GIGASWORD

I really want to like this game. I really, really do. The 8-bit music and the pixel art lured me in. But it's so, so, SO boring. It's criminal how boring this game is. You see how slow and terrible your character moves and attacks, thinking "ok, we're gonna get some movement and combat upgrades, so he's gonna start handling great, get a double jump, dash, faster attacks, cool combos, or something, right? .......right????" Nope! What you see is what you get. It never changes. None of your upgrades change your movement, and hardly any meaningfully change the combat. That is, until near the end, after pretty much the entire game is done, you get a grappling hook. Ok, cool! Except it can only be used in specific areas where thare is no other way to traverse. The dev didn't place these hooks throughout the game to accelerate backtracking and cleanup. The one good idea and he completely blew it. The best sword upgrade is just the one where you shoot projectiles at full health, because then you don't have to engage with the atrocious combat. There's a ton of puzzles too, it seems to be very puzzle-platformer focused in some areas, but, like.... none of the puzzles require more than a moment's thought, and it's just more boring unbelievably slow and annoying pushing and pulling blocks and stuff. It's like every single last design decision in the entire game was made with the purpose of padding the playtime as much as possible and wasting the player's time. Speaking of which.... The map layout is simply dreadful, and stacked with more padding and backtracking than can be believed. The areas are so boring and overly large for your incredibly lethargic movement. The save points and fast travel points seem to be placed in the most annoying possible locations that guarantee maximum backtracking. Almost every single fast travel point is placed at the VERY EDGE of the area. PUT THEM IN THE MIDDLE DUDE. And maybe have areas that are actually well-connected and fun to navigate for change. And guess what, it's a souls-like system where you have to retrieve your money. Why? Nobody knows. Everybody hates this system. At least in some games, you move quick, and it's fun to blast through areas, so the runback to retrieval isn't so bad. And god help you if you lose any of your money, because it is SO grindy to get all the upgrades and open all the doors. I think the dev added fast travel points after release, but he makes you pay increasingly absurd amounts of ingame money to access them, making it grindier to actually unlock all the upgrades and doors. Maybe it was a balanced amount of money before he added all these new gates, but it isn't now, that's for sure. It's awful. The whole experience was awful. I've been playing it in 20 min increments, struggling to find the will to push through and finish the final area. I went and 100%ed a different metroidvania rather than complete this, and I probably will do another before I can find the willpower to force myself to finish this.

