Winds Of Arcana: Ruination

Unfortunately I reached a point where I can no longer continue the game. The platforming got too complicated and hard for me. Still the game gets a positive review from me. It does everything someone would expect from a Metroidvania and it does it nicely. The characters are fun, the voicing is really good. The bosses are challenging and took me quite some tries. The skill and weapon systems are not too complicated but still engaging enough to try different playstyles. And I like the graphic and art style very much. The only negative thing I have to mentioned (beside the platforming being way too difficult for me) is the music. I turned it off pretty soon, because it was very monotonous and making me drowsy. This game could really need some epic soundtracks, at least for the boss battles.

Game is a mess. Hitboxes are awful. Found 1 fast travel after almost 10 hrs meaning you're running back and forth through large interconnected areas throughout the game. Attack and and platforming inputs get eaten. The ability to phase shift platforms involves the jump button, the dumbest idea ever, so using it while platforming and dashing is just awful. You discover the map sections by finding specific things but tons of areas I never found it so the areas weren't unlocked, and were so annoying to get around. Required upgrades are found in random spots throughout the map meaning you can't miss a single room or random area you HAD to know to go to fight a boss, so be ready for walkthroughs. Thats because the quest and map give very poor directions, theres tons of little boxes with icons, and the gold ones seem to be main quest objectives, but it will also include NPCs you've already talked to. Map also doesn't give basic info like blocked walls, etc, bc they want to use this stupid useless screenshot system. The maps also have 20000 ways to go and interconnected paths but 95% of them are switch or ability blocked, meaning you'll get far then have to backtrack but again the map won't give you information so you won't remember you can't go that way next time. Attack and platforming and enemy animations are janky. Sometimes when attacking your character will just get stuck in the air for a second or two, it looks super weird and buggy. I finally gave up because a wall I was supposed to be able to break to get a necessary wall jump ability to progress in the game would not break like it was supposed to, one of the MANY bugs people mention. Healing also is way too slow and sucks during boss fights. Tries to be POP but fails in almost every MV aspect. Should have listened to the reviews and skipped this one. 4/10