CYCLE

CYCLE is a wonderful and concise experience. I have a few gripes, but overall I think it's a worthwhile time. Firstly, just to get it out of the way, my gripes. While I adore this game's art style, a lot of the time enemies and other things have palettes that blend in with the areas that they appear in, or other elements can kind of be difficult to stop with some visual noise that occurs here and there. This can lead to some cheap feeling hits or missed mysteries, but if you're gunning for 100% you'll be able to spot said mysteries better later on. As for the rest, I think the writing was really touching in this game. It didn't have a long run time, but it managed to get me in a few places, and really sold me on the conflict that Lana was going through, as well as pieces of her relationship with Verona. My one criticism for this aspect would probably be that I would have liked to see more of Verona in the latter half of CYCLE. Indeed, almost all of the characters from major to minor are either incredibly amusing or insightful, and always a joy to interact with. There's a certain "understanding" the writing has with how to make dialogue feel like it's imparting some wisdom while never taking itself too seriously, using comedy in order to defuse tension or to poke at the absurdity of this or that. CYCLE knows what it is, and isn't afraid to poke fun at itself here and there. The music is also top-notch. Every theme for a boss, character, or zone all had such personality to them and really sold the emotion or theme of the area well. Honestly, I wish that a full OST existed somewhere but sadly only the demo's is available. Finally, when it comes to gameplay, CYCLE is fairly simple. It's a metroidvania with varied weapons for you to unlock and use, as well as a few other upgrades along the way. It's simple and standard, but I don't mind that per se. Especially not when the movement is so fun. The dash ability and its upgrades make traversal both quick and satisfying (even if you crash into a million enemies from point A to B). Boss fights were also entertaining. Perhaps a little bit difficult to follow from time to time, but nevertheless enjoyable, especially the secret bosses.

Nice Megaman Zero style metroidvania, with an interesting world and plot, and extremely elaborate and fun boss fights. I'm not usually too into the Megaman X/Zero style movement, but it works really well here! Oh, and the music is genuinely fantastic. Highly recommended.

could occasionally glitch out, and sometimes starting a dialogue can take a weirdly long time? but generally not too bad a time playing through this one. A good challenge for those still getting to grips with the genre.

This is another one of those original MVs that are vaguely inspired by cave story. It joins the likes of moonlight pulse and stardust demon. Cycle's best feature is the music. Unfortunately, that is the only good thing here, the graphics are bad and in addition there is an issue of visual clarity. The controls are bad with a dash that is too good and jump that feels too weird. The default difficulty is far too easy and you'll have to start a new run in order to fix the difficulty. I ultimately got stuck and quit the game because I didn't have enough motivation left to try and find a way forward.

Fun game where whatever you equip changes your character's outfit. I like it when games do that. Awesome music with catchy tunes. An easy game where you feel laid-back while playing it even during boss fights. The environment are beautiful and are pleasing to the eye.

A really delightful little metroidvania. Very accommodating difficulty slider(s!). Cute story, good jokes, void stranger references?? Touhou inspo also apparent in places, especially the boss fights (sfx, vfx). A very full world, each area really does feel like its own thing, and I like how even common set pieces like save points, had a lot of variation.