I don't think i've ever played a metroidvania with worse progression than gigasword, and i've played over a hundred metroidvania's. For starters your main way of upgrading is by investing in a skill tree where every node costs multiple hundreds of currency. But enemies drop less than 10 each and are both obnoxiously tanky and incredibly annoying to fight. Add to that the fact that healing is only unlocked at the VERY END of the skilltree and you're set up with a game that's just not satisfying. But the cherry on top of this disasterous cake is that checkpoints are incredibly far apart and worse yet, there's corpse running. Yes the game where you cannot heal and must grind hundreds of enemies to unlock healing will make you lose EVERYTHING on death and give you one single chance to reclaim it. It's hot ass and one of many major flaws this game has. But all of this could be somewhat forgiven if the combat was at least fun but uhm, it is not... Combat is absolutely horrible not only due to the aforementioned tankiness and lack of healing but also just because there's SO many enemies in each room. It's not even like there's a big variety, there's maybe twenty at most throughout this entire 12+ hours game including multiple recolours. Nearly each of these is just not fun to fight especially the ice wraiths that freeze you for several seconds. Later on since enemies also scale very hard while you're struggling to get those few upgrades. The combat also controls like ass, which makes sense given the huge sword but you'd expect it to atleast stagger enemies a bit which would create a risk reward style setting. But it doesn't, you get staggered if you're hit, but not the enemies, nope! Their tiny projectiles knock you back but your huge sword barely nudges them, it feels so ♥♥♥♥ actually. Killing enemies is so unrewarding and there's so much of them that you'll pretty soon just start ignoring them. The best way to play this game is by ignoring a fundamental mechanic, not a good look. I'm not alone in this either as many people i talked to about the game also stopped bothering with the combat. There's one aspect where you can't ignore combat though, which are the big bads aka the bosses. These have somewhat unique and cool designs but with a lack of healing it's just not fun. They're brutally difficult and they're also incredibly tanky while you can only take a few hits. Now there are ways to upgrade health, by finding bunnies that are always hidden behind breakable walls. That's right the basic quality of life of upgrading your health is a hidden mechanic. My first health upgrade was at the 9th hour but by that point i was already so done with this game. Because even if you mostly ignore combat the game becomes a puzzle platformer with puzzles that aren't complex or fun, they're just slow and tedious and drag on for longer the further you get. The main gimmick of putting down your sword, doing something to raise it higher and then pick it up again is novel for the first couple hours if you're generous. However by the end it has overstayed its welcome by several hours already and still keeps going. You'd think that being a metroidvania eventually you'd not be encumbered by the sword anymore but instead all you get is just new holes to stick your sword into. The metroidvania aspects of progression both in terms of stats and abilities is just undercooked. You start the game as some limp ♥♥♥♥ self doubting ♥♥♥♥ and you end the game as one. Okay no, there's actually some character development with him VERY slowly gaining A BIT of confidence but his skillset stays weak. There's just no satisfaction gained from playing the game to the end, not even narratively as the game's story is generally very weak with a predictable ending. The dialogues are also poorly written and generally too long so pacing is also off. That's the recuring theme with this game, it's too long, drawn out, a snorefest if you will. Even the simple act of saving your game takes multiple seconds as you first have a long animation of sticking your sword into the shrine followed by several seconds of saving (unoptimized?). That's not the only thing to waste your time though as the map is HUGE with no markers for any progression blockers or ability to place custom markers. So unless you explore thoroughly you will get lost, a LOT and waste even more time. I'm pretty thorough myself and there's a certain flow to the levels that guide you, which would be impressive if it didn't repeat the same gimmick every single time. You find a locked door, go several rooms further, solve a puzzle and earn a key to then backtrack through all those rooms and put it in the lock. Rinse and repeat for 12+ bloody hours. There's a few gimmicks per biome thrown in to 'spice' it up but in essence it's the same every time. The mechanics are also sometimes not explained, like the rising water bubbles that you have to pogo with these horrible controls. I never thought that hitting a huge bubble with your massive sword would push you upwards so i tried putting my sword down and jumping on them first. When that didn't work i thought i was missing an upgrade so went backtracking for half an hour before realizing. Skill issue on my part but moreso the dev just poorly explaining and implementing mechanics. Speaking of implementing things i suppose having rebindable controls is too much to ask for? The game at the time of writting this review has been out for little over 4 months and it's still not added. Could be okay if the default controls were decent but dodge roll is on LEFT BUMPER. LB, you hear that right, for dodge roll... Not only does it control like ass ingame it's also just got a horrible button layout. Finally there's the visuals, sfx and music all of which were basic. Now there were some cool designs left and right as some of the enemies had very immaginative and grotesque pixel art designs. But most of the environments felt stale and uninspired with the exception of a handfull of cool setpiece areas. The music and sfx didn't speak to the immagination in the same way though as they were these bitcrunched noises and chiptunes. This is very much subjective but i've never cared for these types of sounds or songs. Overal gigasword was a gigantic dissapointment and a game that i wish i would've refunded but i bought it too long ago since the dev was still patching it at the time. By now they've stopped though and left the game without the promised map markers or rebindable controls. It's clunky, unfair, boring and massively overstays its welcome leaving you with an experience where the only satisfaction comes from finally beating it knowing you never have to play it again.

