Zapling Bygone

really cool, simple metroidvania obviously a bit awkward in places but for a solo developer, more than acceptable very good yes yes

Fairly underrated and fun. The strongest aspect is the atmosphere and setting. A little rough around the edges but still worth playing if you have the time.

Interesting metroidvania with cool ideas!

system of modifying your abilities is neat. There are some fairly big changes you can make, including movement tech, that aren't just given to your character, you have to choose to use them over something else like increasing damage or something. So this is neat. The bosses, while easy, are interesting. The story is there I guess, but it's not very clear, probably intentionally. I read portions of the collectible comics and it didn't make much sense to me. I read a synopsis of the game later, and I guess I understand the story. It's fine. The game claims to allow you to absorb your enemies powers and use them. I believe that is referring to the masks. The mask abilities stick no matter which you are wearing, so I just wore the mask with the most slots and called it a day. I don't really understand why other masks exist. So maybe I missed something. Because I was getting maps with half the slots later that I couldn't understand how they were better. I felt kinda lost at a few points, but found my way stumbling through areas. The combat is fine. The game does a weird thing with the map. I wasn't quite sure when it revealed. Perhaps after bosses? It made exploring difficult. I understand some games do this, like Silksong revealing a map after saving at a save point. Just felt unnecessary in this game. I did like how the game had areas that allow for bypassing large portions of the areas once explored. And some fast travel points. The games noises are really bad. Bouncing on the brains is just a bouncing basketball. Enemies that explode tick lick clocks. Why? Some noises were so loud comparitvely that I had to turn my volume down lower on certain bosses. I also experienced game breaking bugs and had to quit and reload. I think this game has really good bones that if they were fleshed out a bit more, would be a great game. As it stands, it's an okay game, worth playing if you don't have much else to play. I really appreciated the reference to another platformer in this game, as I enjoyed that game. Not sure if there were more. I did miss some secrets. I got 85% in game with 73% achievements in 5.6 hours. That was enough for me. Would I recommend this game, maybe if you are bored and just need a new platformer, but there are many better options out there. If it's on a big sale, just grab it and tuck it away in your library, play it one day when you have nothing you are currently playing. It's not a huge investment.

Not a fan of the level design and art style glad I got this game in some sort of bundle. just not for me.

