Short little action game that offers nice art, fluid gameplay and cool atmosphere.
The game's protagonist is an anonymous individual who wakes up next to a heap of corpses. A beating orb just next to it entices him to investigate. He receives a blade and understands exactly what must be done.
Playing is simple and controls flow well. You only have the sword strike, jump, and dash, which also serves as a dodge. Later on, you obtain a gun and a massive sword attack, both of which come at a cost. Because you lose health with each activation, it's best to save them for challenging situations. There’s no stamina, so that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about.
The game's world is linear. There is no opportunity to explore or make decisions. You're just traveling in a straight line and taking out enemies, listening to the occasional nice creature you meet along the road, and attempting to figure out what's going on in this odd setting. Basic dashing on platforms and over deadly pits is also included, but this is only difficult towards the end when you juggle different mechanics.
The only vital information on the screen is a red bar in the upper left corner representing your health. Although every received blow saps quite a bit of your lifeforce, it is relatively easy to regain it. All you have to do is kill an enemy.
But since you gain very little, it might be smarter to avoid enemies or attack only when it’s safe to do so. There’s a nice variety of enemies in each of the locations you visit. Since enemies don’t drop anything, you might as well ignore them. However, this is not always possible because barriers halt your progress until their guardians are destroyed.
You travel through many environments. True, the game doesn't use many colors, but the world is nonetheless vibrant thanks to excellent pixel art. Each place is distinct and has completely fresh assets and mechanics. A boss blocks you from moving to a new location. They only have a few simple attacks that are easy to learn, so you should have no issue beating them after a few tries.
Death comes quickly. You won't lose progress because the game saves automatically whenever you enter a new screen. The bad news is that the game saves the amount of health as well. You do not heal after respawning. This means it's very easy to find yourself in a difficult battle with nearly no health. You can grind health from a creatures that generates enemies or destroy a healing object, but these only show up in certain screens.
It doesn't take long to finish the game, perhaps two hours. There are no achievements or rewards at the end, so you will play it once and never again.
