Kingdom Shell

Kingdom Shell is a solid Metroidvania inspired by the more older archaic metroidvanias rather than modernized genre experience. Made by a Russian or Ukrainian solo Indie developer, this game was made with passion and I appreciate that it was graphically updated and not abandoned. I recently played & enjoyed "Ghost Song", another metroidvania that is very different in gameplay feel and story vibe. I've mentioned how the genre is split into two camps: 1) The majority purists who want to chew through these games with complete disregard for story, dialogue, lore and atmosphere. 2) The minority connoisseurs who do not mind playing through a metroidvania but desire some essence on the bones. Unfortunately the purists have a hold and bury what doesn't fit the bill.. "Kingdom Shell" has very beautiful pixel art but very little story and falls into the purist camp. The game greatly annoyed and outright frustrated me at many points. It has more save spots than in Ghost Song and travel should be easier on paper, yet doesn't feel that way because dying is way too easy in this game and having to backtrack through challenging platforming rooms again and again will eventually grind the nerves. While on topic of platforming, this is probably the only metroidvania that does it excessively! There are so many secrets and pathways that require mobility upgrades, but unlike more competent metroidvanias that organically let you earn them at a decent pace, in this game all of them are only available in the 2nd half of the game! Until then, you better crawl! Falling into traps or holes damages you greatly, but for some reason falling into lava instantly kills you?! You can't just introduce a core rule and break it like that. Either all falls kill instantly like in Mario or they just damage you! Zone "The Deep" was the WORST to play in because a single MISSTEP would result in instant Death! Even if you have full health and health potions! Doesn't matter, back to the very few and tedious save spots! I also got bottle-necked multiple times because you literally don't know what to do or where to go! There is no quest log, no hint system or basic directions! You even got a "guardian angel" who follows you, the dev could have made him give cryptic commentary regarding directions to subtly guide the player, but no, a wasted opportunity. I had to look up specific points in YT walkthroughs because there is so LITTLE info online! No proper guides or anything. You can't play the game without having a full map open on a 2nd screen! For example, first bottle-neck, in the forest there are blue bubbles that need to be hit in order to launch you into the air. NOWHERE IS THAT EXPLAINED OR HINTED! I thought you need some upgrade to use the bubbles and progress! Three regions at that point, with 6 exit ways, each one of them blocked (except the bubbles, but we don't know that)! Such bottle-necks happened at least 3 more times!!! And the ones that require a specific skill or quest item are even worse, because you have no clue where they are! You might think, defeat a boss and you will upgrade but no, the fundamentally crucial item is located in some dusty room in hicktown! Why would a legendary artifact be lying around in a ditch?!? Well, that's because the dev simply placed it there, no other reason. He didn't think this through, no regard for story or lore, only meta reasons.. Damn metroidvania purists... BS like this was done in the archaic olden days simply to waste time and artificially extend games. Modernized metroidvanias have curbed such behavior and chosen quality over quantity, respecting the players time and intelligence. This game unfortunately felt like it didn't respect mine. The characters and story are passable enough, it all is carried by the beautiful updated pixel art, but it is no vibrant "Ghost Song" or "Blasphemous". If "Kingdom Shell" would have been released 20-30 years ago, it would have been a banger. But nowadays it has to compete with games like Hollow Knight. A little bit of quality of life would have gone so far.. I'll remember this game only for the frustrating moments and the archaic design. Not fondly as "Ghost Song". Despite my criticism, I did admit that this is a "good enough" solid metroidvania. Mad respect to the solo dev.

Consider my gast ENTIRELY flabbered. Kingdom Shell was an absolute unstoppable knockout of a game from start to finish, and I can’t believe just how much I loved it. A positively gorgeous pixel art masterpiece, so stunning at every location, with minimalist graphics managing to move me to literal tears before the game was over. The story managed to be compelling, unpredictable, and deeply satisfying by the end of it. The secrets were well hidden, but not frustratingly so. I went through and 100%ed the whole game, found everything (with the help of guides for little things I missed), and had the best time doing it. The gameplay was fluid, with challenging platforming that wasn’t too punishing, boss fights that felt deeply satisfying to learn and conquer, and a progression and exploration system that left just enough to be desired, only to have those desires fulfilled by the end of the game. I’m not going to harp on it anymore. It was brilliant, simple, and mindbogglingly fun. Give this game a try - you won't regret it. Mechanics: 10/10. Aesthetics: 10/10. Story: 10/10. Final score: 10/10.

