Lovish

Review by [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34633003-Gaming-Masterpieces/lists/] Gaming Masterpieces [/url] - The greatest games of all time on Steam. A lovestruck knight who must rescue a princess kidnapped by a villain? That’s a role we’re happy to play—and we can do just that in the new platformer that offers a retro look and tricky, hand-drawn single-screen levels. Do you sometimes long for the golden era of the Nintendo Game Boy Advance? Games without much frills—just pure gameplay? I personally don’t, but that’s probably because I wouldn’t be able to see much on that tiny screen anymore. Luckily, there are still modern releases that combine simple gameplay with contemporary technology, offering short but enjoyable bursts of fun. The developers at Labs Works already proved with their 2021 Metroidvania Astalon: Tears of the Earth that they can do exactly that. Let’s see whether they’ve succeeded again with Lovish. Princess Tsuna is kidnapped by the evil Devil Lord and taken to his castle. So the typical fantasy party sets off to rescue her: us—the honorable knight Sir Solomon with our sword—along with a thief, a mage, and a ranger. But once we reach the castle, we’re not so fond of our companions anymore—what if the rescued princess falls in love with one of them? So we quickly take care of our three (potential) rivals for the princess’s affection—after all, there can only be one hero, and that’s us! The Devil Lord’s castle consists of 80 levels (plus a few bonus ones) that must be completed one by one. Each level fits on a single screen, and the goal is to get from the entrance to the exit. Along the way, various dangers await: enemies wandering unpredictably, traps (especially the fan-favorite spikes), crumbling platforms, and more. Often, you need to activate pressure plates to open doors or find keys. Both enemies and spikes are instantly lethal on contact. However, you can quickly restart the level—as long as you still have some of your initial 200 lives. During the game, you’ll frequently find extra lives, so it doesn’t end after 200 deaths. Every 10 levels features a boss fight. While most enemies go down after three hits, bosses can take a significant beating. There’s also an in-game shop where you can buy helpful items—like a mobile phone for using social media—or upgrades such as an upward strike or a dash ability. Unfortunately, these items are quite expensive, and coins are somewhat scarce in the levels. The cheapest upgrade is a boss health bar indicator—which is very useful. Each level hides three crowns, but they only appear after fulfilling certain conditions—like defeating all enemies or extinguishing all torches. Your time is tracked in every level. Once a level is unlocked, you can replay it anytime to improve your time, find crowns, or collect more gold coins to afford shop items. Between levels, something random happens: you might find a chest, drink a potion (yes/no?), eat something, discover an amulet or a scroll, encounter an enemy, or even play a small mini-game. Sometimes these events have minor effects on the main game. PC hardware requirements? Basically, if your PC can boot up its operating system, it can run Lovish. Gamepads (with vibration) and ultrawide monitors are supported. The game runs excellently on my Lenovo Legion handheld—it feels almost tailor-made for such devices. Cloud saves are supported too, so you can play on your desktop in the evening and continue on your handheld or laptop during your morning commute. [u][b] Conclusion:[/b][/u] Lovish is a charming 2D platformer (more precisely, a precision platformer) in the 8-bit style of classic 1980s Nintendo games (NES, not SNES). The core gameplay is simple: complete each single-screen level and move on to the next. Easy to understand and fun, yet still quite challenging. Each level only takes a few minutes—or even seconds if you’re skilled. It’s ideal for those who don’t have time for long gaming sessions but still want to unlock another level quickly. Very nice!

Seems like a simple single-screen platformer at first but then the real meat of the game becomes obvious and you realize you have to keep playing the same stages over and over and over again to unlock more of the game. But speed-running is boring to me and banging my head against walls to find secrets ain't exactly fun either. Got about 100 of the crowns (out of over 260) but after a while it's either boring or frustrating. Maybe the endgame is really something else, but I'll never know because this is a bad game. Bummer. The dev's previous game was amazing. Big step back in every way imaginable. And the jokes are terrible.

