Simona's Requiem

A short fun game with some references from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest among others. Standard platformer type mechanics and upgrades with a few bosses. It feels like there is just the right amount of area to explore and can be completed in a few hours. There were a few tricky platforming spots to navigate but overall pretty laid back and approachable for varying experience and skill levels. It ran well on my Ryzen 2600 + Vega 56 machine with Solus Linux using a PS4 controller over USB.

I like it allot! This game has an atmosphere that is hard to come by. It reminds me of the atmosphere in games like Knytt. It's a relaxing experience I can highly recommend. Stunning visual elements a true pixel-art adventure. Also, a big plus for the dark humor!

Short, simple platformer game.

This is a decent mini Metroidvania, that will keep you entertained for a couple hours. It's not the smoothest experience but tolerable for how short the game is. There are definitely better games out there, but if you get it on sale it's a good experience for the time it lasts. One pain point is that the protagonist moves very slowly. You get a dash after a while but it doesn't really make you have a reasonable move speed. Doesn't make it difficult, just kinda tedious to play. It sounds like I'm kinda negative on this game and I am, but there's nothing majorly wrong with it. Not every indie developer can be Team Cherry and spend 7 years making a hit game for less than $20. If you've played enough of the highly regarded Metroidvanias that you're looking at this one, you could do a lot worse than this one.

I don't expect much from these microvania's before playing them, but they offer something that's nice to fit in my busy schedule. That being a short bit sized metroidvania experience that i can 100% in one evening. Simona's requiem mentions all these aspects in perfect clarity/honesty on the store page and they're absolutely right! The length is indeed anywhere between 2 to 3 hours, perfect for one evening. It's indeed also not difficult, which i very much appreciate for such a short one and done experience. And it's also very chill with the platforming, level design and progression with only a few small sections slightly uping the difficulty. So in a sense i got exactly what was promised which is always nice but that was to be expected, what i didn't expect though is the polish in terms of game feel, audiovisuals and especially writing. That's not to say that this is a narrative highlight or anything but the writing was clever and very comedic. It actually even got a chuckle out of me a few times which i didn't expect. The short & simple story also came full circle in a nice way towards the end, with a great final joke to boot. The visuals were clean and soundtrack was suprisingly good at times but what was most impressive is how smooth the game played. Given the slow speed you would expect it to feel sluggish but that wasn't the case at all, it actually felt really nice. I played the game in two sittings taking one break inbetween but i could've played it in one sitting. It's over before you know it but it does't leave you wanting for more, it just leaves you content you played this nice, quaint little game. Also it's perfectly reasonable to 100% in terms of achievements which is always a big plus for completionists like me! If you're looking for one evening of fun i recommend this one given the low monetary and time investment and relative quality!

a little slow at first but once you get the first upgrade it feels so much better. Solid little game.

Not a bad game but not a good one either, barely a metroidvania. I liked it just enough to complete it but wouldn't recommend it to anyone. 4/10

This one was a little surprise, it's charming and the level design has its moments! If you are in the mood for a slow-paced platformer, almost a metroidvania, I recommend it.

There are times where a maybe button would be good to implement. This is almost one of those times. This game is pretty short...even considering you move about the speed of stop. Seriously, in this game I got lapped by a street sweeper at one point. There is a dash...but it still feels SLOW....so slow!!! You may see my time as 4.5 hours...but know that I played this while doing other tasks...so chop that about in half. And know I got all the achievements except one...that one I missed was not for finishing the game. (I got that one.) The game has some annoying platforming parts...but the area after the final boss, and the area where the lighting is poor are completely annoying. I don't mind tough jumps because it brings back good NES days....but those two areas are inexcusable. The problem is that the game is so short and empty..there isn't much to say good or bad. So why not a maybe? Because the price point is $8. You can get longer and better games for that. Get this on sale for a couple bucks....but anything more than like $2 or $3 isn't worth it.

If you ignore the sometimes cringe dialogues this game is an enjoyble experience. I did 100 % it in less than 4 hours and had fun doing it, except for one of the hidden achievements because I could've gotten all achievements in one playthough but I didn't know what to do for that one achievement so I had to look it up after finishing the game and start a new playthough to get that last achievement. But that was fine, no big deal.