Souno's Curse

I wanted to enjoy Souno’s Curse SO bad, but honestly I just can’t recommend it. There is no denying it’s a beautiful game with a ton of personality. But there are some issues that make the game ultimately a no-go: -There is no map, this is absolutely unforgivable and borderline game breaking given the metroidvania elements that are a part of the game. -Combat is stiff, slow and inconsistent. You can pogo bounce off an enemy once (upgradable to twice) and that’s it. Combat is short range, you rely on your kicks, which in itself wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t for the completely inconsistent hit boxes. I’ve pogo jumped right thru enemies with zero effect, taken damage from them while being out of range, and this leads me into my next point… -The bosses, while interesting and having creative mechanics, are an exercise in pure frustration due to the slow and clunky combat along with inconsistent hit boxes. Additionally, there are major inconsistencies as to when the second phase of a boss will trigger (if it triggers at all), alongside later boss encounter mechanics triggering at the start of a fight (imagine late fight super fast and overwhelming attacks being used at the start of an encounter). No rhyme or reason as to when a boss will die, you just have to get lucky basically. -Lastly, you have zero way to heal yourself. You read that correctly, you have what amounts to 5 HP, and no way to heal yourself in multiphase souls-level bosses. As the game currently is, it’s more frustrating than anything else and not one that I can recommend. Who knows, maybe over times with patches that rework the game it’ll become a must-own, but as it is I don’t recommend it.

I backed this game on Kickstarter and right now I'm waiting for an update to change my rating. The main problem of this game is the hitbox, it is tedious to try and kick an enemi who is walking away from you, as much as it is problematic to lose HP because you're currently hitting a boss and it leans down, causing you to lose 1 precious HP just because the boss is lowering its stance. For now I'm waiting to see where it goes after an update, it's not enjoyable to have such issue with a game allowing you to have only 5 HP.

Full Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO_HSUzW9LP6XMdUyTF0FXn7BHqHkxtRS ★★★ Gameplay: + Beautifully drawn world with charming visuals that make exploration enjoyable. + Bosses have unique mechanics and present various challenges, keeping combat fresh. + An okay amount of content, including collectibles, side quests, and upgrades for those seeking extended play. + Great sound balance throughout the game, with no jarring volume issues. - Lacks a map system with markers; while it seem like the goal is to promote memory-based exploration, a map as a reward; maybe after a boss fight, would make the experience so much better. - The final boss includes some cheap moves, particularly a tornado attack in a platform-heavy fight that punishes you for dodging it or for not dodging it, which could use refinement. Story: The game captures the bite-sized experience pretty well, allowing players to enjoy a short but sweet adventure. Graphics: Beautifully visuals with an adorable world design. PC Requirements: Low Overall: Souno's Curse is a beautifully drawn action-platformer that lives up to its bite-sized description. Its charming world design and great SFX make for a great experience, with unique bosses and a world full of collectibles, side quests, and upgrades. While the game could benefit from a map system to better promote exploration, it still offers engaging exploration. The final boss, though well-designed could use some tunning for a smoother experience. In my opinion Souno's Curse is a fun and bite-size game that platforming fans will surely enjoy.

Don't even try to play it without a controller, it's tedious the qol is null, and you can't rebind key. Imagine spending all the effort on making the game, making animation and didn't let you rebind key. I'll keep playing with these awful key settings and see how it goes. I'll refund this game, I'd consider rebuying the game if it fixes all little qol that ruined the game

good metroidvania (light) game, pretty hard !the music is so cool ! i suggest to you to unlock most of the power ups accross the game. the art and animation are nice also :)

I had this game on my wishlist for 3 and a half months, waiting for some patches as the initial reception was pretty poor. I was willing to hold hope that they could fix the game and make a fun experience as the art style and character design are undeniably charming. For the most part the devs at Kiro team did just that with a few asterisks. Souno's curse is not a perfect game, it has a lot of issues but it's one of those cases where the positives outweigh the negatives, hence the recommendation. The biggest issue is the difficulty curve due to a lack of healing and some clunky controls paired with tough level design. Getting hit in Souno's curse deals about 1/4th of your health initially with no way to heal except for resting at a bonfire. There's sections that go on for a long time between checkpoints which feel very frustrating without any way to recover health. The 1st biome is pretty fine in regards to this but the 2nd biome especially becomes an exercise in frustration. Funnily enough the 3rd biome is a lot easier again, leading to an uneven difficulty curve. I'm not saying they should make the 3rd biome harder, just that the 2nd one could use some revisions. The game is filled with traps in every room, making it almost feel like 'white palace - the game' in a way. The problem here is that the platforming feels bad because the wall climb only lasts for a split second with no visual indicator. The character is pretty floaty and some jumps require pixel perfect outputs. Getting hit by a trap deals one fourth of your health and send you back to the last arbitrarely chosen 'safe spot'. Paired with no healing this makes for some frustrating sections. Sometimes enemies are strewn inbetween these to further add frustration but most often the traps are your biggest enemy. Still though the enemies aren't that bad but the combat as a whole isn't anything to write home about especially during boss encounters which are easily the game's biggest weakness. The 1st boss is a bit of a difficulty spike but not that much and both the 3rd & final boss were fine but once again the 2nd boss was just horrible. It's not that it's too tanky given how few hits you yourself can take but also the fact that it's woefully inconsistent. The boss has a few very varied attacks but each of them can last a short while or a VERY long time. Sometimes it comes out slowly but other times it's so fast it feel impossible to dodge. I ragequit the game 5 times at this boss and i think that about an hour of my gametime was spent at this A-hole. The wors thing is that each boss has a 2nd phase at critical health which is only a few hits more but turns into a panic fest that's hard to parse. I nearly refunded the game at this point but stuck with it and i'm glad i did as the game became quite fun afterwards again. Especially thanks to the game's latest patch which added a minimap as well as visual indicators for missed collectibles. A huge QoL feature that drastically improves the game experience and one i'm grateful for. I think a few more patches are needed, mostly balancing and some tightening of controls but it's getting there. I'd also like to see the upgrades made a bit cheaper as i had to grind for money for 20 minutes at the end to max out. Also removing the point of no return at the end would do a lot, as those are a big NO for me. Luckily it's signposted very well at the very least. I've spoken mostly about the game's weaknesses so far but there's some strenghts too. Once you've learned the controls and unlocked every movement upgrade, backtracking for missed collectibles becomes kinda fun. The visuals are also very good throughout and kind of the main reason i played the game in the first place. The main character design is also very cute & charming so that's a big plus too. The music was fine, nothing amazing at all but not annoying either, boss soundtracks were kind of exciting even! The story was pretty generic though, with some pretty poor writing and a few grammatical mistakes. Ofcourse not everyone's English is top notch, i would even bet that my review has quite a bit of mistakes but with the ease of access to AI & translation tools it may be worthwhile to revise some lines. Especially the statues at the central gate were a bit, cringe. Finally on a technical level i encountered 2 crashes and one minor bug but no lag so for the most part the game works. It has some pain points in regards to balancing and controls, but the visual charm outshine most of that, so it's just good enough to recommend.

