Grapple Force Rena

You can feel the author's full love in just 6 hours, with various characters, personality development, quirky but adorable dialogues, and even a bit of lore. Initially perceived as a sweet game, it later becomes more serious. The gameplay highlights the grapple, initially thought to be similar to Bio Commando, but later found it to be more like Klonoa, where you grab enemies and throw them. There are 6 worlds, each with 5 levels, and each level takes 2 to 10 minutes. The third world, the casino, i love it, and the bosses are also interesting. Overall a chill game, the music is also chill. I really like the music in the Forest, but the final boss suddenly becomes very difficult. LOL

Playing on Steam Deck is buggy AF, and you should probably just play on keyboard and mouse anyways (though if it does work, controller works well too). But besides that, I was pleasantly surprised. It starts off like a generic "platformer with a grapple" but it really does a good job of keeping your attention, since every level has something unique. It also helps that they're short, compared to Freedom Planet 1's 10-15 minute stages.

This is a very good game. It has a fascinating story and can take a while to play, and there is even a boss rush and rankings on the levels so you can keep playing after you have won. The gameplay is fun, and swinging with your grapple and attacking the enemies by throwing them at walls is very fun. There are 5 exciting and strong bosses that are fun to fight, and overall, it is a very high-quality game that is very fun to play.

You can tell this game draws inspiration from the genesis-era (what, with the music and graphics), but it has such a sense of humor. It was a light-hearted fun little romp with interesting combat and map traversal. And then, I got to....the part. There is a part of that game (that I won't spoil) that flips your expectations and takes the game in a completely different direction - the game establishes a formula, you get use to it, then it breaks away from it so hard you get whiplash. Also the final boss battle theme is a BOP.

I wish it was longer because this game is so much fun to play. It has a good amount of levels and the story is fun and lighthearted.

Definitely. I'm sorry, did Treasure make this? That's the kind of question you may ask yourself playing this game. Because it looks/controls/sounds/just about anything else-s like a Treasure game (for context, they were behind Dynamite Headdy, Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes). Although you're tasked to do entirely different things with each stage, it's generally in a fresh flavor- so it doesn't get tiring per se. And once you get the hang of using the Grappling Hook you can really get momentum with it, pushing you ever closer to that sweet S rank. Only a few parts of the game ever gave me any trouble- specifically the final boss and some other stages. But overall, Grapple Force Rena is a solid and visually appealing platformer with a new concept that's always fun to play around with. Also have I told you about the soundtrack? It's INSANE. I give this title: 10/10

solid experience with a lot of variety, I think speedrunners will get more out of this one than the average gamer.

Stunning game.

i assume this game is fun but my controller doesen't work

[i]Grapple Force Rena[/i] hits all the gamer pleasure centers of my brain! The SEGA Genesis style FM synth music! The retro graphics! A simple story that grows as you play! A combo of fun and exciting challenges in gameplay and a cute anime style. ([b]I recommend you try the demo first[/b] - that's how I decided to buy the game. The full game has improvements that are not in the demo.) [u]Story:[/u] A tomboy named Rena finds her village invaded by hollow-looking baddies, and it's up to her to stop them! But the bad guys don’t end there. They are coming from somewhere, and she vows to stop them beyond her home village too, but it's not gonna be easy… Story I give: 8/10. I was curious to see how Rena was going to save the day. [u]Characters:[/u] Hero/cutie-pie Rena is the main protagonist, and she'll meet supporting characters and fellow heroes along the way. Being a hero won't always be easy, so she's gonna need all the help she can get. She found special bracelets that give her a grapple ability to fight and travel with. I love the writing in this game; the dialogue is fun, funny, and often simple typical "hero vs bad guy" dialogue stuff when she meets the antagonists in the game. I laughed out loud at plenty of funny lines and it's not often that a video game makes me do that. Characters I give 9/10. I enjoyed how Rena can interact with some of the bystander characters in the stages. I'd say Rena is an awesome and fun main character. I always look forward to watching dialogue scenes because I thoroughly enjoyed the writing in this game. My favorite supporting characters from this game are Captain Jette and Magus Pine. [u]Gameplay:[/u] Rena uses the Grapple Bracelets to climb or swing to the next area, grab enemies, grab items to carry, and more. No swords or guns for Rena, which is a nice change of gameplay style for me. I love that the scenes play again at the beginning and/or ends of stages, and that I have a choice to skip them. But I enjoy watching them, so I am likely to let them play before starting the mission especially if it's been a while. Gameplay I give 8.5/10. It's a nice break for me from hack-n-slash and twin-stick shooters. [u]Navigation/UI:[/u] The main menu is after the title screen, but once you select "Start Game," you can choose which stage or World you want to start. You can decide whether to advance to the next stage or revisit an older one to improve your score. When you pause the game, you have a choice to Resume, Restart the mission, or go back to the main menu. In the Main Menu you can adjust settings like the dialogue noise (tick, beep or none), the screen size, or when the dialogue shakes when there are words or phrases with high emotions like anger or disgust. You can adjust the volume of the sound FX and the music separately. Navigation I give 8/10. [u]Music/Soundtrack:[/u] OMG, I [b]love[/b] the SEGA Genesis-era music in [i]Grapple Force Rena[/i]! It makes me feel nostalgic from when I used to play the Sonic games including [i]Sonic 3D Blast[/i] as a kid. After I tried the demo for [i]Grapple Force Rena[/i] I wanted to learn more about frequency modulation synths myself! I especially fell in love with the Main Menu music - it's so catchy to my ears! There are several musicians who made music for this game, and it's pretty much all FM synth music which I love. (Even the "Start Game" button has a SEGA Genesis-shaped controller icon next to it!) And I think it's so cool that you can listen to the tracks from the Extras - Music menu. But you have to collect the tracks separately from within the game. Some have 1, others have 2 or 3 tracks that you collect by finding "audio cassette" items with notes coming from them. At this time I found about 19/30 music tracks. Having this feature makes up for not being able to buy the soundtrack separately on Steam, but in a way it is rewarding to unlock them, and I don't think any of them should be impossible to unlock. A few may be harder to find than others. It adds to the game's replayability. The music I give 11/10!! Because I love SEGA Genesis style music. ;) [u]Overall Score out of 10:[/u] 9.5/10!!! No… maybe a 10/10! I always have fun playing, even if sometimes I get frustrated with a certain stage if it's hard to improve a score. If you grew up during the SEGA Genesis video game era, or love retro video game graphics and its music in general, I think you'll enjoy this game too. [u]Want a Sequel?:[/u] Yes Yes!!! That would be great. But it seems there is no announcement of a sequel at the moment. :( [u]TL;DR:[u] I grew up playing Sonic on SEGA Genesis, so the music and graphics made me fall in love with this game with all the nostalgia it throws at me. The gameplay is a good mix of fun, challenge, and comedy. Try the demo - you might want more [i]Grapple Force Rena[/i] afterwards! And if you like it, pick up this gem, because if you loved the SEGA Genesis video game era, then you are in for a treat.