Overall, not really quite recomending it. It's not terrible, just not particularly good overall. My first thoughts in the first hour or two, meh... nothing stood out. Third through fifth hours, ok, it's getting good, more varied areas, some lore and story, still not great but alright if it keeps this up. And then the final couple hours went kinda downhill, in the end leaving me not really satisfied enough to recommend it as worth the time for most people. Art, not great, not terrible, just... meh. It's base line functional but for the most part wont be what draws you in. Story, ok idea, alright execution, one of the better parts of the game. Gameplay, fairly repetitive and mixed. After a bit of time with the bosses things do get more interesting, but they can be hit and miss. Some mostly quite good boss fights, and some just plain bad and frusterating ones. Key points of concern Health, this was a constant problem throughout the game. They have discreet health buds/hearts/masks you get. Nothing unusual here. Though, they visually are rather non distinct and lack contrast against the background, actually blending in to some locations backgrounds so visiblity or seeing health in your peripheral is not very good. The biggest issue, is enemies do varying damage. It's not all hits are one, heavy hits are two or something. No, some enemies hit you for 1 point, others hit you for seven, others have attacks for 4, and some for like 12 or just auto kill you. This means you might have 16 health buds, yet still be dying in two hits to many enemies attacks. So with visually it being hard to see without specificlly looking up to and then manually counting how many little buds are visible, no hollowed black outlines or anything of old ones, so just count total from the left, it's hard to know your health, doing that mid fight gets you killed obviously, and again in most areas I couldn't really see them clearly in peripheral vision. Enemy attacks don't show how much damage they do, and there's no reddening or effect on you when low, so you might find a random enemy, take a random hit, then one more and just die... when you got a ton more health you thought. I gave up on knowing how much I had, and just kinda hated this health system the entire playthrough. If enemies have heavily varying amounts of damage... just give us a health bar and clear damage numbers, don't play the mask/heart/fixed health unit thing if you aren't going to use it as such. Unclear on when you can or cant touch enemies. Most enemies you can touch, only not when doing attacks, but many of them are semi random. Like you can touch normally, but then not when they are moving this way, but not that way... others you can't touch at all, others you can touch always even during attacks just not one part of them during attacks. But in general finding you touched an enemies toe and take damage while they were standing still compared to running right through them and taking no damage... doesn't feel great, especially on some of the bosses. On the queen, I've found many times I can touch her other than the sword, yet sometimes those exact same moves I've other times walked through parts of her, except the sword, now will damage me if I touch her toes or bits, well away from the sword, not often, just every one in every four or five times... with no clear visual language for when touch deals damage or stuff, this just feels random and has been rather annoying over the course of the game. Next is some general boss issues some had. In wyvern fight for its falling projectiles might force you up to avoid the waves, yet into a semi randomly falling one right where you are... A little floating head in a stone miniboss that can float anywhere, including outside the level play area you can see. It can shoot you from outside, in a way without double jump yet you can't dodge. Queen also has these rain of blades moves coming from the sides/top of the screen. Hate them because the visual does not match the hitbox. Overall mostly liked this fight, though the arena floor being so dark on the edges made me think that became background and I would fall if I went that far to each side, turns out that's actual floor... helped a lot once I realized that after multiple fights. Mostly liked this boss to be fair. Sentinel of the Deep. His ball bounce move doesn't have consistent physics or targeting. Sometimes he targets right where you are when he starts a bounce, other times where you will be. Also his bounce height is inconsistent. So if he bounced low near the end you don't have the ability to dash under him, but if he went high you'd not have the time to fall down from a high jump and get under if you were otherwise planning to go over. So just run away? Nope, since he can pin you near a wall, and with fire left on the ground from previous moves, you can be forced from safely standing near the center or running under him if he did a mid high bounce sometimes without that hitting you, letting him cage you in to the wall sometimes. Got a few no evasion possible situations sometimes crop up in this fight, not fun. Visually his fire, and spitted globules while bouncing are all the same as the background almost, and rather hard to see in the peripheral when his bouncing but is your main focus. Very unfun fight. A number of bosses with one shot kill moves combined with annoying long runbacks. Final boss is pretty bad. A platforming jump around while avoiding attacks type. But with horrible visuals, a camera that makes you want to murder a dev, and somewhat questionable move combinations. For example, the camera will always see above you, but even when climbing near the top wont show what's bellow you. Hope you know where you can drop down to without falling, surely you'll be fine. Oh, and once it starts spawning week spots up there, you go up, and jump to one side to avoid a laser, only to now see coming out from the bottom of your camera screen are the homing explosives, that you now can't really evade because you didn't know they were coming in advance thanks to the horrible camera, and now between these giant explosions and the vertical lasers, you're gauranteed to die! Or jump as far out as you can, and fall to your death, that actually loses less health, though might respawn you back onto an exploding platform you were last on so it might still go badly... Oh ya, this might happen at the same time your platforms are disapeering and moving around, so enjoy! Literally found much easier to beat the boss just not going after the weak spots when they are up top or in upper corners, since thanks to the camera, those can turn into suprise death. When the enemies regular moves you get no forewarning on by being up there, because the camera only wants to show a couple feet bellow your character... it's not fun. You win a fight, not by fighting the enemy, but the game itself... feels horrible. The part the vertical lasers are bright yellow, and the bosses giant up top hair is nearly the same bright yellow, also the same as the explosions from the homing things, all makes for horrible visual clarity and clutter, especially up top as well. In the end, if you avoid going up top much, and mostly fight bottom and mid level, it's not that hard of a fight, again, your fighting the game, rather than the boss more so... Overall, visual clarity issues, from some bosses/moves/backgrounds that are hard to see or focus on, to your own health, this was a big issue Camera issues as well, let me see what I'm playing, clearly... And probably spend a bit more time refining some boss moves. I had hopes at the middle of the game from the forest to upper city area and was enjoying it there, but sadly in the end it's just not enough and had too many frustrating moments to have overall enjoyed for the time I put in, cost aside.