[quote]A review copy was provided by the developer.[/quote] [quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote] [h1]Overall Rating - Average ★★★☆☆[/h1] [h1]First Impressions[/h1] When I saw Lovish (LV) gave the player 200 lives, I thought it'd be the kind of game where you'd lose all of them during your first attempt. Using everything you'd learned, you would make significantly more progress, avoiding beginner's traps while getting better at the platforming challenges. However, the difficulty curve is pretty reasonable, so I'm not sure if there's a significant punishment if you lose them all. Having finished the game, I've accumulated more than 400 lives myself. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Although the platforming gets challenging in later levels, the design isn't meant to be deliberately aggravating or cheap. There's some areas that can be tricky to navigate, but even when I had to beat each level within a certain time, it never seemed insurmountable or too hard to accomplish. If anything, not being able to find a secret crown, despite seemingly hitting every block in the level, was more frustrating than the obstacles. I find that somewhat humorous considering almost every level is contained in a single screen. After you beat any level, you'll have a random encounter, which can have several outcomes. You might meet a new NPC, gain or lose hearts or money, find a new item, or get a hint about a secret. Almost every level has three crowns to unlock: a crown hidden somewhere, the time crown for beating it fast enough, and a peace crown for not attacking any enemies. Having an alternate switch places with you to fight enemies and bosses so you unlock the peace crown doesn't really feel like you're fulfilling the requirement properly. I think the developer should tweak those levels so that you don't have to attack enemies or beat the bosses conventionally. This seems like the kind of argument someone would make about how they're not violent if somebody else does the act for them, IE the sort of jerk the protagonist acts like. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3684778484 [h1]Controls[/h1] Generally speaking, the controls handled well, as I was able to navigate levels quickly, despite having to avoid attacking them while making tight jumps. However, I think bouncing off enemies with your downwards attack needs some work. If you're able to hold down both the jump and attack buttons, you can repeatedly bounce off an invulnerable enemy, and have much more control and jump height from doing this. For whatever reason though, doing this on enemies with health leads to them taking multiple hits, even though it seems like you're only bouncing on them once. [h1]Story[/h1] Much of the game is made up of random events, where the protagonist interacts with several NPCs. I'm not sure if they're all equally likely, or if the odds might be staggered, as I've seen some many more times than others. What you quickly notice is that the protagonist is hardly a hero, and when you unlock the prologue, his character is only shown to be worse than you first thought. With what gets established with this jerk's personality, I find the ending unsatisfactory, as the sudden change doesn't seem warranted. For a truly good ending, I think they should beat the tar out of him before banishing him from the kingdom. He's worse than many antagonists are from other games. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3684779499 [h1]Visuals[/h1] For whatever reason there's an option to turn on soft pixels, which makes everything look more blurry. That's the only effect I notice when I switch it on and off, and I don't find it to be that pleasant on the eyes, compared to having it off, making everything look more sharp and crisp. I don't see the point when surely it's not going to effect anyone's PC performance or anything. Speaking of things that are kind of odd, certain pictures in this game are very well drawn, while others seemingly had little effort put into them. At least the gameplay imagery is consistently good, but you will see cutscenes that are kinda ugly. [h1]Sound Design[/h1] As you switch from one level to the next, dying or succeeding, and watching different cutscenes, the music is never interrupted. It plays constantly, never stopping or restarting even as you progress through several transition screens. This makes it a bit hard to tell if there's a specific song based on where you're at in the castle, or if it loops through certain tunes regardless of where you go, as you can rapidly move to different parts of the castle. There is a specific boss battle song, but that's the only one I'm sure of. Having put so many hours into LV, I don't think there's that many unique songs to listen to throughout all of that time. At least there aren't any annoying sound effects to worry about. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3675426776 [h1]Pros[/h1] 🌟 Most stages are well designed considering that almost all of them consist of only a single screen. 🌟 I enjoyed the game's sense of humor. [h1]Cons[/h1] ❌ The rewards for finding crowns progresses nicely, but what you get for finding every single one doesn't seem worthwhile. You put in much more effort by contrast, yet what you unlocked earlier was better. ❌ If you're missing an encounter with a random NPC, there's nothing you can do to make it occur at will. You just have to repeatedly beat levels, hoping it'll occur eventually. [h1]Tips[/h1] 🔍 You don't unlock any new abilities in the late game to improve your platforming. What you're expected to do for the last challenges is slash down to bounce off of enemies. Holding down jump and the attack will let you repeatedly bounce and get maximum height. 🔍 Before spending too much time trying to find hidden crowns, you should progress through most of the game. Buying the item that gives you a spare hit each attempt is also incredibly useful when earning these. 🔍 Enemies attack you when on the same height as you are, while facing you, even if there's a wall in the way. Otherwise, they won't fire projectiles at you. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] An unintended consequence of an indie game having secrets is that unless somebody does a deep dive into the code, certain aspects might not be that clear to people trying to find all the content. For instance, there's quite a few posts in the discussion boards asking simple questions about how to find a specific item or work with one of the mechanics, such as unlocking time crowns. Players have shared intel on several matters, but there's quite a few issues that still haven't been resolved, with the developers so far not responding. Despite these criticisms, I did have fun earning and finding the crowns in all the levels. If the developer makes some improvements in key areas, I would more strongly recommend the game, but can still suggest getting it for those who enjoy platformers with a bit of challenge to them. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote] [table] [tr] [th]PC Specs[/th] [th]Performance[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ryzen 2700 RTX 2070 16GB RAM ADATA SSD 1920x1080 [/td] [td]The game ran without incident on default settings. 💖 - LV is healthy [/td] [/tr] [/table]

