Diorama Dungeoncrawl

A difficult but fair 3D action platformer. Arcade style in the original sense, and feels like what I would expect from a modern take on the SNES/N64 era.

One of the more challenging games by the developer. I can't really think of another game like this on Steam that combines platforming and the sort of action here, but it was decent to play.

Not a bad game, but doesn't quite get there in my eyes to recommend going out of your way to play. At its best there's some nice gauntlets, tricky platforming, and juggling of enemies and boss attacks. Level 5 is solid on the whole, and the lich is a good boss (quite polarising with/without powerups since the AoE is so essential, but once you figure that out it's still interesting to execute, jumping away from enemies to charge the strike mid-air but needing to land close to as many of the enemies as possible). At times it does feel like a pretty effective 3D castlevania. On the other side, there's a lot of rooms, especially early on, that you can either just waltz through without really engaging with what little goes on, or where there's a bit of challenge but the save points come so frequently that with 7 hp (iirc) you can just shrug off the hits you take and not look back. The bear is a notable difficulty spike, and I'm curious how many players walked past it, only to have to learn its moveset in the boss rush. Including the bear, when it does get harder, it's often through poorly conveyed depth, and/or contact damage that feels awkward to avoid, usually as a result of you hitting an enemy and the knockback making them move into you. The colossal knight is big on this, making it untenable in my experience to get fancy with charge attacks or attacking while doing jump dodges, instead making the fight increasingly passive as I got better at it, staying close to him and just making a simple attack after dodging one of his.

Ridiculously unforgiving. Why does he have to slide like that whenever he gets hit? The camera is awkward in the platforming sections. Your hitbox is laughable. Although the visual style is nice and retro I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone who values his or her time. With that said, the game has potential and if the developer were to make a second one with more RPG elements (like an open world and more weapons) I would definitely give it a try.

increasingly frustrating as it goes on. wouldn't have wanted it any other way. surprisingly lenient when it counts, just mean enough to make you say things like "i can do it this time" or perhaps "next room has to have a save in it or i'm going to cry"