The Messenger

At first I was enjoying my time with this game. The pixel art is gorgeous and the music is really good. Gameplay felt snappy from the get-go as well. Yet very quickly, things went downhill. I really don't like how dying and upgrades feel in this game, especially combined with how the game is designed in general. The knockback is comical with how it can send you flying across the screen under the right circumstances. Not a fan? There's an upgrade for that! Which feels like this game was designed backwards. Instead of having a solid foundation and building upon it, the game is designed to be frustrating, up until you unlock stuff to make it feel good. Ranged weapon? Upgrade. Mitigating the knockback? Upgrade. Enemies having a chance to spawn health/ammo? Yeah, you guessed it, locked behind an upgrade. And this is where another annoyance comes in. Whenever you die, there's a little "helpful" demon, who "saves you" by sending you back to the checkpoint... For a price, of course. So if you keep losing to bad luck clashing with the game made to be annoying intentionally, that little bastard will rob you of opportunities to get the upgrades quicker. The game also incentivizes exploration. Secrets are always fun to look for, but in many games that do hidden/alternate path, you're not getting penalized for trying to find them. Yet in this game, some pits look like there's a secret down a pit (like a random, otherwise useless platform in the middle of the room), yet you fall to your death and then you get punished for trying, due to the "helpful" demon collecting every penny you collect until he's satisfied. In general, it could be a fun game, but I was really disappointed to learn, that it's designed almost as if it was supposed to be annoying on purpose. There's definitely a ton of potential here, and I'm sure that people who like these types of games may find it really good. But for me, having annoying systems to remove other annoyances is not a good time.

Hey, take this scroll. You've been tasked playing this game now. Trust me you will not regret it. Had a lot of fun with this title. Well balanced difficulty, lot of humour, nicely fitting music, fun to play and discover. Just be warned, if you don't like linear platformers - you have nothing to worry! After dew hours game shows its true genre providing completely new approach on levels discovered so far. And now go and do THE THING.

Mostly neutral review, but I'm still leaning towards a thumbs down. Spoilers ahead. I have to admit that the idea is very cool: a classic platformer that introduces time travel mechanics and then turns into a metroidvania, as if to contrast the old platformer format with the modern one that's in fashion today. Very impressive visually, though I much prefer the "retro" graphics to the fancier newer ones in the second half of the game, especially in the catacombs, where the newer graphics make it tricky to spot skeletons on the ground, and in the bamboo area where it's so bright it hurts the eyes. Navigating through the levels can be very satisfying and smooth, fitting for a ninja, but not always -- many times, poor level design gets in the way. That's where the positives end, unfortunately. The level design is a big flaw. When the game is still a linear platformer, it should not encourage you to look for secrets -- it kills the flow, and at that point, you do not yet know you'll get a map later that will make all the secrets obvious, so you end up feeling like you've just wasted your time for no reason trying to transition the screen in places where it could have, but doesn't. You cannot scroll the screen up or down without moving, so sometimes you climb right up into a sliding wall that instantly crushes you. Extremely lame. Plenty of other big flaws, too. Like the wall clinging mechanic that automatically attaches you to walls -- the same thing that made me think the Spelunky remake was inferior to the classic -- I feel like a quarter of my deaths was because I clung to the walls when I didn't want to. When you're gliding and let go of the gliding button, for a frame or two, attacking will still make you swing down instead of to the front. Enemies respawning after the screen has scrolled is annoying without adding much of a challenge, and is only put there to make the game feel more "retro" -- and, at the same time, the game still has the audacity to call the lives and continues mechanic "outdated". Deaths are mostly inconsequential. In the metroidvania part, there aren't enough fast travel points -- you'll be going through the same dull rooms several times. Sometimes, the game does not make it clear enough where you're supposed to be going next, making you rely on the in-game hint system -- in particular, why the heck is the quillshroom marsh "the place where the curse is strongest"? The silly humour did not sit with me at all. You can't really call it "breaking the fourth wall" when said wall wasn't there at any point.

So much less than the sum of its parts. Its probably better than I remember but the last impression was not great. Wish it was going somewhere instead of teasing mysteries forever.

Went back to give it another chance since I really liked Sea of Stars. I still hate it. Atrocious boss designs after a while, levels "opening up" later just means pointless wandering trying to find where to go, and while it's not that important for a game like this, the writing is embarassing throughout.

