Phantom Tides

You know, a few weeks ago there was a discussion on r metroidvania regarding how indie devs should start to work together on creating games instead of trying to go at it solo. I stayed out of that discussion but I did observe how the consensus seemed to be that it would be better if indie devs followed their own passion as they see fit. Well, following my attempted play-through of this game I think it is time for me to join the debate and to take the side in favor of consolidation. It is high times indie devs stopped being so anti social and learned how to work with others to realize a common dream. The dev for this game is clearly highly skilled in certain fields while incompetent in other fields and if he had found others to work together with this could have truly been made into a fantastic game. Here are the devs key skills (he should use this in a job resume): - Knows how to get good performance out of the Unity engine, performance is as smooth and good as in "Have a nice death" and "Hollow Knight", which places this game firmly among the best 2D Unity games to ever come out in regards to performance. - Excellent skills in hand drawn background artwork - Good skills in music Now here are the devs weaknesses: - Awful animations - Poor graphical design of enemy sprites (dangerous terrain MUST either be spiky or red!) - poor gameplay design of enemy sprites (how am I supposed to dodge those homing balls?) - poor polish and lots of bugs, map doesn't appear to be working - awful sound effects. - Atrocious marketing, some of the worst marketing I've ever encountered. The dev is clearly skilled, but needs to make friends and develop games with those friends. Same goes for most projects under development. His Unity performance skills are very much in demand as the vast majority of indie 2D Unity games have terrible performance.

Has some indie appeal owing to the art and gameplay mechanics, but most will be turned off by bugs and a significant lack of polish and playtesting. The introduction is brief and covers the hero's backstory. Long story short, when you were young, pirates raided your town and massacred everyone. After they severed your arm and left you on the street, you vowed vengeance. The story shifts a few years forward. Your determination was so great that you became the captain of your own ship. Now you must assemble a crew that will accompany you as you sail into the phantom sea and finally have your revenge. While art is fine and distinctive, the cutscenes are not the best for two reasons. The first issue is that it does not allow you to read at your own pace because they move forward automatically. The speed is too high for someone who’s not fluent in English. This is related to the second issue: font selection and color make the words difficult to read. Sometimes, bright letters disappear in bright background. Although you do not speak, you will encounter characters who have something to say. However, they speak in small letters that appear in a big speech box. Because much of the box is constantly empty, the letters should be larger and easier to see. This is annoying, but not critical. Your character comes with all of the normal controls and moves that you would expect in such a game. There is the unmissable jump and double-jump, dash to avoid danger, skills, and two buttons for gun and sword strikes. Movement is floaty, but you don’t have to make precise jumps. Although ammo is limited, you can reload one round at a time by filling the bar with sword attacks. Weapons deal random damage, however there are minimum and maximum limits. You are not limited to the basic weaponry; you can find five different swords and pistols during your adventure. Most are hidden behind secret bosses. While each has a special perk, there is no indication on damage, so you will not know if the weapon is effective until you equip it. As previously said, your objective is to collect crewmembers. You can enter any of the three main stages from a map aboard your ship, so you can tackle them in whatever order you want. Each stage is unique and takes place in a distinct area, and the progression has a dash of metroidvania feel. This means that certain parts of a stage are blocked until you find the power to overcome them. Each stage is decently sized, although it is not a large elaborate maze. Of course, there are certain dead ends with chests, but the majority of the stage contains enemies and threats. Enemies are diverse and decent. Because double-jump is available from the beginning, you can avoid and jump over most enemies. However, you are urged to kill them because they drop precious coins. Coins are vital for the merchant island, where there are many merchants offering various items. The most important is the map guy. You will need to purchase numerous maps to fully uncover the stage, although they depict the entire layout, checkpoints, and boss rooms. They are not expensive, therefore it is best to get everything as quickly as possible. But maps don’t show secrets or hidden collectibles. Other merchants sell weapons, extra slots, potions, and even a fishing rod that lets you fish at certain spots. Sadly, you won’t be able to afford anything meaningful because the economy is a disaster. Everything costs a fortune and you only get a handful of coins per enemy. The only way to get decent amount fast is to repeat boss fights, but even this is a waste of time because you don’t get enough. Bosses is how you gain crewmates. They hit hard and have multiple attacks, so it may take a few tries to understand all of their moves. However, once you become acquainted and keep an eye out for the special attack they like to unleash after half of their health is depleted, they are not too difficult. When a boss is defeated, they appear on your ship as a member of the crew and reward you with a piece of eight. These are special items having one active and one passive benefit. However, only one effect can be active at a time, and it is determined by which of the two eyes it is placed in. For example, passive enhances sword damage while active provides you with a special attack. If something seems too difficult, you can simply return to the ship and go somewhere else. The unpleasant element is that you frequently have to walk to the beginning of the stage. This is rectified by allowing you to set up camps at particular spots within a level, but you must still reach them first. Camps are extremely valuable because they appear on the main map, allowing you to jump to them without having to walk through the entire stage again. One thing to keep in mind is that enemies only respawn when you return to the ship, so you will not be able to grind for coins that easily. Although stages aren’t that big, you can still get yourself killed quite easily because you only have three health bottles. Their number can be increased, but it’s very easy to fall into environmental threats such as spikes, electric weeds, fire, or something else. The big problem is that sometimes you don’t even know it’s a threat, like with innocent-looking mushrooms that blow up. Death transports you to the Phantom Zone, where you have two choices: waste part of your coins or keep all of them and fight the Phantom Champion. The champion is not particularly strong, but it might waste a lot of time if you die frequently and have to repeat. Win or lose, you will respawn at the latest checkpoint. Unless you run into a bug that takes away all your money. This can happen with very buggy boss fights where you might kill a boss, die, and then respawn with no money and boss still alive. Another huge criticism is that there's no warning at the end; if you beat the final boss, the game resets. You get to keep weapons, but all progress and abilities are lost. This means you have to redo all collectibles and achievements.

This feels incredibly janky and aside from some cool visuals is just an ugly messy affair that doesn't entice me whatsoever.

"Phantom Tides" is an action adventure RPG game that plays like a platformer. The game is actually better than the steam video, it has a lot of charm and it's more fluid. The music is amazing and it feels unique. It has a strange mix that I would describe as "hopeful darkness" that is quite attractive. It is an ambitious attempt for a solo developer but it definitely hasn't been tested enough. For starters, it feels like different people made different parts of the game and never communicated between them. The backgrounds are awesome, while the character, npcs and enemies feel like a mockery of cartoons with still and lifeless animations. I could get past that if it wasn't for the worst part... the jump. It's one of the worse jumps I have ever seen in a game... We float... For absolutely no reason whatsoever it feels like we are underwater and in space at the same time with no consistency.. Add the mediocre hitboxes and unfair enemy attacks (many are too fast in comparisson to our character movement and reflex speed) and it's certain death and a recipe for a no fun disaster.. It doesn't matter if there are any complex or interesting mechanics later on. Same can be said for the story.. You won't reach that far as for any of those to matter. I wish to see fixes in this game and revise my review. It indeed has potential and seems interesting but we first have to be able to actually play it... For more reviews, follow my curator https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44864435-Mewesome-Reviews/

Very nice 2D action adventure platformer, good graphics, sounds & music. If you're a old school gamer who like to play same style games but with modern graphics, that's your game for sure! Keep in mind the bosses are very hard, you have been warned! :)

Super well made game, Great graphics and sound effects. I also like the combat and boss fights!