[h1]しっかり遊べるメトロイドヴァニア。 王道ファンタジーに親愛をみっちり描いたストーリーが特にいい！[/h1] KickStarterでのリワードで入手。 ボリュームは実プレイ18時間程度。 一欠片の正義感と、ひょうひょうとしつつ感情に浮き沈みがある、どこか頼りない男が主人公。 ディズニーのアラジンみたいな感じ。 そいつが、堅物ながら心優しいフクロウ族の親友のために奮闘する話。 関係性の描写が丁寧で、大満足だった。 ハシゴや扉のショートカットを開通しながら探索範囲を広げていく感じがとてもメトロイドヴァニアで良い。 ただ、アクションは豪快な大剣のイメージとは裏腹に、HP/MPのやりくりが大事なRPG的なゲーム性だった。 鈍重ゆえに敵の素早い反撃を覚悟せねばならず、できる限り遠距離魔法でチクチク削ってから剣でケチってトドメが基本戦術になるなど、欠点が悪い形に表れているのが残念。 ボスは大剣の鈍重さでも勝てるように隙が調整されているため、あまり強くない。 大剣を置いて、身軽で無力な素手モードにもなれる。 「大剣をエレベーターに置いて上に運んで、自分は高いジャンプで追いつく」のようなパズルは、簡単ながらアクセントになった。 ただ、大剣を置く要素が、パズル以外に使い道がほぼない。 素手の機動力を活かして奥を目指したところで、大剣がなければ扉を開くことすらできず行き詰まり、剣の回収へ戻る必要がある。 戦闘中に剣を手放して回避に徹するというのも、剣を手放す動作、持ち上げる動作があるため満足に行かない。 「頼もしい大剣」という物語の心理描写に関わっているからかもしれないが、アクションとしては大きく損している。 豪快に投げて敵にぶつけたり、投げて刺さった剣を足がかりにしたり、攻撃後の隙を剣を手放すことでキャンセルしたり、ローリングで避けながら素早く剣を回収したり、定番だけどダークソウル風にスタミナを使って隙をキャンセルしたり、規制されないエリアでは自由に剣の召喚ができたら好きな攻略スタイルを選択できたり、このゲームならではと言える豪快さと面白さが増すアイデアをもっと取り入れてほしかった。 このコンセプトには伸びるポテンシャルがまだ残っている。 まぁ多分開発チームも気づいてるけど、基盤が固まってて実装できなかった感じがする。 基本的な作りはいいので、今回の開発経験で成長した開発チームの次回作にも期待したい。 ただ、照明が必要な暗い部屋は二度と作らないでほしい。

Скажу сразу, я не олд в игровой индустрии, и, наверное, не могу по достоинству оценить сей продукт, возможно, для кого-то именно так выглядит эталонная метроидвания, но для меня, прошедшего не один десяток современных метрошек, эта игра стала непроходимой, причём не из-за сложности. Начну пожалуй с плюсов игры, не могу их не упомянуть: 1. Достаточно красивый визуал, стилизован под ретро-игры, в целом уважаю хороший пиксель-арт 2. Приятное 8 (или 16 хз) битное музыкальное сопровождение 3. В игре достаточно большое разнообразие механик, которые первоначально даже интересно использовать На этом для меня плюсы заканчиваются. А теперь о субъективных минусах игры: 1. Скудное разнообразие врагов - типов врагов очень мало, и в целом после открытия навыков вроде шок-волны или фаербола, никакой угрозы они не представляют. При этом, начиная с середины игры, врагов напихано больше, чем бомжей в школяре дс2. С ними абсолютно неинтересно драться, но пробежать не всегда получится. 2. Перегруз головоломками. Да, я понимаю, что скорее всего, в первых метроидваниях на этом и строился геймплей, возможности делать интересных мобов не было, поэтому их заменяли постоянными головоломками. Но в 2026 это, на мой взгляд, играется очень тяжело. Причём, головоломки то несложные, но они буквально идут через одну комнату. Если бы я хотел столько думать, я бы пошёл в какой-нибудь расти лейк играть, а мне хочется от метроидвании экшена и сложных боссфайтов. 3. Боссфайты - ну это просто смешно, боссы мало чем отличаются от обычных врагов, они всё так же проходятся без урона рендж-скилами, у них от силы 3 разных атаки. 4. Самое главное препятствие, из-за которого я дропнул сие произведение геймдева и вдохнул с облегчением - в игре нет никаких стимулов исследовать что-либо. Весь пул наград, которые ты можешь получить за исследование карты, это - перья, которые дают хп; кроликов с морковкой, которые, кто бы мог подумать, дают хп; пару алтарей, которые дают ману, иногда сундуки с деньгами, которых падает столько, сколько падает с 4х мобов; первое место по редкости - "очень интересные" свитки с напыщенным пафосным лором, и гран-при лута в Гигасворде занимает... ключ, который тебе нужен для прохождения локации. Серьёзно, получать первые пару ключей было интересно, но когда у тебя уже через 5 часов в голове складывается паттерн: если в комнате большая головоломка или сложный путь, то в конце дадут ключ, - то через 10 часов геймплея тебя уже тошнит от этого невероятно ценного лута. В общем и целом, повторюсь, возможно я не понял игру, или она не для меня сделана, но задушила она меня так, что отбила любое желание играть в подобные проекты. Лучше подожду Aeterna Lucis и Grime 2, надеюсь, они смогут вернуть мне веру в то, что игры могут быть интересными

