DREIFRAME

Bought the game and played the game. I've finished main story, but didn't do all endings yet (there are 2 i think?) I like the game, I like the music and the bosses. I'm dad gamer right now, not really hardcore gamer anymore, so its always worrying to me buying game that takes 40hr to finish, because I simply don't have that much time. Games like this allows me to still be gamer like in old days, and finish title without spending extra time/grind on it. I really appreciate that. About the game. I like the controls, its easy to move the character. Some bosses are easier and some are harder, but when you learn them you can try do them without single hit. Story is simple but last segment surprised me. Some parts of it were kinda to hard at first lol TBH I would like to play some prequel/sequel cause story could be easly expanded. Anyway. Game is good and the price is ridiculous low.

The visuals give off that old‑school Nintendo vibe, and the music, while nothing mind‑blowing, fits nicely and keeps the mood right. Some areas feel a bit rough around the edges (blue spikes barely visible on the blue background), but honestly, for a debut game, it shows the dev’s got some potential.

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.

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.

Save your time and money on this one. Game's graphics are already questionable and to add to it the game lags pretty badly, so much so that devs put in a graphics toggle to handle it (it doesnt work by the way). This is just another sub par offering from some random developer who doent mind wasting your time and money on some half finished product.

Any aspiring Metroidvania developers should play this game so they know what NOT to do when making one. - too grindy - late game requires a plunge-attack platforming gimmick that isn't even properly introduced and is almost impossible to pull off - it's possible to get softlocked by accessing the deep labs segment too early, as it can't be teleported out of without getting through a plunge-attack gimmick - when a frame steals your gem, the gem stays stolen if you die during the fight. This is badly implemented and terribly communicated to the point where it seems like a bug. Which is a shame, because this is a very enjoyable game otherwise.

Graphics and music as minimalist as you can get but it has the good bones of a metroidvania. Not too easy!