[h1][b]Pharaoh Rebirth+[/b][/h1]
[h3][b]Time Played:[/b][/h3]
4.4 Hours
[h3][b]Last Played:[/b][/h3]
14th of January, 2026
[hr][/hr]
Waiting for Terraria 1.4.5: Volume 12.
[h3][b]Yay:[/b][/h3]
+ Selecting “windowed” in the launcher, then clicking the desired resolution in the upper-right of the language select screen, before “maximise” in the upper left will put it into borderless window mode.
+ Controller worked immediately, without literally any fussing, or fighting...
+ ...and worked to begin with, something that seems to be a roulette specifically with indie games from Japan/Nihon/Nippon.
+ The game is way more ambitious than I thought it would be, as a segment in the first level with a bridge utilises the background to great effect.
+ Clear damage indicator, showing a red number with accompanying sound, animation, and invincibility frames thereafter. You'd think making when you did, and did not take damage indisputable in any game would be a given, but I recently revisited, reviewed, then abandoned Starbound, which did not have such a luxury.
+ Various hidden/gated items you need to remember and come back for.
+ [Spoiler]In spite of them not being main treasures, some of the Collection items have various effects that help greatly.[/Spoiler]
+ Something you can do in stage 1 that at-first seems only for the humour winds up giving you one of these hidden items, which has an effect outside of filling a slot on your collection page.
[Spoiler]For those that want specifics, after the first boss, keep attacking Andre. Jack will chastise you. Continue this twice-more, and you'll get a shell item that boosts defence.[/Spoiler]
+ This is to state that in addition to [Spoiler]satisfaction, and lore, some of these items have effects.[/Spoiler]
+ While it's separated by levels, these each have their own explorable maps, Order of Ecclesia-style, preserving the Metroid/Castlevania elements, and rewarding exploration.
+ For probably the first time ever in any game of this type, I saw a use for sub weapons.
+ [Spoiler]Stage 4 does something I thought it would not, and added some admittedly-funny context that enhances an earlier moment.[/Spoiler]
[h3][b]Meh:[/b][/h3]
~ Semi-odd controls. In spite of most modern controllers having more than 2 buttons, you need to push A + B at-once to jump-dash...and B/O is what the jump button is by default. As everything's rebindable, though, this is a minor issue.
To pause, you also click the right stick, rather than push any traditional button.
[Spoiler]Once you get the materials for it/if you do, the map is accessed via double-tapping up.[/Spoiler]
[h3][b]Nay:[/b][/h3]
- No in-game options menu.
- ...or option to quit out once in.
- Character handling is a bit floaty.
- I would not consider the dialogue to be among the best.
- ...and also think it interrupts things to unnecessarily-large degrees.
- Some of it feels wholly-unnecessary, too, as the instructions for [Spoiler]an out-of-place Quick time event in Level 3/Chapter 2 has the same instruction repeating 3+ times in a row.[/Spoiler] This struck me as player faithlessness.
- Stage 2/second-non-prologue level dials the difficulty up sharply...
- Stage 4 is even worse as you must use a janky “Sniper mode” that doesn't lock your movement to fight owls that bafflingly petrify you on-contact, and demands you use a very inconsistent grappling mechanic on moving hooks that only give you enough height to mount platforms if you time things perfectly...or get lucky.
- This is to type that the enemy powers/status effects make 0 sense to me.
- I also wish they went with more Egyptian-themed enemies, as all of them but two encountered by the give-up point of Stage 5 were animals...
- Yes, you read that right, I stopped even trying to play at Stage 5, which is not only an autoscroller, but requires you to have to jump at the perfect time for pits, throws enemies you need to be perfect to hit at you...then preposterously demands you both beat it without getting hit, and dying, to get all achievements.
I'll spare my sanity of merely beating the level, thank you.
[hr][/hr]
[h3][b]Verdict:[/b][/h3]
Unfortunately, I found this to be far from the Bunn-phony of the Night it was trying to be, and nowhere near the Bunn-Mulana I thought it was going to be like. If you enjoy having completely unrealistic expectations forced upon you, while also battling the character handling, being interrupted to read every 3 rooms, and cheap enemy placement within systems that simply don't work as they're supposed to, this is the game for you.
For everyone else, me included, I'd say this is an easy pass.
[h3][b]Placed in:[/b][/h3]
4: Dourly-Dismissed.
