Zapling Bygone

Метроидвания про сгусток зеленого хайвманда, который собирает черепа. Общее впечатление - прикольная идея, но такое себе исполнение. Жонглирование черепами не раскрыто - каждый новый череп дает новую способность, типа двойного прыжка или лазанья по стенам, а дальше становится просто аксессуаром со слотами разной формы, куда вставляются улучшалки. Улучшалки тоже так себе, типа "чуть лучше бегать" или "чуть лучше прыгать". Графика неплохая, но и только. Главными минусами оказались сложность и экономика. У нас всего 4 хп, и за каждые 3-4 нанесенных удара можно подлечить один хп, сделав специальную анимацию на несколько секунд. Боссы же, да и рядовые противники, крепкие и живучие, и бить их надо долго. Неладное я заподозрил, когда меня заперли в комнате с тремя демонами с разными паттернами атаки, и надо было уворачиваться от их атак минуту или две. Когда же следующий босс оказался гигантской ползучей какашкой, от которой надо убегать несколько экранов без права на ошибку - кто упал на шипы, то повторяет весь забег - то стало окончательно ясно, что сложность выкрутили вверх. С учетом небольших размеров карты сделано это было, видимо, для растягивания продолжительности. То же и с экономикой: ключик для секретной двери в магазине стоит 150 зеленых шариков, абилка 400, а из врагов они валятся по 2-3 штуки. Вроде немного, но каждая новая точка сохранения требует 25 шариков на активацию, сводя баланс набора шариков при исследовании практически в ноль, т е хочешь закупаться - будь добр гриндить. Плохо сделали, не рекомендую.

The game is fun, and a hidden gem in the world of metroidvania games. That said, I can't recommend it. Reason being, there is a zone in the game (final zone I think (Infested Mines)) that you can access early. Once there without double jump, you can't leave and are softlocked. It seems the dev was aware of this since 2022 and nothing was said or has been done since.

+ REALLY FUN PLATFORMER - almost no heals - checkpoints are really far apart this kills the entire game. doing the same long ass bit over and over to reach the part you died at kills this entire game for me its not super hard game, its just stupid ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ far away from where you died....

It's not terrible but it has many things that soured the experience for me. I still enjoyed it a bit but sadly can't recommend it. The colour palette can be too dark. It's something difficult to see where I can or can't go. Same goes with enemies, sometimes I just don't see them. Probably my biggest frustration here. Would have prefered if everything was in pixel art. Besides the colours, the pixel art is quite nice but character art for dialog, skulls and perks in the menu are not in pixel art and they just look kinda off here. It's unfortunate that not all skulls give a permanent upgrade. So many optional ones that just aren't worth it for their slots when the ones you get for progression have good enough slots. It doesn't have to be movement abilities for each one, optional ones could get you health upgrades or something. Speaking of abilities, not the best at explaining them. My Metroidvania experience lets me intuitively know what they do but any ability you gain is never forced to use in the place you got them in to teach you the basics. You're just supposed to figure out where this new ability can even be used without being forced to try it out first. The length of the game also isn't that big for its asking price.

【6.9★】（有全护符翻译图）外星异形题材小体量银河城，全收集11小时就能完成，游戏借鉴的是《空洞骑士》那一套玩法：非线性探图，有死亡惩罚、蓄力回血和各种符文收集。能让玩家玩进去的同时探险欲和收集欲都能得到满足，我太吃这种玩法的游戏了，请给我多来点！ 这游戏比较明显的缺点是地图设计有点为乱而乱，传送点少以及各种不人性化的小设计。由于没有中文，我制作了全头骨获取方法图和全护符翻译图，各位可以参考一下。

I accidentally finished the game in half an hour and got to some late game boss with one ability It's okay. It's around a 6.5/10, worth it on a sale

It's kinda alright, but hard to recommend. The art is kinda meh. Combat is a bit weak. Some boss patterns can be fun to work out and learn though.

The highlight of Zappling Bygone is that it tries some unique and interesting things and manages to pull them off pretty well despite being pretty basic and on the easy side. For example one of the first abilities the player unlocks is wall climbing which unlocks the map in an interesting way. It's quite open too, you can go beat bosses in any order which can make certain fights or areas harder or easier depending on where you go (and which abilities you obtain) first. It also has some customisation to the character allowing you to tweak the player character to suit your playstile to a degree. The downside to all this is that backtracking is kinda annoying since you can't teleport between save stations, only designated warp points and there is far to few of them. The mechanics were a bit rough for me too, with jumping feeling a bit floaty and contact damage meaning that it was easy to take a double hit from an enemy :/ It's also a bit directionless, the game doesn't really guide you in any way through the world so it can take a moment to figure out where you should be going sometimes. This is especially annoying with such limited fast travel. However, given how short and easy the game is, these won't be as bothersoime as they would in a bigger title. I recommend getting this on a sale, it's a fun short game play through for fans of the genre :)

kindah boring to me for 10 mins you just hit some green balls and rats and plants, until you discover a big rat boss. but nothing was exciting or intuitive.

Nice medium-sized Metroidvania. Beat it on release. Original protagonist and movement system. Recommended!