A passion project that you'd never believe was made by a single developer. Very expressive pixel graphics, amazingly expressive chiptune soundtrack, and the gameplay is a unique take on the MetroidVania genre. The heft of the titular Gigasword forces you to be deliberate with all of your attacks and jumps. You have to leave your weapon behind for several puzzles, which requires you to plan and to avoid enemies. Only minor complaints from me. There are a small number of puzzles that occupy entire large rooms, but you can't see the thing you're changing on a single screen, so it takes laborious running back and forth to see if you got things lined up right. Fortunately such puzzles are rare. But on the whole this scratches the 'vania itch quite nicely, and I'm happy to have kickstarted it. Give it a try!

機動力低めのキャラでありながら長い道のりを何度も行き来させるマップの作りと、狭い範囲しか見渡せない＆スキルの切り替え演出遅い仕様でのワンフロア使用した謎解きの多さがしんどい。 という点がありつつも、メトロイドヴァニアの基本が抑えられているので楽しんで最後までプレイできました。 ギリおススメ。

Not recommended. The last ten minutes of gameplay abandons all the signaling given to the player (you have to press Y to plunge the sword into Valdor or whoever), and breaks the game entirely (you move sloppily, can't pick up the sword, and only d-pad inputs work for the room with the green crystal). I had better things to do with 30+ hours of my life. I got around 20 actual game-hours out of this game. Strongly recommend against this game; the last ten minutes are bad enough to burn all the goodwill built over the rest of the game.

主打平台解谜的像素银河城，关卡设计不错，剧情王道且刀，总体的体验中上，一口气打了两周目全成就。槽点也比较多——主角机动性很差，跑图体验不好；敌人机动性比较强，大剑三连击基本都得吃技能；人性化设计差点意思，标记总共才十个，全收集可享受了；成就有bug，“认知”需要完成“野心”才会跳。

first of all: there's 2 places ive had the game crash 1: the final boss if you die too many times (i was doing the no HP upgrades achievement) 2: in Northern Spire with the two skull beamers, if you come from the left to the right side and pull the lever while it's firing the game will freeze and crash! with that outta the way... i really liked this game, you have done a dang solid job with it, HOWEVER the friggin astral owl puzzles have too short timer,,,, and there's a bit too few save rooms in High Walls... apart from this i had a very good time with this game! so thanks! i hope to see a part II or something down the road <3 for anyone looking to pick this up, the No HP Upgrades achievement is quite rough, but it's doable! just trust in yourself, your skills and your GIGASWORD! PS: get the Healing and Sword Beam abilities ASAP! they help tremendously!

Gigasword is a very well made Metroidvania that uses its unique mechanics nicely and has great artistic direction. I played the demo and ended up buying it that same day. The art of a game is often a hook for me and it is what really made me check out the demo for this game. It has a very nice distinction between the different arias with different color pallets and music to really catch the vibe of each. The background work is amazing to look at with very well done architecture and statues scattered all throughout the game and the sprite work is awesome with some monster designs being top tear for me. Combat and movement are smooth for the most part and really work well together as you cleave through the monsters. I was not expecting to get as many movement and combat abilities as you do in this and I really ended up liking them all. The only combat ability I ended up mostly ignoring was the rage mode that made you deal more damage but even it got some use near the end of the game for me. The grappling hook was a bit finicky sometimes but worked well enough and felt satisfying when I got the flow of it working for me. This game felt more puzzley than combaty which was perfectly fine due to the puzzles being good overall. Many of them were quite simple but still fun to do and none of them really felt overly hard either. My own stupidity did make some of them take far longer than they needed to but that is on me and my brain. This game got me hooked very fast and I loved playing through it.The solo developer is frequently putting out updates to smooth out gameplay further and add things based on community feedback such as the fast travel system. This game may even just be better on a replay due to how active they are and I very much recommend playing this lovely Metroidvania.