[b]TL; DR[/b] Rip, tear, and live to tell your tale.
[b]Note[/b] I played with KBM.
[h1] Story [/h1]
Dragons are buried beneath the earth, and they have been unleashed. Our weapons do nothing, humanity faces extinction, but the Astral Gems have the power, use them, tear them apart.
The story is optional, there is only one mandatory dialogue. Worldbuilding, and backstory is all handled with notes found in libraries or at the end of a section, you can skip all of them. All you need to know is told to you in the introduction but sure you can read the notes and some of them are interesting or a sort of deadpan fun, but I stopped bothering after a while because it is not why I like playing [i]Riptale[/i].
[h1] Presentation [/h1]
One of the first things to pique my interest in [i]Riptale[/i] is its striking visuals. Retro designs with little to no depth or shadow in black and white but then contrasted by a vibrant red. It is and always has been a killer combination.
The fact that the enemies are easy to tell apart is a plus, as is the fact that all hazards have something red on them. So [i]Riptale[/i] ends up being quite readable even with a low focus and with the blood splattering every which way and as your sword leaves a distinct steely trail through dragons and their cultists.
There are also unlockable filters and while I did not bother with them too much, I can see the appeal for using a few of them. Who has not dreamed of playing [i]Riptale[/i] on the Virtual Boy? However, there are those that are less of a novelty and reduce the contrast of the art style and those can feel less straining on the eyes.
Video games often have soundtracks, this is no exception, I remember when I first played this, and I was immediately taken by its introductory theme [i]Bells of Convocation[/i], it is slow, methodical and surprisingly heavy which means it is very different from the rest of the OST.
In general, I like it a lot, but I can see why someone would get bored with it, and that is primarily because it is short. Most of the music that anyone will hear is the area themes, and the boss theme, the others take up such a minute amount of a time that they are barely worth mentioning.
Yet, I did find myself liking the area themes, even now I do not get bored with them. They have great tempos and can get my adrenaline pumping. They are enjoyable to listen to and also made to loop well, and if they were not this would have been awful. Though, with that said, it also gets very repetitive to listen to the same three songs on repeat, interspersed with the boss track, and if you are good, the fourth area theme.
[h1] Gameplay [/h1]
Descend into the bowels of the earth, go deeper, and deeper, drown the catacombs with blood and gore kill the dragons and their worshippers, and buy Astral Gems from the skeleton who makes bone related puns.
[i]Riptale[/i] is fun, there is a frantic quality to it since enemies die in one hit, but all of your mistakes are harshly punished. It is something quite special, and very satisfying to behold, when you kill multiple enemies in one stroke or when you finish a combo, their blood splattering the walls, and coins scattering about. I love it.
The punishing aspect is also something I enjoy. Enemies are distinct and have one attack so it is easy to memorize and deal with them appropriately but when you mess up, you will be hit, that's bad. This might have emphasised a defensive approach to combat but that is not exactly right. Yes, you should pick your battles and you should approach enemies in the proper order and from the proper direction, but killing an enemy with each of your strikes will recharge all of your Astral Gems and that is far more preferable than waiting and potentially dying as a result.
Make no mistakes Astral Gems are your only attacks, and they are also your dashes. You need to use them effectively and dashing blindly can have devastating consequences. It also creates an interesting dilemma. Yeah, you can buy new Gems and unlock more powerful attacks, but they will affect your dashes and then your muscle memory can get you killed or cost you some health.
Which is really bad, losing health is something you will want to avoid since you will not have much to spare, the only way to recover is getting lucky: having enemies drop one or finding consumables in a room, the only other way is completing a subarea which rewards you with a single health point.
That is not something you will need to worry about on Hard mode, because if you get hit you die. It can get annoying especially since the challenge it provides exposes the game’s most fundamental issues.
One of the most glaring issues is with the lock-on system, and the auto-jump both of these are there to help you, and sometimes they do, but a lot of the time they have gotten me killed. They are very unpredictable, sometimes they work sometimes they do not, you will line up an enemy so that you face them perfectly but uh oh you slide down and attack just below the enemy, if you are in the Underground Forest or if they are against a mole-dragon than that means you die. I am not exaggerating because it means near-instant death, in extremely rare cases you can save it, but the thing is that both of these enemies require you to attack from specific angels and so when they move, or if they spawn unfavourably, you are in a terrible situation. The Forest swordsmen have the added difficulty of a very short windup, so even when you start attacking outside their aggro range, and even when you think you have a good angle they can still attack before you, which means defeat. So, add to that an unreliable auto-jump and lock-on and you have an area that feels like pure RNG, that is frustrating, it can get to a point where you restart every run unless you start in the Underground Forest so as not to waste your time.
Not to mention that you sometimes die as soon as you enter a room. You drop down or you enter it and right there is an enemy, you have a split second to kill them but your slash is a dash so you might force yourself into another group of enemies and then die. Such things are not too bad on Normal, but on Hard is gets really old, and frustrating.
To accentuate how hard Hard is: I started attempting Hard runs at 18hrs of playtime, I have not beaten it yet. My very best run reached the final area and had perhaps 4-6 rooms left before I reached the finale. I will not claim that I am particularly good at this sort of game, I can definitely be a bit too impulsive, but at this point it no longer feels like a skill issue, it feels like poor RNG.
I do love [i]Riptale[/i] if I did not, I would not have played it so much, and I would have given up on Hard mode ages ago, and since I do recommend this game, I should end on other things I love about it.
There is one boss fight for each area, they are a lot of fun, with simple movesets or recognisable rhythms that are easy to learn, and that feel rewarding to master. Unfortunately, there is no boss rush mode, but a Normal mode run can be done quite quickly so it is not a massive issue.
Another thing I loved were the challenge rooms, these are great for getting a new player acquainted with the game. They are timed and force you to complete dark mazes, platforming, or kill hordes of enemies, of course this trains you to use the Astral Gems effectively and also consider the movement options they provide, which is great! However, all rooms you complete disappear, so once you have beaten them all you will never see a challenge room again.
Ultimately [i]Riptale[/i] is a punishing game about killing dragons, that is a lot of fun, however, Normal mode is where the game is at its best since its most obvious issues are mitigated. I will continue playing this game because even Hard mode is a joy, and perhaps, one day, I will be able to dodge rain.
