Column on the Sea

OK, a word of caution, 8 of the 23 hours spent on this game involved the game being minimized. Anyway, This is a standard size metroidvania, and one of the cheapest ones you can find at that category. That's because the quality of the game is significantly lower than its peers. To put it in other words: This is the poor man's metroidvania. The good: - Fun well-written story - True metroidvania gameplay - No unity lag - good metroidvania world design The bad: - Poor physics - Poor enemy design - Poor combat design - Atrocious music - Too few savepoints in the last third of the game. - Mallus's undead flying sperm (found in the upper column). - Worst boss rush ever designed - Poor Map design. Ultimately, this comes close to getting a recommendation and manages to accomplish purely by being unaffected by the post oct 2022 regional pricing changes. Still, you are going to wonder around and get lost and die until you finally find where the map item is. This process will repeat with each biome you enter as the protagonist is too dumb to keep track of places she has already been in. The problem is alleviated for a while after the map to the column is found but it returns when you reach the biomes in the upper column.

There seems to be little attention/reviews for this one - so I'll throw in my $0.02! This game does a great job of blending the vibes of games from the NES/Gameboy era and gives it a modern sheen with the art style of a cartoon (the developer is primarily a cartoonist). The gameplay consists primarily of classic Metroidvania elements with both projectile and hack-n-slash combat. The story and characters are a lot of fun and it's all well written - makes you want to play and finish the game. While I had a few minor quirks with this (I do wish you could remap the controls for example), this game has a lot of heart and soul and does much more right than wrong. If you're looking for a solid Metroidvania that feels like both a homage to the NES era and cartoons then this is well worth checking out. Hopefully the developer decides to make another game at some point!