[h1] Good but Flawed [/h1] I want to start this review off by making it very clear that although I gave this game a recommend, it only applies if you are a huge fan of the genre. The game has too many flaws both technically and gameplay wise to be a straight recommendation to most gamers, and this game really falls into the gray area between recommending it or not. There is some really good stuff here like some challenging and really fun bosses. solid platforming segments, and an interesting ability system, but there are tons of little issues that drag the game down. If you love metroidvanias, I think you'll be able to have a good time despite the issues but otherwise, I'd skip this one. [h2] Presentation [/h2] Zapling Bygone has some great pixel art graphics, that look great. The animations are really well done, especially on your main character with all of the tentacles moving naturally and flowing really well as you jump and climb your way through the world. Every area of the map feels unique and its easy to tell when you enter a new area due to the change in not only color palette but environment as well. The haunted castle area, dirty sewers, and technology covered mountain all feel distinct from each other. The music while nothing special wasn't bad at all. Unfortunately once you hit one of the late game areas a static noise loops nonstop. I'm not sure if this was a bug or if it's meant to be this way due to the nature of the game at this point but it was absolutely terrible. It probably went on for the last 2 hours I spent playing the game, and it drove me absolutely crazy. At one point it got so bad I muted the game entirely. If this was a bug then it's a very annoying one, but if this was a developer choice for this to happen, what the hell were you thinking. The cutscenes are done in a 2D comic book style and look like they were made in MS Paint. They're not terrible, but they're a stark contrast between the brilliantly done pixel art. One last thing I feel needs mentioning is that you can buy paintings that act as collectibles. These paintings I'm 99% sure are AI generated. They look terrible and no where on the store page does it mention the use of AI that I can find. If these were hand made by someone, I apologize but then maybe that's telling of your art style. They look like nothing else in the game and there are some very obvious signs of AI in them. [h2] Gameplay [/h2] The most important part of any game is its gameplay, and Zapling Bygone is a real mixed bag. On one hand you have a really interesting ability management system. You can find abilities hidden throughout the games world. These are usually well hidden secrets that you have to really look for. They can range from stat boosts, to new attacks entirely. These fall into 3 categories, circle, triangle, and square. The masks that you get from killing bosses or hidden throughout the world have different slots based on these shapes in which you can equip your abilities. One mask might have 2 circle slots and a triangle slot available, another might have no circle slots but 4 triangle slots, it's all different. I really like this as it forces you to be a little strategic about what you equip, and how you utilize your abilities. Combat also feels really good. Boss fights are a real challenge and you're rewarded with new masks and movement options. Platforming feels great and there are some really fun challenging sequences. The controls feel good, and I never felt like it was the controls fault if I died, and I felt that the bosses were well balanced, and challenged me in a good way without being too frustrating. Now for the bad. For some reason the developer decided that you had to purchase every single save point you come across. Not only is this the stupidest thing I've ever heard, it's especially stupid in a challenging metroidvania! Out of all genres why on Earth do this in a metroidvania?! There was one time where I died before regaining my currency in a challenging area, and when I came up to the boss fight for said area, I couldn't afford the save point. Unfortunately for me, there were no enemies nearby as this was a very platforming heavy segment. So I had to spend no joke, probably 30 minutes backtracking, finding enemies, and then trying to get back to this damn save point so I didn't have to spend 3 minutes platforming back to the boss after every attempt. This isn't the only area where I had to grind currency for save points either, this is just the worst offense. 20% of my playtime with this game was probably spent trying to be able to save the game. Also, for a short metroidvania, it does a very poor job of letting you know where to go next. I've seen many people say they got to areas they shouldn't have been able to and getting stuck because of it. You will hit a point at the end of the game where unless you find the one area in the entire map you're supposed to go to in order to finish the game, you won't know what to do. I understand exploration is a big part of the genre, but this just wasn't fun trying to figure out and it just felt like padding. Also, if you get hit by environmental hazards, you'll be sent back to checkpoint even if you didn't die. WHY DO THIS? THIS ISN'T CELESTE. Honestly a lot of these choices felt like the developer not having faith in the game to stand on its own, and thinking it had to be a longer experience when in reality it would've been far better without these developer choices. My last major complaint about the game is that it hides the 3 best bosses in the game behind the credits, with no hint that they exist at all. I stumbled upon them by sheer dumb luck because I was trying to get back to another area to finish getting a collectible. [h2] Conclusion [/h2] Zapling Bygone could have been a great game, outstanding even, but there are far too many issues to make it anything other than fine. While the combat and platforming is rock solid, everything else drags down the whole experience. During my playthrough I went between stages of loving it, to hating it, to just wanting it to be done, to getting sucked right back into it with the challenge of new bosses. I think fans of the genre will enjoy this game if gotten on sale, but everyone else will grow frustrated quickly. Even writing this, I don't know if a recommendation is the right call but I think it does just enough to earn it for the right people. For more reviews, follow my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40795588-Eggroll-Recommends/?appid=1444300] curator page. [/url]

Overall very good. Interesting art, responsive controls, open exploration. One of the best games I've played in a while. Nothing felt too difficult or too easy. Very well balanced overall. High on my list of short/compact metroidvanias. Definitely worth your time, but by no means perfect. There were a few issues with the map/character GPS being off, but it wasn't a huge problem until end game. My main problem was that the game provides no method to discern completion/comb through the map in end game. When a game has a 100% achievement, I think this is a poor choice. Soured the end of my experience a little. Some sort of biome completion rate, item detector, etc. is always my preference. I just don't find wandering aimlessly to be fun when I have zero clue what I am missing or where it might even remotely be found. Still, if you don't care about completion like me this game was so so cool and felt very fresh to me.

Somewhat fun, somewhat frustrating with instant death mechanics (spikes n similar). Many of the equipable skulls just feel like.. filler? they have a unique look but with the "charms" you can equip most just dont have the slots to be worth using at all

Can't even start the game, it crashes