This may be the most mid game I have ever played. Everything about it is decent, nothing is particularly good, nothing is particularly bad. The jumping? Smooth enough but not a delight. The combat? Bit simple, but not annoying. The savepoints? Bit far apart, or far from the places you'll die, but not *too* far apart or far from the places you'll die. The map? Functional enough, but only having one type of annotation you can add, and not naming the regions until after you teleport to them, is weird. The difficulty? Bit annoying for the last couple of bosses, bit trivial at the start. The powerups? Hard to tell if they're doing anything, and you can only have a couple of them on even when fully powered. The puzzles? Alright (except the "puzzle doors" which are just awful, no puzzle just timewasting). The secrets? Mostly reasonably discoverable. The graphics? Not bad for pixels. The music? Not memorable, which is actually quite good for a game that's about ten hours long. The price? Better be under $5.

[h3]Metroidvania，没什么特色但是玩起来体验很不错。[/h3] 剧情： 游戏叙事方式是经典的碎片化叙事，把故事放在npc对话和场景敌人boss等等地方等待被揭示。 剧情背景大概是一个保护王国不受超自然怪物入侵的名叫Shell的神器突然碎裂，王国陷入恐慌，人们也开始失去理智。玩家扮演的主角是一个被召唤来协助调查这场灾难的叫伊莱亚斯的混血儿。 好吧，剧情是挺老套的，不过世界构建很清楚，王国和女巫的故事也很有意思。 视听： 画面是16bit复古像素风格，细节到位，100+M的大小但是角色和BOSS动画都十分流畅又有表现力，场景细节也到位。 音乐一般但是适配画面和游戏整体风格。 怪物设计都很棒，特别是boss，华丽动态加上怪诞风格写实肉体表现很有巴洛克风格的味道，有个boss很像凯夫卡的三斗神雕像。 游戏体验： 游戏玩法是经典的Metroidvania结构，没太多特色，多个不同区域组成巨大地图，探索击败boss获得像是二段跳等的能力来探索更多区域获得更多能力的循环，还有捷径、隐藏通道、隐藏区域等等，都是很传统的设计。 战斗系统方面很简单，主角近战就普通的三连击，用到最后，所以会有点腻，魔法可以同时用来探索和战斗。 前期节奏有点缓慢了 难度方面前期基本都是遨游环节，大概在打到女王那里开始提高，不过也没多高，很多boss设计都很不错的，像是这个女王，最终boss设计的就有点一般了。boss门口基本都有存档点，也会刷新药水商人，很人性化了。 有些跳台难度倒是不低，特别是最终boss前和搜集棋子的时候那几个，操作手感有点滑，跳跃也有点僵硬，会费不少时间。 补充： 想做全成就的记得不要杀任何矮人！我习惯性的在最终boss之前补全收集的时候发现这个已经太晚了，现在超绝37/38速通二周目中。 总结： 游戏很扎实，虽然玩法没什么明显特色，但是开发商明显有自己的想法在里面，除了一些红温时刻，体验十分愉快。 [b]8/10[/b]

