surreal. Uma pena, tinha tudo para ser muito bom.

Simple, short and fun. Final section of the game (post credit) is kind of a rogue like though, just a heads-up in case you're like me who can play rogue-likes only if they are of a certain kind. In case of this game, the combat is too simple which makes me unwilling to keep trying. That said, its not hard, at least not till the floor I reached, but simple things tend to make me careless and one reset was enough to make me nope out of it..

I don't remember how I found out about Castaway. Maybe it was because of TikTok and seeing the developer show off some of it. Maybe it was a recommendation and it looked cool to me. All I know is that I picked up last week on a whim with the soundtrack for under 5. The story follows a young boy who's traveling in space when his ship gets shot down. They all crash on the planet below. After our hero wakes up, his stuff gets stolen, as well as his beloved dog. So he has to recover his stuff and save his dog. That's the plot. The main quest is incredibly short. I beat it in 30 minutes. And I wanted more of it has a great feel to the puzzles. Granted, it was basic, it got me excited for a full blown game. It reminds me a lot of Link's Awakening with the GB inspired graphics and gameplay. The soundtrack is rather enjoyable. Then there's the tower mode. A 50 floor tower with psuedo-randomized skills. It's not a bad mode. It is also somewhat short as floors are a screen long. The problem is that the gameplay doesn't support the maneuverability or the combat necessary for a mode like this to work effectively. If this was a side quest in a main quest, I wouldn't mind that much. However, this is the main pull for the game. And it just doesn't work as well as necessary for a situation like this. Castaway is such a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is an incredibly charming game that wears its inspiration on its sleeves. On the other, it is far too short and not properly balanced. It makes the game look like a tech demo. A very charming one, but a tech demo all the same. As such, it makes it difficult to recommend It isn't worth 8 dollars. And the soundtrack, while good, cannot carry this game. If it is on steep discount, get it. IF there's a way to get the soundtrack without the game, go for that. The developers have so much promise. I hope they fulfill it with their next game.

Fantastic little game. Got it at 70% off and it's fantastic value at that price!