Rose and Locket

''Mixed'' here would be more apporpiate. I can tell the game's a labour of love and I am glad I played it but I'd lie if I said I didn't turn the game off to cool off and come back later at certain points of it. The game makes a lot of cool creative choices about its fights and set pieces but often at the cost of that creativity leading to frustrating gameplay experience. The Deadly SIns and their domains are amazing in terms of aesthetics, visuals and voice acting but they fail to leave a lasting impression, they feel like some guy who just happens to be in the way of Rose, the main character, largely cause the encounters are short and the bosses lack charismatic traits, something beyond the surface level of the basic concept that particular Sin is supposed to be. Even the final revelation [spoiler] ,that Envy is Rose's husband and Rosebud's father, [/spoiler] didn't hit me that hard, cause their backstory being described to the player in a short summary at the end of the game doesn't do enough to help the player truly immerse in the importance of the moment, at least, in my case. All in all, the game's stylish and gorgeous, but the gameplay and certain set pieces can be more frustrating than challenging, and, personally, I felt like the story couldn't do enough with the short amount of time that we spend with the characters, however gorgeous the presentation may be.

I initially got to know about Rose & Locket via an upcoming metroidvania's list a few years ago and the art style immediately caught my attention. Fast forward a few years and i finally got to play it, quickly realizing it's not an mv. A shame because i really prefer mv's over linear action platformers but honestly that's on me for being uninformed. In my effort to play games as blindly as possible i often skip out reading the store page so i obviously won't hold it against the game. That being said this game had great pacing and was nice & short in a way that made the linear aspect a non issue. Moreover the art style that made me wishlist it at first was even better than i had expected. Rose & locket is one of the most stylish indies ever, i adore everything about its presentation. There's a certain samurai jack vibe to it which was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. The transitions between scenes are also super cool and the design kicks ass. It's colourful, unique & memorable and definately the primary reason you ought to play this. Gameplay wise it's not as memorable though, with very basic platforming, level design and twin stick ranged combat. The bosses however do shake it up and each present a completely unique challenge. They're also visual spectacles and thematically core to the game's narrative, speaking off which... The story of rose & locket is like most other aspects of the game; quite simple, but in this case that's a plus. Like i mentioned earlier it has great pacing which mostly applied to the narrative. I didn't expect the game to be fully voiced but the delivery was great across the board. It really elevated the simple story and made me much more invested in it. The game certainly didn't overstay its welcome which leads me to the final point which is its lenght/price. There's some slight replay value for the achievements but they're a slog and not worth it imo. I'd say without discount this is a tall ask but on a steep sale i'd say it's worth it if you wanna experience the visuals & story.

Estilo impecable, pero dios mio, quien quiera que diseñara las peleas de los jefes es un sadico absoluto. Son misiones 100% basadas en la suerte que te toque, porque como el jefe quiera matarte, pues te mata y punto. Le he echado 7 horas y si no hubiera muerto ninguna vez seguro que eran 4