A game of vintage horror, with a heavy dose of unforgiving platforming, unusual story, and a style you won't soon forget.
PRESENTATION
In this regard, the game has a sort of vintage look and menus that are quite minimalistic. In general, the presentation is good, however, if you are using a controller, you need to press start to move past the main menu: the "press any button" prompt on screen lies! Also, there are several typos throughout the dialogues, you will still be able to understand what the characters are saying, but the errors take away from the immersion; maybe it's because the designer's mother language is not english? From a thematic perspective, the presentation is perfect, as you move in a world of desolation and undeath, such a setting is strengthened by the use of black and white dialogue windows, and everything else is in gray scale. An annoying thing is that, everytime you die, a demonic sigil, of the ones used in real life occult practices, flashes on the screen; it's interesting the first time you see it, but it gets repetitive, it's not exactly easy on the eyes due to its size and kitsch detail. Another thing that I consider poor in design, is that the pause button (start or Esc, depending), can exit the game if you press it again! You need to pause with start/Esc, and unpause with the jump button, which is very unintuitive; you can easily ruin your progress if you forget about this, because there is no save feature, there is just a level selection area that takes you to the beginning of each level. If the levels were short, this wouldn't be so bothersome when it occurs as an accident, but a few of them take a while to complete.
GRAPHICS
A beautiful but hindering celluloid filter is placed on top of everything, it looks like a very old type of film. Everything is in black and white with appropriate use of grey scale, there are several gothic variations when it comes to shapes and aesthetics in general; sometimes everything looks minimalistic, other times baroque, other times grossly organic, and yet there are also elements of classical art. All in general seems to be in a perpetual state of decay, which harmonizes perfectly with the story; interestingly enough, the undead look both alive and alien, corpses and undead look covered in filaments of dessicated flesh.
SOUND
Beautiful piano music, appropriate sound effects, everything is great, with no voices though; the music goes perfect with the battles, hazards, NPC interactions, all of it. This may well be the strongest aspect of the game, when it comes to setting up the mood in a unique way. There's a certain melancholy through the melodies of the game, that makes a sharp contrast with the more comical elements.
STORY
Very artsy story; many things are left unanswered, most are left open to interpretation. The entire piece is effectibly a horror comedy, added to that there is an underlying philosophical theme, and existential questions are frequently raised by the NPCs, but the definitive answer is never given. To keep the game from feeling too heavy, unapologetically ridiculous and funny exchanges are in almost all of the dialogues, and I laughed a little with each of these exchanges; the game sometimes pays tribute to modern geek culture through a few references, and is brilliantly tongue in cheek at times. The inhabitants of the world, remind you of the visions of many horror authors, from Lovecraft, to Clive Barker to M.R. James, and probably more that I have yet to identify.
GAMEPLAY
It feels like old school, NES Castlevania, and quite difficult! The main differences being that your character jumps surprisingly high, but the jump does not cover much distance, horizontally speaking; and while you can alter your trayectory while jumping, if you attack during the jump, your character will be locked in place for a second and a fraction, sometimes plunging you into an enemy or a precipice. Your sword attack is pathetically slow, but powerful, moving through enemies and obstacles, while skewering them, but only if you hold the down or up button while you jump and attack. Your standing neutral attack is abysmal in speed and range, with its only saving grace being a slightly faster rate of attack; it improves slightly in range when you hold down or up, but its rate decreases. In order for you to finish this game, you need to master the jumping attack, and you need to get used to your character and her attacks having the hit boxes of a needle, because this way you will be able to find gaps through enemy attacks that are impossible to nail in other platformers, while dodging and attacking. Be careful though, in many cases, the enemies and their proyectiles have hurt boxes that are just as small or even smaller than your character's sword, so intercepting them in time is often difficult. There are some hard battles throughout the game, but there is also exploration (dealing with hazards, puzzles and obstacles), there are even a few levels where there is very little in terms of combat. There are some vertigo inducing areas, where you must be pixel perfect in your movements, otherwise, you will fall to your death; those that fear platform games where you need to jump and climb through great heights should abstain. Of note, your character only has two health points, when you get hit twice, you die; it's a good thing that you regenerate your lost health point after a few seconds, and that you have infinite lives, so perseverance will get you through.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This game oftentimes feels intentionally flawed: the unintuitive pause menu that can accidentally end your current progress in a level, the celluloid filter that does not give a complete view of the screen, the main character's awful way of attacking and jumping, the mistakes you can make in and out of combat due to the placement of enemies, doorways and specific stage elements that facilitate or hinder navigation; it's as if the designer is fully aware of all of this, and leaves it so, in order to cause pain and misery for the player. That's part of the flawed beauty of D1896, the struggle with the flaws is as much part of the experience as it is taking on the many horrors of your quest. So I found it quite fun, and because the different levels are divided by segments, and you have infinte lives, dying could be considered souls-like in execution, with you trying again and again, yet different because there is no penalty in dying, it is more a process of learning from your mistakes, to immediately correct your errors just after dying, without having to traverse several areas just to try again and potentially die once more. In that aspect, the game is merciful. If you want a game that is cruel in difficulty, but ultimately fair, which combines a cryptic story with hilarious flare, as seen through a lens of vintage horror, I recommend you get this one right away! Although, I wouldn't recommend it for someone who wants to control a super competent type of main character, as seen in some modern action platformers; this game is as gritty as it gets, from a control perspective.