This game starts off not too crazy for a 2D platformer, and rather boring honestly, and for a while I didn't feel like finishing it until my friend nudged me to keep playing. It gets better as you play, definitely missed the mark in the beginning for me, but once I got a few upgrades (after about 4-ish hours of playtime) then it started getting more fun. There's some pretty cool gimmicks and movement tech this game has to offer, and exploring gets a lot more fun once you unlock those.

Saddly cant recommend if not on sale. (Spoiler Warning for the rest of the review) I actually haven't 100% finished the metroidvania part of this game, but it's become pretty clear that there is basically no extra content, enemies, or abilities (all of which are really basic, and are not even unlocked naturally throughout the game, you buy them on the shop lol). This part basically consists of you running around places where you couldn't reach before, and doing some challenges or something. There is probably another final boss after you are done with that but it really doesn't feel worth investing time towards unless you are REALLY bored. Thats why ill probably finish this game sometime, since the gameplay is fun enough, but there are some serious flaws being commited by the devs here. Clearly, they didn't have these many resources and time to really flesh this experience out, hence why they should have picked: Do they want to make a linear adventure, or a true metroidvania? The game has 3 major flaws: 1 = Lack of actual content. Theres like 3 enemy types on every level +plus 2 more for each one. They basically all die in one hit, and one that dies in 3 but your character dishes out hits insanely fast so its basically 1. All the upgrades are either bought on the lame-looking shop interface, or gifted to you with self-aware quips about how this is a game and games have upgrades (ough i want to vomit) 2 = The CRINGE fcking writing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Its really unbearable, not funny in the slightest, and makes any investment on the world of the game impossible. Besides the millenial humour, the way information is presented is so tedious, where you end up skimming through and ignoring the actually important parts of the story. 3 = Lack of proper direction. As i said, there isn't enough content here to support 2 games. The mechanic of switching timeliness is really cool and well implemented, but its done so so late, and its not enough to keep player investment when it doesn't actually change anything other that the map layout. If there were different enemies, or mechanics, anything.. Thats why i believe the devs bit more than they could chew with this. I'd much rather 6 hours on a perfect linear game with replayability (this game has the potential for that if they spend the extra energy on it), than a drawn out nothing-burger metroidvania with le epic twist I don't know maybe im wrong. I will update the review if the rest surprises me but i highly doupt it

+ trilha sonora perfeita apenas bangers + gráficos lindos, a transição de 8-bit pra 16-bit é sempre bonita de se ver + personagens e diálogos fenomenais e engraçados. talvez o grande ponto alto do jogo, fiz questão de ler todos os diálogos com o shopkeeper + história melhor do que parece a primeira vista! + movimentação e controles muito satisfatórios, é desafiador sem parecer injusto. as novas mecânicas e movimentações são apresentadas em uma cadência ótima. no final do jogo realmente tava me sentindo um ninja pulando por aí +/- o jogo demorou pra me conquistar. joguei o início umas duas vezes antes dele me interessar de verdade, mas sou muito grato de ter continuado porque realmente fica MUITO bom e muito melhor do que o começo. - tem um momento que devemos achar lugares no mapa baseados em frases enigmáticas de um personagem, o problema é que essas frases muitas vezes não ajudam nem dão dicas relevantes pra gente achar um lugar ultra específico no mapa. [spoiler] pelo menos podemos pagar 300 shards pro shopkeeper revelar a localização exata pra gente, mas queria descobrir sem recorrer a isso [/spoiler]

