Possessor(s)

The 1 millionth soulslike metroidvania in the 1 millionth post apocalypic city with absolutely nothing that hasn't already been done by hollow knight. My wife hates this as it is extremely unoriginal and I can no longer motivate myself to continue after a particularly punishing death so I am not going to play this anymore. Fighting with aerial enemies can be extremely frustrating. Stop making hollow Knight clones, no one outside of a small vocal minority wants to see more.

Possessor(s) is one of those games that doesn't really do anything new, unique or groundbreaking at all, but rather takes tons of different elements from lots of other games and blends them all into a pleasant and tightly crafted package. It succeeds in taking all of those different elements and also successfully expresses itself with amazing artwork, a beautiful lo-fi soundtrack and a rich atmosphere that perfectly hammers home the melancholic apocalypse the game takes place in. I don't play metroidvanias very often but I do enjoy them a lot, so take my review from the perspective of a casual enjoyer of the genre, but it's safe to say I really liked Possessor(s) a ton. The gameplay is largely your standard metroidvania affair; you run around the game world, fighting enemies, doing platforming, discovering new abilities, using those abilities to traverse new areas and finding some sneaky secrets on the way, it does all of that really well with some pretty interesting abilities compared to most metroidvanias I've played that have a lot of good use in traversal and combat. The world map in this game is pretty huge and extremely dense, there's a lot of explore and filled with things to find. The combat is a very prevalent part of the game, and definitely one of its best aspects of the game in my opinion, connecting hits feels punchy and satisfying, enemies react in really fun ways and can even launch enemies into each other when you break their poise with a really solid swing, creating a lot of fun strategies in areas with a big group of enemies. It also has plenty of fun enemy types and great bosses that felt tough but fair with solid telegraphed attacks and allowing for numberous ways to deal to overcome every fight in the game. While there are only a few primary weapons to use, they all feel very unique and there's one for each kind of player. There are also a solid variety of sub-weapons that expands your available strategies, comboing from primary attacks into sub attacks for much added depth against enemies and bosses. The game does also have a parry system, which is extremely useful and very powerful, and while it is strict in timing and also encouraged against some enemies and bosses, I can say it never felt required. There is no doubt a lot to like here for people who really enjoy the combat in metroidvanias. The game also has a really compelling story, while others have noted they didn't much care for it, I personally found it to be another highlight of the game. The whole premise established within the first 5 minutes of the game is demons have invaded the city of Sanzu, and the only way they can survive in our world is by possessing objects, whether they're living beings or inanimate objects, and your character, Luca, gets mortally wounded in the whole mess and has to strike a deal with a demon, Rhem, to survive and get the heck out of the mess you both find yourselves in. A very simple but interesting idea with quite a few twists and turns along the way, with Luca and Rhem being stuck with each other in a tense but necessary alliance. I personally love the premise and I really enjoyed how all these elements get expanded on throughout the story. I especially enjoyed how Luca and Rhem's relationship developed throughout the game, so much so I felt incredibly feelsy towards the end with the rather sad but heartwarming end I got. It's a great story, with a lot of heart and soul to it and even tackles some heavy and interesting themes while also having those much needed moments of levity and banter that got a good chuckle out of me. It's far from a perfect game though, I have ran into numerous bugs, most of which are minor graphical flaws from the 3D environments, but I have ran into a couple of soft locks. One is really early on in the game where an enemy knocked me underneath a wooden plank and I couldn't move anywhere at all since I couldn't attack while crouched under there and I didn't unlock the slide ability yet. Another is when I jumped inside a moving elevatory and I somehow managed to slip out of it and got stuck in the shaft with no way out. Luckily these aren't a huge deal, as I could just reload a save point I got a minute or two previously, but it's something to keep in mind. Another grip I had is some of the sub weapons came off feeling quite useless, the baseball in particular was pretty terrible as there were plenty of other sub weapons that were just better in every conceivable way. Another one I have i chroma, the game's primary currency, always felt really scarce (even with the affix that grants more) and made experimenting with items not as viable as I would personally like, since you need to upgrade your weapons for those much needed affix slots, but I'm sure people who don't mind grinding for chroma won't have much issue there. And lastly my final personal gripe has got to be the lack of enemy variety. Don't get me wrong, what enemies are in the game are really fun and pretty interesting to fight, they all have unique ways of dealing with the player and I can't really think of an enemy I flat out disliked. However, with the concept of demons invading the world and being able to possess quite literally anything and everything, you'd hope the game would have a veritable array of opponents to choose from, but sadly no. To further compound the issue, each enemy type has stronger variants you find throughout the game, and while most of them have expanded movesets, it still doesn't get around that feeling that Heart Machine could have done much, much more when it comes to the enemy types. But yeah I think I've said everything that needed to be said, but to summarise; I think Possessor(s), while not doing anything new or groundbreaking, is a great metroidvania with numerous strong aspects that really pulled me in from start to finish. I feel extremely happy and satisfied with the time I spent with it, especially after doing all the side quests and getting all the achievements. One day I would love to return to Sanzu City again, and I think the current asking price at the time of this review is perfect for what you're getting, so I hope I can help encourage others to give Possessor(s) a try!

