Windmills

Action platformer that avoids being sucked into the souls genre while still having an interesting parry mechanic. If you don’t want to learn attack patterns, the game probably won’t be enjoyable. The story is about a son looking for his lost father. As you advance, you learn more about witch hunting and an ancient line of hunters, so it's not as generic as it first appears to be. The diary, which is quite simple and just provides a sentence or two about subjects like abilities and inventory, is where the most of it is written. The fun part is the narrator who comes in with description of what transpired or dismissal of your death as "that’s not what happened". They’re also unreliable; an enemy might switch to another type just because the narrator made a mistake. Because this feature is used rarely, it does not overstay its welcome. Despite using only two buttons, attack and parry, combat is challenging. To be able to successfully parry, like in any game of such type, one must get familiar with enemy attack patterns. You won't progress in this game if you don't like the mechanic. The key is timing your parry perfectly; if you do it too quickly, you won't have time to parry again. If you are hit three times, you die. I feel like the game ruins the experience with cheap shots. Some enemies announce an attack that ends in two ways: either they attack normally or they hold the attack for a second longer just to make you waste a parry. There’s no way of knowing because they both have the same animation. Other challenging situations are when you are being attacked by two different enemies at once and you are unable to follow patterns or when an enemy parries your strike and earns a free attack. You can subdue an enemy with a successful attack, increasing the damage after subsequent parry. Stamina is not an issue because it does not exist. Your hero also has a quick combo and good sword range. You will also learn to appreciate dodge or "sliding on the floor" because it negates some damage and is very useful later in the game. A good parry also allows you to regain some health, which can be used to your advantage if you know how to do it well. I might even call it an exploit. You might receive damage from the first combo strike and still have time to parry the third strike because of a brief period of invincibility when hit. However, you can only heal after parrying a melee blow. Finally, any strikes, including magical ones, can be parried. This allows you to then send this magic back on your subsequent strike, which is a nice mechanism. Of course, there are exceptions with stronger attacks that hit several places at once. Enemies are great overall because there are many unique and different types that aren't recycled across the game. Bosses are extremely dangerous. As usual, when you remove enough health, they add a special attack to their arsenal. When they eventually die, this special attack becomes yours. Due to the fact that it can be used only once and has to be recharged by killing several enemies, you use it only when absolutely necessary. Unless you rest at a save point, which is a much better way of recharging. Platforming is a big part of the game and the main reason for my deaths and frustration. There are many platforms on stages that collapse beneath your weight or need a perfect jump. The bottom of the fall usually has a sea of sharp spikes that instantly kill you. You will come across platforms throughout the entire game, but it's not a deal-breaker since you can always respawn in the nearest tent or portal if you die. By the way, you don’t lose anything upon death. Although you do learn traversal techniques like wall climbing and drop attacks, the game is largely linear and not all that thrilling aside from the new environments' unique backgrounds and enemies. When the game gives you the option to travel left or right, one path has an obstacle in the way, while the other has a solution. In spite of this, there isn't much backtracking because the stages are not that expansive. Helping out friendly and intriguing NPCs you meet along the road is not considered a side quest because you must complete their tasks in order to advance. There are no surprises or flashy new items, therefore the use of portals to move between stages is pretty much pointless. Most adversaries can be skipped because the experience points obtained from slaying them don't seem to deliver anything other than a "level up" message and a new rank. My attacks may have gotten stronger, to be fair, but I can’t tell for sure because it is never addressed. Another thing that’s never explained is the night-day cycle you can change when saving at a tent. I saw no difference between the two. Pixel art is amazing. Characters and enemies got more love than environments, but it still does the job. Except for the small castle area, none of the locations are memorable. It's mostly forest and caves.

