Oh cool, I didn’t get kicked for inactivity yet. Let’s see if I can keep it that way.

Roguelite. Left/right move, A double-jumps, X attacks, Y uses your equipped magic attack, B dashes, R interacts (when applicable), and L uses a healing potion. This takes the Rogue Legacy approach of haivng pre-designed rooms chosen at random instead of true procedural generation, but keep in mind the game is still very linear: levels are never much bigger than 5x5 rooms, and you’re always looking for the specific door-room that leads to the next level. You can buy permanent upgrades and rescue prisoners who will offer free equipment for the start of all your future runs, but besides that, this is one of those “back to the beginning” roguelites where you have to replay every level and boss to get back to where you were, and if you’ve never liked that, this game won’t change your mind. Technically, the game does have checkpoints, but you don’t get one until after beating the third boss…and it only lets you start future runs right after the first boss (same for beating the 4th to get a checkpoint right after the 2nd), so you still have to play 60% of the game in a row at minimum to beat the game.

However, while I really wasn’t a fan of the game’s checkpoint system, I should give it praise for getting almost everything else right, including stuff I haven’t seen another game get right in a long time. Controls are solid (there’s a bit of momentum when you stop, but the platforming challenges never get precise enough for it to be an issue), healing potions work instantly without interrupting you (no forced delay/movement-hinderances like Dark Souls, etc. have), and enemies/bosses are rather fairly designed so no matter how the RNG plays out with your equipment, you can always reliably take them down. I even beat the final boss the first time I made it there. Also, when you hit-stun an enemy, they actually stay hit-stunned as long as you keep up the pressure; no abrupt breaking out of it like I’ve seen other games do. But the part I really want to praise: you can walk forward while attacking! I can’t remember the last game of this ilk that actually lets you do this. In other words, if a hit-stunned enemy is about to be pushed out of your attack range before dying, you can just…move forward…without stopping your attacks. It’s beautiful. Sadly, you can’t dash out of your attack animations, but I guess nothing’s perfect.

Unfortunately, the game does have some of what would otherwise have been minor issues that–when combined with the checkpoint system–are gonna make you wanna prioritize health and defense upgrades before any others, assuming you don’t just give up outright. Hurtboxes for certain attacks can hang around just a bit longer than it looks like they should; some attacks (flying enemies preparing projectiles) have foreshadow animations that are so long, they loop back around to not having any; a few foreshadow animations can be ambiguous as to how the attack will play out, meaning you can’t really react to them on your first encounter; dark rooms make it harder to see certain projectiles or red light on the ground that indicates an attack coming from the floor; and of course, there’s my old pet peeve of level design needing to flatten itself out to accommodate the more hack-‘n’-slash-y enemies who aren’t really designed around you being able to take on more than one or two at a time, but the game still occasionally spawns incompatible ones in the same spot. Magic could help due to its range, but once your magic meter is empty, that’s it unless you stumble across low-spawn-rate magic potions or a magic-recharge station. On top of this, when you kill an enemy, you actually do have an extra delay added to that specific attack, which–depending on your equipment–absolutely means the difference between keeping the other nearby enemy hit-stunned or said enemy getting a hit off on you. The worst is when you finally make it to the fifth zone and encounter red-light areas that slow your movement. They’re not like water–you can still only double jump–but both horizontal and vertical movement is slowed greatly, making it (next to) impossible to avoid certain enemy attacks (particularly the ones that just summon hazards near you, regardless of your or their positions). Honestly, this issue by itself made me second-guess my recommendation.

Still, the game is pretty good overall if you don’t mind the game’s checkpoint system. If you like these types of roguelites, you’ll probably enjoy this game, too.