趁打折买捆绑包，10元人民币买的，无论如何也值回票价了，因此给好评 但游戏体验是拧巴。说好玩吧又有点无聊，说无聊吧又有点好玩。 就说一个系统吧，这游戏的武器和技能工具系统 有一个主武器槽，决定平A攻击模组 技能工具槽有三个，按Y键或↑+Y或↓+Y释放 跟丝之歌的工具系统挺像哦，就目前说的部分感觉都没啥问题，构筑丰富对吧 然后我就要说莫名其妙的部分——附加物！ 附加物的功能定位类似于空洞骑士的徽章，或者丝之歌的被动类工具，但区别在于，附加物不是直接装备于人物身上，而是装备于主武器或者技能工具上，玩家需要在商人处交付一定数量的开槽物品（游戏里最广泛的一种收集奖励）以及魂（货币），选择给某种主武器或者技能工具开槽。 那它这样设计，附加物是加在主武器或者技能工具上，按道理是应该影响相应的平A或者技能模组才对吧？类似于哈迪斯那样的，给个别动作模组加上特效，或者改变攻击距离范围、投射数量之类的对吧？！ 屁嘞！附加物的效果实际上都是这样的：增加人物基础生命值、增加奔跑速度、增加魂掉落…… 没错，作为主武器或者技能工具的附加物，它们的效果居然跟主武器或者技能工具没有半毛钱的关联度！ 那它干嘛不设计成直接装在人物身上？唯一的作用是增加玩家替换主武器或者技能工具的沉没成本呗？ 我对此评价是——学丝之歌学废了!

Шикарная игра!!! Особенно понравилась приятная рисовка, художникам отдельный поклон. Персонажи очень трогательные в конце, абсолютный пик

Bit of a disappointing metroidvania. The aesthetics are beautiful and the music is great (very much in line with Heart Machine's early work) but the floaty, imprecise controls and clipped animations make the platforming and battles an absolute chore. Some movements feel genuinely incomplete (catching the nerve ladder is a good example, where Luca just teleports onto it SOMETIMES but, infuriatingly, detaches if you keep holding down the button???). Moving with the whip feels downright unfair at times. Also, if you put pits of death and other traps just below the character's field of view, let the player look down. Modern Castlevania and Metroid entries, Hollow Knight/Silk Song, MIO, all of them have had this silly feature forever, here it's just excluded? Why? Story-telling is subjective but, to me, it feels kinda'..... under-cooked? The world feels barren as you move from one point to the next. The writing is wooden and overwrought in a way that feels like early 2000's fan fiction. There's a general tendency towards luxuriating in misery that doesn't feel earned. Maybe it gets better towards the latter part of the game but I simply don't have the strength. For what it's worth: it runs ok on the Steam Deck (though it's surprisingly resource-intensive). Maybe that contributed to the choppy controls? Who knows.

6/10 Cons - Clunky game - Maps are just big squares with no layout - SubWeapons are boring and not very useful (mouse + glasses are the only good subweapons) - Bosses are extremly easy except 2 that are optional - A lot of optional bosses are bugged with no music or they don't attack - Optional quest have nothing to offer (no secret bosses or weapons) the only optional quest worth doing is the microfilm one and it should be a main one Pros + Beautiful artstyle and sprites + Good soundtrack + Toxic yaoi

I am sad this is the game I got from Heart Machine instead of HyperLight Breaker. On a more "objecttive" side: Animations are clunky (many enemies and especially bosses float around the screen as opposed to move with the animation), enemy moves are most either slashes or energy balls, many mechanics are not clearly explained while other ones are, the story has some inconsistencies and holes... On a subjective front: while the character, weapon and enemy designs are creative, their actual abilities and use are barely relevant to their actual designs, the two protagonists are extremely whiny and inconsistent in personality, and the world is vast but not comftrable to traverse. I encountered multiple rooms which barely had enemies and had a movement challenge but no reward at the end. It's a shame HeartMachine gave up on their strong suits to write this narrative led game with barely a narrative.

самое гейское гейство что я видел два фембоя не смогли чето там поделить и обиделись друг на друга геймплей всратенький, порой вообще ♥♥♥♥♥ не понятно, что от меня хочет игра и куда мне нахер идти гайдов полноценных практически нет из-за того, что об этой игре знает полтора землекопа и один r34 художник по крайней мере я могу похвалить графику тк она довольно хороша 0 отсосов за обезбол из 10

Warning: frame lags are real... dodging and parrying is a pain in the butt. Other than that, I did enjoy the game overall. If there's a neutral option I'd probably have gone with that tho. The plot is alright, and the ending is a good setup for a second installment. But many of the lines felt rushed and definitely could've been better written. The art is top notch, altho the nose blood on Luca's character becomes really annoying (that or just my OCD?)... after Rhem healed her she could've definitely cleaned up that one line of blood that was driving me crazy, lol. I didn't mind the back tracking because I don't think this was meant to be a speed clear game. The maps are fairly well built for a one-off game, however, I see the potential for the map to be at least 2x larger if all the rooms, cracks, and doors held additional rooms. I've never relied on game maps for too much so I think the existing labels are more than sufficient. Since most resources are single-use, there wasn't too much need in using special labels and marks. Overall, 6.5 out of 10 type of game.

Possessor(s) foi um jogo bem divertido de jogar e o recomendo fortemente para qualquer um. É bem convidativo por não ser um metroidvania souls-like, você consegue passar dos bosses mais difíceis tranquilamente. O ponto forte é a arte do jogo, que é impecável. O enredo não é realmente perfeito, mas a Heart Machine conseguiu contar uma história muito boa, além de aprofundar bem o relacionamento dos demônios no jogo, fazendo muitas vezes você refletir sobre as suas próprias relações na vida real. O combate é muito fluido também, outro tópico a ser destacado. As armas principais todas têm uma diferença significativa para se adequar ao gameplay do jogador, além das armas secundárias que você pode decidir, com até 3 slots, quais utilizar para compor a jogatina (minha favorita foi a faca de cozinha juntamente da katana como habilidade especial). Na minha opinião, compensa muito comprar o jogo quando estiver em promoção!