Iron Diamond

It's a little rough around the edges, but overall a fun experience. 7.5/10

Iron Diamond has some fantastic level design with many branching paths, nonlinear order for collecting abilities, opportunities for sequence breaking, etc. The first hour was a bit slow but things really pick up after that. The combat is simple but satisfying, and the bosses are interesting to fight but not overly difficult. Personally I like the art style but that will be subjective for everyone. It's easy to tell the solo dev put a ton of effort and passion into the game and I think it paid off. It’s also worth noting that all of the QOL issues reported early on have been patched. For fans of MVs, this game is a steal for less than $10.

I came away from Iron Diamond with mixed feelings. To be upfront, I didn’t like the art style, I didn’t enjoy most of the music, and I found the writing uninteresting. These things weighed against my personal enjoyment, but despite all that, I could still feel the passion behind the game, and that passion was enough to carry me through to the end. What makes the game work is its movement. It’s definitely on the floaty side, but that looseness has a charm to it, and it’s the reason why exploring the world feels worthwhile. Combat, by comparison, is fine—functional but nothing that stands out. The game is very easy overall, and I managed to finish it in under five hours without a single death. That ease makes it a poor fit for veterans of the genre, but I think it has real value for younger players or those just getting into Metroidvanias for the first time. This is a budget title, and it does feel like one, but I don’t think that means it feels cheap. It’s a compact experience made with care, and while I personally have no desire to replay it, I still enjoyed traversing the world the developer put together. I hope they continue to make more games, because Iron Diamond feels like a solid stepping stone and a sign that their future projects could be much stronger.

I'm impressed - nonlinear and very rewarding for explorers. It is very much an indie project and has a few rough edges, especially at the start. However, it only takes a small number of movement upgrades and some clever jumping to make most of the map available, letting you explore at your own direction. Lots and lots of things to find, all of which are meaningful upgrades (most commonly to damage, surprisingly). Chests you see but can't get to will appear on your map, as will the things you have collected; you also get markers you can use on top of the automatic notes, which let me focus on finding rather than remembering. Boss fights are rough edges, mostly due to unforgivingly large hitboxes. This means the game can give a negative first impression as the first two or three serious fights are without the ability to have found much in the way of powerups. This is compounded by a minor loss of the game's main currency on death (you'll easily get enough later, but it will seem like a bigger deal near the start.) Still, the game's quirks grow on you and give it a unique feeling to play, making it fun to see where you can get and keeping it from being a hassle to sweep old areas using new tools. Solid recommend, especially if it's on any sort of discount.

while the graphics are a bit naïve, the gameplay is rather nice.

Iron Diamond is a surprisingly solid MV for its price point and let's be honest not particularly amazing visuals (they get the job done). It starts rather slowly and being really linear and nothing special but after a point a few hours in I was really having fun. This is not a combat MV, I died 6 times throughout the entire thing. What it focuses on is exploration and it does so very well. There were many points where I both had options in which order to tackle at least some biomes and had to really think and mess around to find the progression point. Collectibles are also very valuable to get both for straight pickup rewards and for spell/armor/weapon upgrade merchants. Story is nothing special, but it's really fun from a gameplay perspective.

Excellent. There's nothing really original but everyting is done very well, with only a hndful of minor flaws. Higly recommended.

not the prettiest game visually, but for $8 it's a fun and exploration heavy metroidvania. You quickly accumulate more iron (the currency) then you'd ever need, but it doesn't negatively affect the game in any way. Worth picking up for metroidvania fans to support a solo dev and have a ~10 hour game