[b]An energetic love-quest, built out of pocket dungeons and wry humor[/b] I [i]love[/i] these Matt Kap games! Like [i]Castle in the Darkness[/i] and [i]Astalon[/i], this one involves a little blue guy with a flickering sword (just hold down [b]B[/b]!) who tears through mildly puzzle-ish rooms at respectable speed -- but this hero is kind of a jerk. He uses the [b]video helmet[/b] to make everyone -- even the game's bosses -- fall in love with him . . . and he eventually wants to rescue Princess Tsuna from the handsome Devil Lord and do the same to her. Love beam activate! It's not very hard, but [i]adventurous[/i] and sweet and maybe a little bittersweet, with lots to uncover through both enterprise and happy accident. After every level, there's a cutscene or minigame or [i]something[/i], even if you play them again, which you probably will, because finding extra stuff in this is just flat-out [b]fun[/b]. Mostly it's randomized, but there are certain special interstitials; sometimes you are granted treasures or secrets, or even gameplay tips. The majority of it, though, is some little piece of wacky, lovingly pixeled-out flavor to make you smile. The dozens and dozens of crazy scenes combine with the merry search 'ems of the short levels to turn this into a big, wacky, board-gamey, silly, satirical, [b]dreamquest carnival adventure[/b]. Basic gamepad reflexes and an inquisitive eye are all you need. No single challenge in this will twist your nipples [i]too[/i] sharply, I think. It's pretty slickly done, but there are a few glitches -- almost NES-like in nature -- that make you drift through the floor when fighting the Scorpion King, or similar things. They're not that common. I regret not a single minute of [i]Lovish[/i], and if there was a sequel coming -- as the epilogue hints -- I would get it as soon as I could. (A quick tip! You need to bounce off certain enemies with the downthrust to reach some areas, but if you don't hold [b]A[/b] while doing so, you won't go very high. Another quick tip! If you like looking at all the stuff, it might be advisable to go back and farm a simple, quick level after you beat the game. There's even some cartoon cheesecake scenes mixed in there for ya.) (Sir Solomon may be a jerk, but can you really blame him for his egregious use of the heart-themed video helmet? You could save the world with that thing! And what, exactly, was Space Wizard planning to do with it anyway?)

我一開始玩的時候遊戲體驗是好玩、讓人享受的，但是後期我覺得有點一言難盡。 抱歉了，我決定還是給這款遊戲負評。 [h2]▼缺點[/h2] [h3]●遊戲的遊玩時長[/h3] 如果只有含主線內容，那麼遊玩時長大約2個小時左右而已。是的，非常短。 不過遊戲還有包含追加內容，而追加內容則需要金錢或王冠解鎖。 追加內容全部體驗需要收集到相當多的王冠才可以開通，而收集王冠的過程也是最讓我感到詬病的部分。 [h3]●王冠收集[/h3] 我個人並不是很喜歡收集向的遊戲，而這款遊戲的收集向實在是讓我太感到詬病了。 每個關卡都有「不殺害任何怪物」與「限時內通關」的王冠挑戰，但這些王冠並不是在一開始就解鎖的，你得玩到後面獲得特殊戒指才能解鎖這些王冠挑戰，這意味著你獲得戒指了你還得需要回到前面挑戰已經通過的關卡，我認為這不是一個好的設計。 [h3]●一碰即死[/h3] 玩家操控的主人翁非常廢，初始僅有1HP，可以說是碰到任何怪物或陷阱就會直接當場去世，後期可以增加HP但就只是變成2滴血，容錯率一樣低。 雖然一個關卡非常短，想要達成不死也不是很困難，但關卡的王冠生成有時候就是「你即將要通過通關的大門時，王冠生成出現在你最初始玩的地方」，然後你就得要所有陷阱重新再走一遍一樣得要不死，這不是純屬折磨人的設計嗎? [h3]●繁雜的跳跳樂[/h3] 我並不是一個喜歡玩跳跳樂的玩家，這款遊戲的跳跳樂多倒數不清，讓我玩到後期感覺有點疲倦。 而且跳躍手感有一種元祖洛克人的感覺，例如數腳趾的極限跳躍、玩家頭碰到天花板的時候就會快速落地等等，設計上沒有元祖洛克人那麼刁鑽算是不幸中的大幸吧。 [h3]●最終Boss戰看心情攻擊，拖延遊戲節奏[/h3] 最終Boss具備第二型態，唯一攻擊他的手段就是攻擊他的頭部。但是最終Boss很愛施展火雨，時常將唯一攻擊Boss頭部的台階用火海蔓延拖延遊戲節奏，最糟糕的是他還會看心情連續發動，完全不給遊戲體驗。 雖然之後知道怎麼應付了倒是沒什麼，但真的很討厭這類型的設計。 [h3]●飛天怪物位置不固定[/h3] 同一個關卡、同一個飛天怪物，每一次飛行軌跡都不同，為了防範飛天怪物的接觸傷害我只能等待，嚴重影響限時通關的挑戰，玩家就僅有1HP碰到一下就死了就算買道具增加至2HP也會有接觸傷害的僵直，能不能完成限時通關的王冠挑戰全看飛天怪物的心情。 [h3]●關於通過關卡的小劇情[/h3] 這款遊戲每通過一個關卡都會有播放一段小劇情設定，有時候玩家可以從這段小劇情獲得金錢或生命甚至是交到朋友。 但是小劇情設定不太好，已經看過的還會重複出現，跳過功能僅有通關 (擊敗最終Boss後) 才會啟動，而且跳過按鍵長按判定非常~~~長，許多小劇場有跳過跟沒跳過的速度差不多。 不過我覺得很糟糕的是許多小劇場可以說是非常無聊，彷彿像是為了湊數而設計的，連那種「這裡什麼都沒有」都可以湊出一個小劇場不覺得搞笑嗎? [h2]■總結[/h2] 我非常期待遊玩這款遊戲，在發售日那時候我就已經有在關注了，看到評論的描述我真的很期待遊玩體驗。 但整體我真心覺得不太好玩，最大原因是我不太喜歡跳跳樂與收集向解鎖新要素的設計，玩起來太折騰了。 不過更讓我感到訝異的是這款遊戲的成就達成率非常高，大家都這麼有耐心去慢慢解鎖王冠嗎?