クリア済レビュー [hr][/hr] 『Souno's Curse（スーノズカーズ）』は、主人公の小さき者が、呪われた洞窟を探索するメトロイドヴァニアアクションです。 [h1]ゲームプレイ[/h1] [b]凄く面白かった[/b]です。 見た目が『ホロウナイト』に似た雰囲気の本作は、プラットフォーマーとしての難易度が非常に高く、ステージもボスもかなりの歯ごたえがあり、やり応えは十分です。難しいと感じるプレイヤーも多いかもしれませんが、ジャンプや壁登りといったおなじみのスキルを少しずつ習得し、行けるエリアが広がる楽しさが味わえます。 マップ表示がないのも特徴的で、頭の中でエリアを記憶しつつ、アイテム回収に挑むことになります。回収作業が難しそうに見えますが、エリアは大きく3つに分かれているため、迷ったとしても不便さはそこまで気にならないかもしれません。ファストトラベル機能はないため、特に2エリアや3エリアでは迷いやすいかもしれませんが、やり込むうちに慣れてくると思います。 戦闘スタイルが「キック」中心という点もユニークで、コンボがありそうでない感じで、足技をひたすら当てていく戦闘は新鮮でした。道中の道具屋でパワーアップアイテムを購入できるので、ザコ敵やボス戦でもスムーズに進行でき、小さいキャラクターをどんどん強化していく楽しさもあります。（一部はキー入手アイテムあり強化） 特筆すべきは、トラップが満載で、ギリギリのジャンプが求められる場面が多く、難易度の高さはプレイヤー泣かせです。このジャンルに慣れていない方にはややハードルが高いかもしれません。 改善点として、ラスボス撃破後にエンドロールに入り、その後「続きから」を選んでもボス撃破前から始められない点が少し残念でした。未収集のアイテムを回収したかったのですが、再プレイは気力がいるため、ここは今後のアップデートに期待です。 プラットフォーマー寄りの「キックメトロイドヴァニア」を楽しみたい方にはぜひおすすめです。ただ、操作に慣れていない方は難易度に注意が必要ですね。 [code] クリア時間は[spoiler]6.0時間程[/spoiler] [/code]

I'll start by saying that overall, despite any issues I had with the game, I enjoyed playing it and think it's worth checking out. It's not an exceptionally ground breaking experience, but exploring the game world, finding secrets, and fighting the bosses was enjoyable. Combat is both satisfying and a bit frustrating. You have to be very close to enemies to hit them with your kicks, and the basic attack is stationary. You can be a little cheeky and press jump and attack at the same time to do the jump kick on the ground, allowing you to still move while attacking. There's nothing that's necessarily revolutionary about the combat, but boss fights are dynamic and reasonably challenging. There are a few movement upgrades, and they each unlock a new area. This is a very short game -- I completed it at near 100% in less than 4 hours -- but the secret hunting and general gameplay flow is decent. I wish there was more. https://youtu.be/DCdJ5JU9evg?si=_QQy7dCf9BHW1rzI

Souno's Curse is a short and challenging metroidvania that is going to test your platforming skills. Once you get used to the controls it will start getting easier and will become even more fun to play. The soundtracks are calming and enjoyable to listen to while gaming. The boss fights were fun and challenging too, will bring out your best while fighting them. If you love heavy platforming and challenging metroidvanias then this is a good recommendation. Overall Rating 9/10

I want to start by saying that I backed the game on kickstarter and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. The music is lovely and I love the character design. It's been a lot of fun to explore and learn the map (I was always fine with the game being mapless, but I appreciate seeing the devs respond to those criticisms and are planning to add one) However, the combat could certainly use some work. Hit boxes feel a little inconsistent sometimes and I'm struggling to understand the use and timing of the dodge roll, especially in the 2nd boss fight The game isn't perfect, but I still think it's enjoyable and would recommend people give it a chance