DREIFRAME

Just as a preface, I beat the first 3 bosses so far, so I am only about an hour into the game so far but considering there are no reviews yet, I decided to put something together. This game feels great to play, and by that I mean the attacking (with pogo power), dashing, and movement in general is satisfying to do. I would suggest immediately remapping the dash to R2, but that is the only weird thing I found about the initial controller set up. Luckily, keybinding on both gamepad and keyboard are easy to do. The main start of the show here are the bosses, without a doubt. The last one I fought was actually pretty brutal and took me several tries to get past. The world itself is alright, and maybe it gets more immersive as it progresses, but so far, nothing stood out too much as being graphically impressive (which is fine for me). The few times I noticed the music, it fit the situation well and adds a nice touch. Personally, I am having a blast so far and I hope more people check this one out. It might not have all of the bells & whistles that many MVs have, but this game has a lot of soul put into it. I will update a few things when I finish my playthrough, but overall, this is a solid entry for this devs first release!

Overall, the game is quite good. Character movement feels nice, especially after unlocking wall jumps. There are a lot of different enemies unique to each biome/area, each with its own moveset (although most common enemies only have 1–2 attacks). Unfortunately, most encounters boil down to the player repeating a “run up to the robot, hit it, run away” loop. This is even more prevalent during boss fights, which require a lot of patience to get through the whole HP bar, especially during the early game when you don't have any upgrades yet. Upgrades, which you can buy with scrap magnets dropped by fallen enemies, so there is some initial grind included [spoiler] (thank God there is also a "fishing" spot available as an alternative source of magnets) [/spoiler]. However, it gets better later on once you unlock “battle modes” and their long-range skills that deal extra damage to certain enemy types. The boss arenas also get more interesting as the game progresses, with some fights featuring environmental obstacles or stuff like parkour sections. When it comes to the technical side, the game runs great on the Deck without any tweaking. I didn't experience any crashes or performance issues. However, if you'd like to play Dreiframe on more than one device, you will need to play around with save files, since (at the time of writing this review) the game doesn't support cloud saves. While I doubt I'll finish Dreiframe (mostly because I'm quite bad at the game, and the limited story content I've seen so far did not make me care about the character enough to overcome my skill issue), I still think that the game is worth checking out.

Aesthetically, the pixel art in this game and the soundtrack are both very good - the pixel art may be a bit too dark at times to enjoy the backgrounds, but that's a small nitpick at worst. Gameplay-wise, this game frames itself as a souls-like metroidvania, and does both alright; there are a couple of movement upgrades gotten fairly early, and then the game is more or less open to explore down three major paths, with some secrets for those who wish to explore further. However, a lot of the combat is extraordinarily samey; most enemies can be beaten with the combination of "hit two times, dodge through them to avoid their attack, repeat", with the only exception being the bosses. This would be fine if the bosses weren't also fairly forgettable as HP sponges with fairly simple patterns as well - the challenge of the bosses is not in avoiding most attacks or learning new patterns, it's in having the patience to wait and dodge through long invulnerability periods in order to land a few attacks before they re-enter the invulnerability phase, and even with all available damage upgrades, this gets fairly tedious. The core of the "type-based" combat was very interesting though; I never felt any risk in using the types despite what the game tells you, but it was a very neat mechanic. A fairly enjoyable game all things considered.

I'm more of a casual player, and I like taking my time with games. I've only defeated five bosses so far, and I feel like there’s still plenty ahead of me, but it’s enough to form an "early impressions" review. The game feels both familiar and different compared to other MVs. You play as a small character, but the bosses aren’t huge either. Your slash range is quite short, so it’s easy to get punished for overreaching. Despite that, the character is very mobile, and movement feels natural and responsive. The bosses are well designed and varied - very hard for me, but never unfair, and always satisfying to overcome. Combat clearly feels like the main focus, with exploration serving as fuel for it. I haven’t seen much of the story yet, but the mystery is set up from the start. A world full of machines, no humans anywhere - what happened? And what exactly is the corruption? I hope to get answers as I explore further. There isn’t much environmental storytelling so far, though. I’m always a fan of pixel art, and while it’s a bit plain here, one thing that sets it apart from similar games is its consistency. Every part of the game’s presentation - from the art to the sound effects, UI, and music - feels cohesive. The music is the standout element for me: some tracks go hard, others are just a great vibe. I can easily imagine listening to a few of them outside the game. Overall, the game is pretty fun. The combat is excellent, and even though it’s lacking in some areas, it’s clear that a lot of thought and hard work went into it. Considering it was made by a single person, it’s an impressive piece of art. If you enjoy dying repeatedly to improve and overcome tough challenges, definitely give it a try.

Nice game. Bit short. Gameplay heavily inspired by Hollow Knight. There are other interesting mechanics as well but the core is similliar. Level curve can be a bit steep near the start as most areas unlock pretty early on. If HK's Pantheon was your thing then I recommend the game, as it is mostly focused on the bosses.

It's OK. It borrows enough ideas and mechanics from other, more polished games that it's not unpleasant, but it ultimately pales in comparison to those titles. The story never gets interesting and the map is unhelpful (and I actually [i]liked[/i] the Ender Lilies map). I can only barely recommend it for people who are really desperate for a new indie Metroidvania.

I came across Dreiframe completely by accident and it turned out to be a really nice surprise. I didn’t expect it to pull me in this much. It has a very interesting atmosphere — the longer you play, the more you want to explore further and see what’s next. You can really feel that the creator had a great idea and put a lot of heart into it. I especially like the atmosphere, the music, and the mechanics. It all comes together into something that really stays with you. I definitely recommend giving it a try and will be recommending it to my friends. :)

Pretty fun, liked the OST very much. But the combat experience was a bit stiff for me, it's mostly hit and run with the location monsters gang ups being harder than the bosses sometimes. I had a hard time positioning myself so that i can hit the enemies without being damaged by their body touch hitbox or just straight out dodging into their bodies. I rarely play these types of games, so probably it's a me thing. Story seemed interesting but I got stuck at one of the earlier bosses so I would rather watch a playthrough to find out more about the lore.