Undivine

There are many unknown indie metroidvanias that are kinda crap but this one turned out decent. Reminds me a bit of other ones that turned out alright, like [b]Plague of Yamorn[/b], [b]Kalinur[/b], [b]Far Star[/b], [b]Realm of I[/b] or the much bigger [b]Mortal Manor[/b]. You might think this game is a soulslike, but it doesn't have a lot of the soulslike elements you'd expect from one. There are no corpse runs and I didn't notice a punishment for dying. In fact I killed myself a number of times deliberately so I can respawn elsewhere to move around the map quicker. The map could be better, requiring you to use map markers to get by for any place you might need to revisit. There's quite a lot of backtracking and it can get a bit arduous at times, particularly when you are trying to complete sidequests that involve revisiting rooms you had previously explored. I played through and got the bad ending. I may play some more later and go for the good ending, but because I need to re-check every room multiple times due to the aforementioned map problems, I'm unlikely to go back and finish the game properly. I did enjoy my time with this one though. ..just enough that it gets the thumbs up from me |b

Awesome Dev who's active with the community and fixes bugs as they are being announced and a great little metroidvania I highly recommend this

This game definitely deserves a lot more attention. It's a gem for Metroidvania nerds who enjoy the rewards of exploration and just the right amount of difficulty for someone new to the genre. I absolutely love the minimal pixel style combined with the snappy combat. Looking forward to diving further into the map to see what else is hiding.

I think I'm done. First of all, this has all the hallmarks of a good microvania. The levels and abilities are well designed. However, what I can't get is just how atrocious the combat is. There might as well be no combat at all. Enemies do not have any sensible attack animations. There's no windup, no telegraph, they're just there and then boom, you get damaged. So all you're doing is running around, keeping your distance, and attacking. There's stagger at least, but not by much. All in all, this is a decent amateur venture into the world of metroidvanias, with sweet writing and good music, but ultimately falls short due to gameplay. Good luck with the next one!

*Edit: I'm keeping my original review below preserved exactly as I wrote it. I just want to mention that the dev acted on my feedback and player knockback versus enemies has been improved a lot. Also, there are now multiple ways to heal without needing to strictly rely on potions, and potion drop rates appear to have improved a lot* My playtime is approximately 2 hour at the time of this review, and if I have significant additions later I'll add that in to my review. The dev wrote on reddit that a playthrough is 6-10 hours, so by all measures I'm pretty early in the game. [h2] The Good [/h2] This is a polished game and I think with a few minor changes it will be a staple of the Metroidvania genre. Exploring the map is fun and I enjoy the oldschool artstyle. There's nice enemy diversity and platforming challenges. Different regions are distinct and interesting. I like the talent system, questing system, inventory system, and stats. There is a map accessible to the player within minutes of beginning, and can be opened quickly. The ability to add markers to the map can be unlocked with talents with only 10 minutes of mob fighting via a talent. [h2] The Bad [/h2] I have two critiques so far that may be addressed later in the game, but are rough design choices for now. I'll try to describe these in a constructive way. Other people may disagree with these, but this is my two cents: 1) You don't regenerate health over time, and potions are single use items found in chests that don't restore on death. This means if you fight a boss and use all your supplies on one attempt you'll have zero supplies for the next attempt. Thus far I've only found potions rarely, maybe in 20% of the chests I've opened. This design choice needs to be reexamined by the developer in my opinion. The player should always respawn with a few potions, otherwise beating bosses becomes really hard after the first attempt. I also see one vendor selling potions for what amount for roughly 10 minutes of mob grinding's worth of currency for 1 potion, and she only has a total of 5. 2) My other critique is my weapon has very little knockback unlike in Hollow Knight where precise strikes keep an enemy from reaching you. This means I'm taking some damage every time I fight an enemy since there's a small distance where I can hit them, and once I'm in melee range they walk to me with no noticeable knockback from my strikes. The combination of minimal potions + taking damage from every enemy feels bad as a player, which is unfortunate since I think this game does a lot of things right.

Great 10 hour MV for under $10. A couple small hiccups, but easy patches and the core design was impressively competent especially for the price point. I hope this game doesn't fly under the radar, would love to see more from the dev

Feels very old school. I like the simple pixel look. I recommend the static jump over the dynamic jump. Static feels like a castlevania while dynamic lacks any height momentum. You drop the second you let go of the jump button in dynamic jump mode.

Played on OG 512 Steam Deck without issues. I received this as a gift and glad I did otherwise I would have slept on it. It’s dark I know but it’s not really an issue and just because it’s dark doesn’t mean it’s time to sleep, it’s time to stay awake and play this little gem.

Solid metroidvania that scratched the itch. There were several interesting mechanics I hadn't seen before in the MANY games I've played in this genre. There were several bugs I ran into but developer had a VERY QUICK turnaround on resolving them. The game should take about 5-7 hours for seasoned veterans, so it was rather short. Even on expert level, the combat difficult was rather easy as I killed most enemies in 1-3 hits by the middle to end of it and the true end game boss only hit me about 2 times. The mapping wasn't bad but I can see some people complaining about some of the TP and save locations including the limited options for marking map. However, I actually found the mapping rather enjoyable, especially when I received the extended dash ability as it felt like I was speedrunning the map. Finally, for me, I believe the music was the strongest point. It definitely got me in the mood and set the atmosphere. It meshed very well in the game. Overall, a very solid metroidvania and by a solo developer nonetheless. I felt if developer had an actual team to help further expand the ideas and mechanics behind this game, something truly special would've happened. Great work!

[h1]非神之地：没有中文，但值得一试的像素类银作品[/h1] 《非神之地》是一款中规中矩的银河战士恶魔城游戏，像素风格偏复古，探索、能力解锁、区域穿插这些元素一个不少。整体上属于熟悉的配方，熟悉的味道，喜欢类银玩法的玩家上手会非常快。 优点在于系统齐全、关卡结构合理，探索路线清晰，装备、天赋、遗物三套体系支撑下来的养成感也不差。尤其是遗物系统和能力锁设计得颇有诚意，一步步扩展地图的过程带来了不小的成就感。 不过本作的最大问题就是——没有中文。作为一款文本量不低的类银作品，这让初见玩家在技能、地图提示、道具理解等方面几乎寸步难行。不查词典根本玩不动，翻译软件全程挂着都觉得信息断层明显。 此外，目前键位不可自定义也是一大遗憾，操作逻辑偏硬，手感算不上流畅。 总结一下：《非神之地》是一款系统扎实、内容充实的传统类银游戏，但语言门槛过高严重影响了整体体验。如果你英文过关并且喜欢经典式的恶魔城探索玩法，可以放心入手；否则建议观望，等后续支持中文后再尝试也不迟。 [table][td]欢迎关注鉴赏家[url= https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45519015/]“无趣评测”[/url][/td][/table]