[h1] Foreword [/h1] Just to preface the scathing review i'm about to give, the game is fine for what it sets out to do, it just doesn't do enough for me to justify recommending it. If this is one of the first platformers you want to play, you won't be disappointed (most likely). If you've played your fair share of platformers and are more than a novice, don't bother. I had expected more of a challenge and creativity in the platforming, since the highlight of these games tends to be fluidity of movement thanks to movement abilities, and finding solutions to sometimes difficult and puzzle-like platforming sections; only the former ended up slightly living up to standard. The story seems uninspired at the beginning but has an intriguing spin on it that kept me engaged enough to continue venturing onwards so I can't fault it too much. [hr][/hr] [h1] Actual Review [/h1] [h2] Platforming & Challenge [/h2] My biggest issues with the game are the lacklustre level design and passable platforming; the latter doesn't offer much in terms of difficulty scaling throughout the game, unless you're new to platformers. There's not enough challenge or tension to really incentivise you to play cautiously and study your environment, instead you can just face-tank a majority of obstacles since health is so plentiful once you get an odd upgrade or two, and the fact that only pits are instant-kill. Constant checkpoints don't help this problem either as they're so frequent you barely lose any progress or time upon death. Enemies are a trivial matter more than 90% of the time since they almost all die in 1 hit and pose little threat in most areas, unless you consider taking a point of damage a huge hinderance. Maybe it would be a big deal if the combination of frequent checkpoints and regular health drops from enemies and lamps didn't make death inconsequential and therefore remove any tension or stakes [h2] Level Design [/h2] The levels themselves can feel overly cramped and linear, or massively spacious and empty; neither of which are all that entertaining to navigate. It might just be a case of the level designer not having much experience or creativity in designing environments that really push the player to use the admittedly decent movement-kit to its full potential. Even in the last level, you barely feel challenged despite the difficulty of the platforming being technically harder, but only because you die if you miss time your jump or rope dart, and the objects you need to platform moving in weird and annoying patterns. The 'cloudstep' jump reset has potential for making really cool jumping puzzles but you just end up smacking your head into low ceilings or being able to spam it because the level designer really thought 5 lamps lined up horizontally wasn't enough of a safety net in already low-stakes areas, and that players would struggle without them. [h2] Visuals [/h2] As for the pixel and regular art, I can give props to some of the level themes for being unique or slight variations of the usual types you'd find in other games, but in my opinion they only really shine in the 16-bit sections. [i] Higher fidelity allowing for more depth and prettier graphics? Who would have thought? [/i] Even prior to seeing the upgraded looks of the levels, I thought the colour palettes and atmosphere was missing something to really immerse me in the world. I reckon the meagre amount of enemy types that are used in almost every level don't help with differentiating them or world-building, since you'll only find maybe a handful of enemies that appear in their own sections and are based on that area's theme. [h2] Dialogue [/h2] The dialogue might as well be the best part of the game. Conversations with the Shopkeeper were always a treat and I actively looked forward to entering the shop to be greeted with more useless but chuckle inducing stories and witticisms. Most, if not all the characters had decent dialogue that didn't stretch on too long (unless you brought it upon yourself) while still giving you a good idea of their personality. The only bit of dialogue that didn't fit in as well and dragged on unnecessarily long was an unskippable and unbearably slow lore dump right towards the end of the game. [h2] Quick-fire Round [/h2] [h3] Music: [/h3] Decent at times, sometimes even sounding better in the 8-bit, low-fidelity variant. Nothing to write home about or complain about either, doing its job and setting the scene of the level and building on atmosphere. [h3] Combat: [/h3] Passable (nothing being wrong with it apart from the odd charitable sword hitbox) but enemies being laughable and bosses being either too easy or shoddily designed don't help (Arcane Golem death-pits). [h3] Story: [/h3] Starts off lacklustre, progressively getting more intriguing, nose-diving right at the penultimate moment and ending abruptly. [hr][/hr] [h2] Conclusion / TL;DR [/h2] The Messenger has an interesting hook with the story, that is let down by boring platforming and visuals until the halfway point, at which point it switches up the flow of the game and reinvigorates the world and the player; The switch-up can't solve the most important part of a platformer: The platforming. In the end, it turns the game into backtracking and intermittent tedium. It lacks the difficulty needed to push players to improve their skills and engage in puzzles, whether they be more conventional or platforming based, instead encouraging an unengaged and meat-headed approach to all encounters due to no pushback or stakes (at least that's how it went for me). Don't be fooled into thinking that a retro and ninja gaiden-esque appearance amount to difficulty even remotely in the same ballpark.

越玩越觉得难玩。假类银真线性，跑图只是为了跑到下一段线性关卡。关键机能升级放商店，导致关卡设计束手束脚且难度曲线极不合理（但关卡设计本身还行）。 为了所谓反转惊喜导致地图设计完全没记忆点。 本体全收集后没有额外关卡和结局，我都全收集了还拿新武器有什么用？DLC吃了一口吃不下了，小船跑酷的手柄手感稀烂，跳跃的时候看不准落点。DLC怪物变得有趣了一点，部分跳跃关卡好玩，但粪关也多。 8bit时期大部分音乐还不错，换成16bit版本后难听不少。