Valkyrie Saga

A surprisingly varied open world platformer! I think it could do with some small visual touchups in the environmental texturework, but the character models are extremely charming, and otherwise I've never seen a game look quite like it, and I do enjoy the very saturated character and "objective" models (crystals, halos etc) contrasting with the more washed out environment, makes it very easy to read.

Definitely a maybe... If you like Pseudoregalia you will most likely enjoy this game, at least until the final encounter. You could argue that this game and Pseudoregalia share some design philosophies. This isn't inherently a problem though. We need more of this type of platformer, but this specific one needs a bit more time in the oven. What I like: - Platforming has some depth to it, and has some interesting (and very powerful) tech. - The NPCs often have useful information, or something comical to share. - The game is structured in an open-ended way, meaning there's not really any order in which you have to visit places. - Collectable things in awkward places to think about. - Dungeon-esque areas, making the world a little bit bigger than it seems. Apologies in advance for the presence of more criticism than praise, that's just how I work. What I don't like: - Combat is so-so, enemy variety is very low, and huge areas of the game don't have any enemies whatsoever. - Some abilities are a bit lackluster in presentation. - The final encounter is a frustrating experience, in my opinion. - The world map looks a bit out of place and doesn't seem very useful. Potential issues: - There's some places where your character can get physically stuck. You can always go back to your last checkpoint though, so it's not a game-breaking issue, and there's a lot of checkpoints so you won't lose too much progress. It's still an issue though. - The movement tech completely destroys any level design once you get 5 or more crystals. I did enjoy this game, by time of writing I haven't beaten it yet because of the final encounter, I guess I'll get to that later.

Sick blend of movement and exploration with a retro style that rewards both chill casual exploration as well as deeper secrets for those willing to go the extra mile. Great stuff.

Valkyrie Saga is a fun little platformer. As you progress the game seems more complex, but the levels get faster. The second floor is sort of "the wall" where you have to slug it out to continue through since the path forward isn't always clear. You can either face the challenges with technical skill or complete easier challenges to earn upgrades around the world to make life easier. Exploration is heavily encouraged. The bugs and jank like clipping into walls or getting stuck in the floor can cause quite a bit of rage at times, especially on the upper floors where save points are farther apart, but aside from that the game is fairly merciful when you mess up. You can usually wiggle yourself out of a sticky situation or skip challenges entirely by finding a loophole to the presented puzzle and using corresponding skills that probably weren't intended and glide-upgrades found through various mechanisms. You don't even need to fight enemies 90% of the time and there's always hidden secrets if you pay attention to your surroundings. Overall if I had any complaints, it's twofold: 1) That by the time you begin to beef up and get some real hit points to survive mob rushes or crystal points to perform additional acrobatic feats in-air, you're already most of the way through the game so completing additional challenges feels like a bit of a chore. 2) There is no questlog, so if you accidentally forget about a fetch quest or secret you couldn't previously reach over the course of the game, you probably won't remember. Not an issue if you play it in one or two sittings, but a much bigger deal for folks who might only have an hour at a time. Other than that I very much enjoyed the game. It was just complex enough to get the noggin' joggin' at various points so it didn't feel like a linear platformer, while just light enough for anyone to really get into and play.

Ik keep getting stuck in the floor, around the Miasma lake, when I am sprinting, help :(

Really came around to liking this tiny rough gem. The beginning can be a bit rough with the art direction being indistinct and lacking a lot of upgrades and moves. By the end it suckered me in a bit, and I look forward to any other projects the dev releases. + The grandiose scale of some of the platforming sections with how far you can fall and how far you have to go really sell the games mechanics and overall vibe + Soundtrack is solid and fit the PlayStation era atmosphere the games going for + There are plenty of secrets to find/unlock (Though most are small upgrades like increased run speed or palette swaps for your character) ~ Fighting enemies in the overworld feels pointless outside of getting achievements, as they don't really offer much outside of extremely small portions of health regen and they're almost never directly in your way when platforming ~ Some bugs during my time mostly just getting stuck a wall once and colliding into sidewalk ~ Controls I'm mixed on as things like vaulting and casting spells never fully clicked as I would do the vaulting button combination on accident a lot and spells never coming out the first time. Climbing up walls with the spear also had issues as you needed space between you and the wall, but the wall sometimes would only have sweet spots (usually on corners) where the spear would only work there. - Game states do not carry over if you turn off the game, so if you activated statues and turn off the game before getting to whatever follow-up upgrade/crystal is at the end you will need to reactivate the statue (It's usually nothing major lost but was frustrating to find out) - The mismatched art assets are definitely not doing any favors in terms of art direction. Its understandable a lot of the assets were outsourced as its a solo dev, but the differing texture work/polygon count on the environments versus the models make them stick out more. You can just see the UI during gameplay on the store page and how slapped together it looks.

Of all of the nonlinear 3d platformers I've played, this is the best. The game nails the open world style, always having the objective visible that you can go challenge whenever you want. The exploration feels rewarding, with every big area providing at least 2 of the games main powerup/collectables, making almost every major platforming challenge give a good reward. My only real negative to this game is the combat. It feels completely superfluous with only two real enemy types in the entire game, a push over standard enemy, and a slightly less push over mini boss. Not one of these enemies is mandatory, and they're barely an inconvenience, so why even have combat at all? Buy this game, it's a short (took me about 4 hours with casual exploration) platformer that can be beaten in a single sitting, definitely a good choice for a cozy weekend game.