Cathedral

This game was played in its entirety on a MacBook Air M1 8gb ram 7c gpu running MacOS Sonoma. All achievements unlocked at their appropriate times. There was a moderate movement bug encountered in the game, and it did crash on me approximately five times in my nearly 40 hours play through of the game. TLDR: An amazing retro Metroidvania with best-in-class level design, awesome chiptunes, and an extreme level of difficulty if you're going for all achievements, and only moderate difficulty if you are not. Overall, this is absolutely a positive review, and if you like what you read below, I urge you to grab this one. I'm going to start with the negatives, as there are a few, and they are substantial at times. There is a terrible movement bug with the game. It is repeatable every time, but how often it affects you will depend on how you play. The bug occurs if you change directions (left/right only) completely twice or more in a very short time period. This does NOT OCCUR with the d-pad, only the analog sticks. If you left, right, left in very quick succession, your character will be running right while you are holding full left. The reverse also occurs (running left while holding full right). I also received some crashes in the game. Around five I would estimate for my 40 hour run time. There was no warning, no sluggishness, no stuttering, it would just crash to desktop. There was virtually nothing in common when it happened, except that all five took place after my most lengthy game sessions. In all cases, I lost very little time. Not the worst thing, but I wound up keeping game save backups while I played, just in case. The game, as already mentioned, is very retro. This is mostly wielded for the game's benefit, but there are a few times when I had wished for more modern quality of life. The biggest thing that might turn people off is your basic attack. As soon as you are in control of your character, swing your weapon. You have now seen the attack you will be using for the rest of the game. Yes, like a lot of the earliest Metroidvanias (and other retro action adventures), you only have one basic attack. There is no combo, no extra flourish. You do have a basic downward facing attack as well that can pogo (a la Hollow Knight). You do get other limited weapons, and abilities, but you will be killing 99% of critters in the game with the basic attack you just saw. Still with me? Great, it's all uphill from here! (mostly) Some other retro things to be aware of are that the checkpoints are irregularly placed (but likely placed in a strategic manner by the dev), and you will sometimes have a long run to get back to where you were. Bosses mostly avoid this, but there are a few that require multiple screens and teleports to get back to again, and there is nothing on any of the screens...you could have just reversed the information or puzzle rooms with the checkpoint room and it would have been a great boon to the player. Now, for all of the positives! The game is charming, full stop. Every character has a personality, and that's quite a feat considering how few lines some characters get! The story is wonderful (I really liked the ending despite the comments I've read) and if you're not getting destroyed by the game, it's just so much fun to play. You will initially think the map is small, and the game is short. Both of these assumptions are incorrect. Not only is the map HUGE, but it is incredibly densely layered. The amount of game here is just astounding. And then there are the collectibles. They are very cleverly hidden. As in, I don't hate the dev, but I'd glare at him for at least a minute or so if I met him. They are super tricky and some of them break the very rigid rules of the game. Slash everything, twice even. Every wall, every brick, wait does that bit of background look odd to you?? Slash, Slash, Slash. What a journey it is to try and find everything in the game! Yes, I did find everything, but I'm not ashamed to admit that a lot of it I found by accident! Those sneaky bricks frequently have one-time gems in them when you find their hidden spot (and they'll remain broken so you know you've gotten them; just another great piece of QoL), but that brings us to the currency situation. It's not all roses here; in fact I think the way money works in the game is not a lot of fun at all. Frequently, the treasure rooms will be at the end of a very long series of rooms. That's rough, but the chests are randomly generated. I'd get some chests now and then with thousands in them, but around 80% of them had 200 or less. That seems worse than what most players encounter, and it did make it so that I had to grind for hours at the end of the game to finish some money achievements. But, just getting the money is not enough, you have to make it to a bank to protect it, otherwise you lose 10% (with upgrades you can lower this to 5%) of the total you are carrying. And if it was hard to get here, it's going to be even harder to get back. I tried very hard to minimize any gold loss throughout the game and was very successful doing so (I only lost around 2400 total). But, because of my low random chests, I was very short of the 50k I needed at the end of the game (it actually costs around 200k to buy enough bank upgrades just to hold the 50k). It's never fun to lose money, but it does provide some of the most intense moments of the game! Speaking of intense, the bosses are rough. The first ones are always the worst in this type of game, because you have so few weapons at your disposal. The first optional gargoyle fight (to increase your damage!) took me a LOT of deaths...because I went for it as soon as it was available. How rough are these bosses? Well, at this point, you have one jump, and you can pogo. That's it. This boss moves A LOT faster than you, and most of the time makes a beeline for you. Yes, it's doable, but you can tell that there are some difficulty cliffs in this game. Speaking of the difficulty, if you're going for 100%, it is BRUTAL. Damage Dodger requires you to complete the game without buying any new armors. You can get all of the armor augments (which do help a little bit), but you're stuck with Defense 1 the entire game. This means that most things will one-shot you as you progress unless you are very diligent in finding all of the hidden collectibles and health upgrades. Even finding everything, most things will two shot you from the half-point onwards. You do get up to 9 potions (which can heal up to 5 hearts), but with 10 hearts and most things hitting you for 8 hears, you have to double heal off every hit. And you will get hit a lot in this game! The final boss took me a few hours of attempts (my poor hands!) and it was a nail biter I can assure you. Having said that, if you don't care about the achievement, the other armors give you so much durability that I would consider the game of only average difficulty if you buy the armors (once you get over the very early game spike). Some might even consider the game too easy. I won't say too much more, except to say that the very few abilities and extra weapons you get in the game are all very well designed, and in some cases unique to this game! I wish there had been more, but what was here was excellently implemented. Well, thank you very much for reading this far. I know it was a lot. I really did enjoy my time with this one, but I would be remiss if I did not comment on its many shortcomings. Still, I'm very glad I played this and will do so again!