It is a good game. A bit overdoes the platforming sections at the end but it is fun otherwise.

古典的なメトロイドヴァニアにプラットフォーマーとソウルライクをいい感じに混ぜ合わせた良作。無口な主人公だけど、語り部をはじめとするNPCとの会話でストーリーや背景はちゃんと理解できるようになっている。 難易度についてはステージ攻略もボス戦も序盤こそ易しめなものの中盤あたりから徐々に難しくなっていく。とはいえスタミナ制限などはなく、プレイヤーキャラのモーションも素早いので敵の動きを覚えればなんとかなる範囲。終盤はプラットフォーマー的な動きが要求される場面が増えるので苦手な人は注意が必要かもしれない。ボス戦でも足場が制限されることが多いのでなおさら。 探索面はマップのピン止め機能と謎のある部屋を示してくれる装備のおかげで自分はネットで情報を調べずに自力で100%コンプリートすることができた。一部言葉による謎解きにわかり難い箇所があるが、分かれば納得感はある答えだとは思う。[spoiler]ただし、うお座の女テメーはダメだ。[/spoiler]

Este de hecho me deja un buen sabor de boca, porque está verde en muchos aspectos, pero como si fuera la intención. Parece un juego pequeño, hecho por pocas personas y con un presupuesto bastante limitado. No puedo decir que "está a medias" o "incompleto", porque no, se siente como si todo estuviera hecho exactamente como se esperaba (puedo equivocarme). Es una historia curioseta, eres un demonio y el mundo está en peligro, entonces te "liberan" a cambio de tu "libertad real". Conforme avanzas, descubres un poco más del lore del mundo y tu pasado. No es muy complicada de entender, ni muy larga como para perderse. La jugabilidad es donde empieza a verse como un juego "pequeño". Movimiento tosco, muy limitado, como jugar un juego de la SNES. Incluso avanzando y desbloqueando habilidades, sigue siendo un movimiento un poco lento. Sobre la dificultad... El juego no es difícil, los enemigos no son tan pesados, y los bosses son muy de aprender patrones (eso sí, peleas muy disfrutables). Algunos puedes tanquear mucho, y otros es mejor ir tranquilo. PERO, justo por la jugabilidad, y que se nota (aquí sí) que el juego está pensado para JODER en algunas zonas, hay situaciones de parkour o simples escenarios con enemigos molestos que te obligan a detenerte un momento y pensar cómo avanzar. Un mal salto, un proyectil que justo te alcanzó y toca repetir zona. Diría que, su punto fuerte, es el apartado artístico. El juego brilla por su pixelart en más de una zona, así como la banda sonora que acompaña a cada una. Detenerte a ver según qué escenarios, es bastante placentero, y de nuevo, la música que usan, aunque no necesariamente es "adecuada" para el escenario, lo es para el disfrute general. No es muy largo, quitando momentos donde me perdí y algunas muertes que me hacían repetir peleas o zonas, diría que el juego dura 10 horas. El 100% le añade 1-2 más, por buscar faltantes. Recomendado para nostálgicos de SNES.

Fun Metroidvania, I really enjoyed it!

Bog-standard metroidvania. It's fun.