I haven't finished it yet, but at this point I'm not feeling driven to. I've played a ton of souls-like/metroidvania games and this one just kinda falls flat. I think I'm around halfway, so I'll just share my Initial impressions in case this is the last time I load it up. In the beginning, it's very promising and fun, but it gets very tedious and frustrating quickly. I'm fighting the desire to go on a rant about the timing chosen for the move sets, and the enemies ability to ignore those rules; suffice it to say that the control in this game is clunky at best and honestly needs to be revisited to be considered 'responsive'. In it's current state, it's just a bit of a mess, and kind of feels like trying to run through mud. For some enemies, attack animations are identical up to the point-of-no-return; as someone new to the game, it seems to be 50/50 about whether my timing is spot on, or misidentified leaving me with 5-10 frames of inactivity . Maybe a seasoned veteran who has put 100's of hours into this game will be used to the timing of it all, but the central mechanic of this game (parrying) is honestly kind of hurt by it. Also, successfully parrying an attack will still leave you open to additional attacks, because your character is forced into a delay even after a successful parry (sorry, I didn't want to rant about it, but I had to at least get THAT off my chest). I bought this on a lark and I wanted it to be good, but I honestly can't recommend it. Still, at $20 it's not terribly expensive; take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Game has nice boss fights, and hits the old game metroidvania nostalgia gland pretty well. The game is quite punishing, (which has some extreme cases though), and needs some polishing. Never the less I would recommend it for the people that like old-school SNES games, and especially for its price i'd say it's worth it to give it a go! PS: Game plays flawlessly on Linux with Proton.

Заебок! Четко.

I've been following this project since its earliest stages, it is a labor of love from a solo dev who achieved to create a very charming metroidvania. One of its strenghts is the way that the unreliable narrator is revealing the game lore while you make progress and the twists on the story depending on how him remember some of the events, but it is not the only cool thing from this game, the whole set of features work nicely together, it is a must have for any fan of metroidvanias and/or platformers

This game is a great edition to the Souls-like Metroidvania Genre. It has a distinct combat system that puts you more in the aggressor position than the defendant. The parry mechanism is one of the most precise ones I have ever experienced. The Pixel Art in the graphics is tremendous, especially in the design of the main characters, such as the protagonist. The dialogs are funny and and the story is very interesting. Overall, if you want a challenge, this game is for you. Prosopal for future update, First Hit = Permadeath :)

ehh. Maybe. It reminds me of Skelethrone but its a lot harsher to try and get into.

Poorly designed game that doesn't respect your time. At least in the beginning, enemies don't drop ANYTHING, and you're given a way to just SKIP them by dashing... what kind of game is this? What do you think I'm going to be doing? Of course you get super punished when you die and have to redo the whole level, how fun. Parry heals you because.. why wouldn't it? Well because it means you only have 3 hits before you die (and waste your time) since you can always re-heal, can't have it too easy.

When only one person tries to make a game, they risk between making something bad, lacking the time and tools, or something truly inspired as they can deliver unhinged expression. This is the latter. I don't remember how long it was since I saw something so "classic". This was an adventure, a good, and I guess, personal fairy tale. To the naked eye, some things may be misinterpreted as imperfections, but if you follow the story blended tutorial, and follow the simple texts the developer gives to progression, everything makes sense, from combat mechanics to backgrounds. It's indie games like this that can really take your mind away from a bad day at work. Much better from many triple A titles. I don't know if the developer has used all their brain power on this, but I sure look forward to anything else they have to offer.

Windmills is a game with a whole lot of potential. The game definitely deserves more love and players because it could have turned into a small Indie Gem. The visuals are beautiful to me and I appreciate the unique way of story telling so far. Most of the combat was enjoyable to me, but there are some things, which need polishment. The combat feels really satisfying, featuring a well used parry and deflect style. The rest of the world isn't as serious as the general story, but that features a unique charme with a surprising sense of humor. Encountering new Bosses felt exciting. I'll definitely always keep this Indie Pearl in mind, when thinking of metroidvania. To any potential buyers, I must warn: The game was still fun to me, but I encountered many bugs and questionable hitboxes. For example, I managed to get stuck in the floor, walls and moving platforms 4 times in my first hour of playtime. Other design choices didn't necessarily feel rewarding. The dialogues aren't always perfectly matched depending on the order of things, you're doing. In conclusion, the game felt quite retro and was fun to play even though I had to ignore the bugs, the clunkiness and some questionable design choices (for example checkpoint placement). There was no actual map of the levels, but I managed to guide myself through the Layers of Windmills quite well so far. I'm looking forward to enjoy the rest of this unique experience! And I feel very sorry, the game didn't get enough attention for the developer to further update and polish it further.