"Cathedral" is a retro 2D-action-adventure/metroidvania and plays a little like the later "Wonderboy"-games, with early "Mega Man" and "Zelda II" sprinkled in. You play a mute knight on his journey to fulfill a looming prophecy in a dark and colorful fantasy setting. The story is a little basic, but the whole presentation (the retro music and pixel-art) sure has a certain vibe to it. Some comments mentioned earlier that the fast-travel options are too sparse, but I think it is fine. The charm-swaps (what ability you can use on the field) sure is a little aggravating but makes sense, once you get the later ones. There are definetly more polished titles in terms of user friendliness but this may be by design. Difficultywise it was fine too - challenging, but fair in my opinion. Game length is also quite right for my taste (took me around 15 hours to casually beat it, but I didn't 100% it.) Pick it up, if you like the more retro-entries in the genre. No masterpiece, but earnest and solid throughout.

Great game, 7 hours in. I thought I had found a soft lock, emailed the developer. I sent him my save, he reviewed it and an issue i was having he said worked for him, showed a video and everything. Long story short? The developer helped me find out that my controller button died. Seriously though, I'm enjoying the game and found out that a sequel is coming out and it's alsready on my wish list.

This is a great game, with a couple of exceptions, and my time with it was very entertaining. If you like Metroidvanias and retro styles, this game is for you. The game could use a teleporter between save points, as using the item to return to a previous save point isn't enough. The bosses are good, but their damage to the main character could have been reduced, as a couple of hits and you're dead, even with nine health bottles. (Still, after a couple of tries, killing the boss isn't difficult.) Overall, it's a very good game. I'm looking forward to Cathedral: Сrow's Curse, because thanks to its demo, I was able to experience the first part of Cathedral!

I've played and finished this on the Evercade platform, so if you're wondering why my playtime here is only a few hours or less… that’s why! This game is an absolute gem from start to finish. The music is catchy and memorable even months after playing it, the difficulty is well balanced across all areas and ramps up naturally without any frustrating spikes, and player movement feels smooth and responsive rather than stiff or jarring. I could go on! And go on I will! Each area has its own boss that’s well thought out and fair. You’ll probably fail a couple of times here and there, which I guess is where the “souls-like” comparison comes from, but honestly I don’t really agree with that label. Boss patterns are very readable, learning them feels rewarding, and deaths rarely feel cheap. Maybe I just suck at 3D souls-likes… but Cathedral? No issues here!! I also really appreciated the dialogue and characters you encounter along the way. Most interactions are short and to the point, but they add a surprising amount of charm and personality without ever getting in the way of the gameplay or dragging things out. It complements the game perfectly rather than interrupting it. Overall I highly recommend Cathedral. There’s a ton more things I’ve not mentioned, but I think it’s best if you play it yourself and see what this hidden gem has to offer!

It's overall a delightful if at times frustrating Metroidvania. My one complaint is the backtracking gets tedious. If they, say, doubled the teleport locations or gave you an item to fast travel back to a town (And not simply your nearest checkpoint statue) I'd give this a stronger recommendation. But it's still very enjoyable.

一编：这游戏在逗我玩吗？卡在poison pavilion地图左下角，楼梯特别短，摔下去就只能往左走从房间上去让幽灵帮你推石块才能跳上去的地方，但我开传送门回村子的时候不小心把幽灵符文卸下去了，再来到这个地方摔下去后就上不来了。现在就是死了只能回到底下的传送点，上去也上不去，纯纯卡在这里不知道怎么解决，是我没找到隐藏路线还是？这么明显的游戏逻辑流程设计缺陷，怎么做关卡的？难道我档就这么坏了要重新打，你在开玩笑吧？我真受不了。有没有人知道解决方法 二编：遇到了问题，发邮件给制作组后解决了，感谢。等我玩完会来评价的。

x-- 7/10 --x Really charming, and sometimes challenging, metroidvania!

Brilliant game. Just like the old skool NES days. Great pixel graphics and chiptune sounds. Very challenging. Loots of secret items to find and puzzles to solve. It took me a whole week to complete this. Well recommended.

[b]Recommendation[/b] Armed with an 8-bit aesthetic and chiptune soundtrack both very reminiscent of Yacht Club game's Shovel Knight, Cathedral takes a more action-adventure/Metroidvania approach to the retro 2D platformer. With its solid presentation; simple but snappy combat; and expansive world map full of platforming challenges, puzzles, treasure, upgrades, and secrets to find; Cathedral manages to occupy itself a very strong place among the C-listers in the genre -- alas, the C-list is as high as it goes, as its uneven and sometimes bloated level design, spiky difficulty, and extremely frustrating final stretch hold it back from being placed amongst more vaunted company. This one's a full recommendation -- but just [i]barely[/i]. 6.5/10