Tearscape

(Slight spoilers) This is a really solid game that manages to accomplish and sometimes overdeliver on what it sets out to do. The game takes large inspiration from the Gameboy Color, and as such mostly plays as a time accurate GBC game would. There is some clunkiness to how the Hunter controls, but that slight level of player friction adds to the game in a overall positive manner rather than causing any headaches, at least in my experience. The game is very well designed and manages to accurately communicate and show off information to the player without it ever feeling too forced, which is something plenty of modern AAA games struggle with accomplishing. My favorite example of this takes place in the Miregloom section, with the major mechanic in that area being controllable water levels that you can raise or drain, which in turn will change where the Hunter can travel. The game never overtly points it out, but a sharp eyed player will notice vents on the walls that will change appearance depending on the current height level of water. This cleverly shows players which screens will be affected by the changing tides without an immersion breaking text box or cheaply placed in game note. Naturally, there are a few downsides and small issues that I have with the game (No ending cutscene makes the ending feel pretty jarring, small amount of invincibility frames when getting hit which can contribute to cheap feeling deaths, and 1 single puzzle that even after looking up the solution I was still confused on how it was the answer), but when measured against how much I enjoyed the game in totality they feel trite in comparison. The game was a joy to 100% without ever feeling like it overstayed it's welcome. I ran into one slight graphical issue which quickly resolved itself after restarting the game, besides that small issue I can attest to the game's steam deck verification. Despite it releasing months before Mina the Hollower, it feels like this game will always be compared to that game, for better and for worse. I truly hope that this game manages to find a larger audience from players searching for a game that plays similarly to Mina, and that the developer is able to utilize this insanely solid foundation and build upon it for their future projects.

Me lo he pasado y es una barbaridad de divertido, muy recomendado Hay que darle cariño para que esta gente siga haciendo juegos

Świetna gra dla fanów soulslike'ów. Oferuje satysfakcjonującą walkę, ale bossowie są bardziej przystępni niż w typowych grach z tego gatunku. Do tego dochodzi precyzyjny platforming, wymagające skoki i omijanie pułapek, co świetnie urozmaica rozgrywkę. Jeśli lubisz połączenie eksploracji, zręczności i dynamicznej walki, zdecydowanie warto zagrać. Polecam!

I try not to be overly reductive with comparisons to other games, but the elevator pitch of Tearscape being a cross between a Game Boy Color-era Zelda title and the combat/gameplay mechanics of Bloodborne or a Soulslike is fairly apt (which is why all the reviews keep mentioning it). The Zelda aspects come from a bunch of distinct dungeons/areas (they are all incorporated into the overall map pretty nicely though), most of which have some sort of upgrade to help you progress and access new areas. Some of them have multiple uses in and out of combat (like spin attack, bombs), and some are just for traversal. The dungeon design is really strong overall, with the one exception being the Mines area. Most of the time there are nice shortcuts to get you back to where you started after you traverse a section to get a key, hit a switch, etc. but the Mines has you zigzag and backtrack back and forth over a huge area multiple times. Every dungeon just has a single save point, but this was the only dungeon I felt like I had to make extra runs back to it - most of the time the save point was in a cerntral spot that you would organically loop back to in the course of exploring a dungeon. On top of that, there are long windy minecart sections where boulders randomly drop and you take damage sometimes. Theoretically, they are blockable with your shield, but you have to be facing the right way at exactly the right time and I found it hard to do. It came across as arduous just for the sake of it. The meat of the gameplay is exploring, combat, and a surprising amount of platforming (dashing over pits, dodging spikes and traps). Combat is snappy and works well, you have a very generous dodge/dash as long as you are managing your stamina bar properly. It's all about positioning, and finding the right time to strike and block. There's a parry/reflect system with the shield that I found to be pretty effective; you can reflect projectiles and block without using stamina with good timing of your button presses. You eventually get tools like a revolver and the aforementioned bombs that start giving you some ranged options as well. Really enjoyed this game (barring the one dungeon I already provided constructive criticism about), I ended up chewing through it and 100%-ing it in a few days with ~10 hours of playtime. (Quick tip: make sure you use your map markers every time you come across something you can't access yet, it makes backtracking to find upgrades/items way nicer every time you get a new ability.)

yea i played for 7 min and immediately wanted to add it to my speedrun rotation. ill be doing tearscape, raider kidd, lttp, and 1-2 more that fit in a similar niche seems like a really fun game if u like metroid likes, zelda likes, souls games. 2d speedrun capable games. edit: ive played more, this game is so good. i can see a lot of zelda likes and mina the hollower likes trying to top this game. the souls genre is perfect to infuse with zelda likes, and this game is one of the first ive seen to do it so well and offer it at such a good price. i may go back and try a game i think it was called "hunt the night" or something. just because im liking this game so much.

I died. xo

Bloodborne meets Zelda. Need i say more?

Enjoyed the zelda/metroidvania game. It was quick and fun with a few puzzles that were not clear but every area provided guidance... just had to know where to look.

What a blast. Beat this game around 2 months ago, and today while washing dishes I started thinking, "man, Tearscape was fun"

Wer auf die guten alten SNES und GBA Zeiten steht, das Pixel Art und die 8-Bit Optik liebt und großer Fan von Zelda Link to the Past ist, wird hier auf seine Kosten kommen. Souls-Meachniken wie Dodge, Parry und Bosse sind mit an Board. Für mich ein wundervolles Spiel, danke an die Devs. =)