It was a decently enjoyable single screen action puzzle game that got a decent stretch of replay value in redoing the levels as a pacifist or under a certain time limit. I'd say of the 264 crowns you need to get, 10 of them will be pretty tricky. They really want you to hack at every single conceivable tile to see which one breaks for those secret crowns. I also like the idea of the interludes inbetween stages, but most of them are completely inconsequential, save for what must have been a few scripted ones to open up the two shops and the alternate clear conditions to get more crowns. I would have loved for the interludes to have bigger consequences to add replay value such as "A wizard got angry at you and cast his spell! Now enemies in the next stage are invincible", or "The next stage will be haunted by ghosts!". Most of the time it's just you getting a coin, some meat to heal a few hearts, or losing one heart in a brief cutscene. One more heads up, I've basically beat this game 100% except for meeting everyone. I don't know how that can be the case after doing absolutely everything, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna play stages over and over until RNG finally makes it pop up. Oh well.

[h2]古き良き時代を思わせる、期待を裏切らない固定画面アクション[/h2] クリア、実績100%まで到達してからのレビュー。クリアだけならわりとお手軽に楽しめ、コンプ要素まで手を広げるとかなり深く遊べる作り込みになっている。 MSXやファミコン時代を思わせるドット絵風の固定画面アクション。操作性や、やり直しのストレスは今風にうまくアップデートされておりプレイしやすい。主人公の性格が悪いのがジョークになるところと引いてしまうところとそれぞれあるため、そこは好みが分かれるところかもしれない。 音楽も良く、同開発のCastle of the Darkness、Astaronが楽しめた人なら本作も楽しめるはず。逆に未プレイの方にはそちらもおすすめしたい。Matt Kap氏はアクションゲームの作り手としてはかなり熟練のものを感じるので、今後の作品にも期待したい。 ちなみに本作のイラストは「ドラゴンハーフ」の見田竜介さん。

整体其实没什么硬伤，唯一明显的槽点是通过收集要素和速通挑战来复用关卡，强行拉长游戏时长。这种设计思路让我想到奇诺比奥队长，但本作的关卡质量和创意密度都差得太远。而且说实话，就算关卡质量再高，这种换皮复用的设计也实在不值得提倡。 本作更像是一部试水性质的小品作，和前作阿斯达伦：地球之泪相比有明显的倒退，希望下一部能回归类银河城玩法。 5/10

收集内容超级丰富的平台跳跃闯关，游戏里还套游戏，可以玩盗版塞尔达、打飞机、吸血鬼幸存者。最后解锁的卡关和收集好难，但游戏本身通关没问题，很有成就感。开心，赞。

It's a pretty well made platformer that while it feels like a mobile game (Cat Bird immediately came to mind), it plays smoothly and is much more fleshed out. Gameplay felt fair, with "most" deaths being more because I made a mistake than the game being "unfair". The between stage little cutscenes were cute, though some of them played a bit too often (the one with Goreman or whatever I swear I got at least a dozen times), and some of them even kind of punish you for not paying attention by having a QTE associated with it or even a full-on minigame. Overall score: 7/10 for me at full price, but 8/10 at discount. Game only took about 7-8 hours to clear with 100% achievements, but I quite enjoyed that time. Don't know if I'll ever come back to the game like I have to Astalon.