Xanthiom Zero

Great Metroidvania game

This is a rad one. Lovely homage to early Metroid with a lot of its own flavor, a major feature being the wild customizable weapon which will have you scouring the map for new parts just to see what you can get up to. By the time I finished, I had a homing shotgun which pierced through walls, vaporizing everything in my path. Relatively short, but well worth the price. Like those classic Metroid titles, this begs to be speedrun. I don’t speedrun anything and I’ve still run this a few times chilling on my couch with the Steam Deck.

It's a great metroidvania, with good gameplay. Using different weapon combinations are super satisfying and cool.

Pros + The customizable main weapon is a real standout feature that makes this game feel unique. + Puzzles in this game strongly encourage you to understand how all your gun modifications work. + Although some of its movement abilities are staples, some like the Soul Rush are a lot of fun. Cons - Not much of a story here. - Score at the end left a bad taste in my mouth. With a good completion percentage and time and zero deaths until the final boss, I thought I did decently. Unfortunately the final boss killed me several times which dropped my score to F. - Brief. 98% completion took me 3:10 (in-game clock time) and I wasn't rushing.

It may not have the production quality of many other Metroidvanias (and I found the music rather unpleasant in some spots) but make no mistake - the is a game that knows exactly what makes its genre tick, and while it's not the longest 'Vania you'll ever play, it feels just as rich and complete as any other. Highly recommended.

This was surprisingly good! Took me 5 hours to complete, the short length has the benefit of giving the game very good pacing, you always feel like you're progressing. I really like how "claustrophobic" the game feels with its tight corridors, low resolution graphics and variable screen sizes. Areas are decently distinct, story is intriguing enough. The weapon customization mechanic is awesome and naturally makes for lots of discoverable upgrades that allow you to create your own playstyle. Pet peeve; there is only an easy and a hard difficulty, no in-between. Hard mode is generally well balanced until you hit a boss. You'll probably end up getting one shot unless you explored thoroughly up to that point. There is a skill crafting system that depends on an easily missable item. I would also recommend beelining for the upgrade that shows you breakable walls, there's some maps online that help with getting it. Overall a pretty enjoyable game for a weekend. Very much looking forward to the sequel which, based on the demo, seems to be quite more ambitious and polished.

the sound effects and music are torturing me