NoRoY

NoRoY is a delightfully gloomy and surprisingly tense 2D precision platformer that attempts to combine traditional run 'n jump movement with a foddian-style map and punishment system. Stylistically, it could be aptly described as a vertical version of Hollow Knight's White Palace, with a little bit of The End Is Nigh mixed in. There isn't any real narrative to be found here, nor any context for your character's identity or goals, but much like NoRoY's siblings in the rage climbing game subgenre, the appeal lies in overcoming a unique challenge designed with fun and fairness as secondary considerations, and in proving to yourself that you're willing to adapt and persevere. There's a lot to love in this one, from the fluid movement mechanics (which admittedly took a while to appreciate), to the oppressive & spooky ambience of the world design, to the variety of obstacles occupying the map in all kinds of claustrophobic configurations. Despite some mechanical & design issues, I ultimately enjoyed this game a lot, to the point I am still playing it even after wrapping up the achievements. The shortcomings: - The game does not run very smoothly on my state-of-the-art PC. Steam shows the framerate locked at 60 FPS during gameplay, but it has the appearance of 25-30 FPS most of the time. This hasn't really hindered my gameplay thankfully, so I haven't tried troubleshooting too thoroughly aside from turning off V-sync and reducing my monitor refresh rate to 60hz to match the game's framerate. Based on the silence from other reviewers about it, this doesn't appear to be a widespread problem. - The randomized placement of flying enemies and activation intervals for special hazards helps to keep the gameplay fresh as you traverse some of the same sections repeatedly, but it can be a real hindrance in the harder difficulty mode, often making the intended routing impossible in the moment, meaning a decent portion of player character deaths will be inevitable (unless you have divine premonition powers). - The manual quick respawn feature is ultimately convenient, but somewhat buggy at times, either placing you way lower than you likely would have landed given the level design, or sometimes putting you in a spot which you had already fallen past just a moment ago. A fast-forward ability which just accelerates the game speed while stunned would have been a more robust way to approach this in my opinion, but I'm overall still glad the current feature exists at all, despite some of the frustration it caused. - The foddian aspect of the map design is underutilized in my view, as normal mode is very generous with its checkpoint system, and impossible mode is potentially too punishing in the first half with a complete lack of intentional minor safety nets. In the latter case, this made each stretch between the few truly safe locations demanding of near perfect execution in order to avoid a guaranteed loss of multiple minutes of progress (no matter what obstacle you happened to get hit by). As such, these sections were effectively the same as self-contained levels, wherein you either win or go back to the lowest spawn point. Making any permanent progress in those instances felt comparable to clearing a Celeste B-side golden berry. - The difficulty of the game is relatively static as you progress through the map. While normal mode is functionally just a tutorial for impossible mode, both playthroughs were equally tough in the first 3rd of the map as they were in the last 3rd; it really comes down to which individual obstacles happen to be more tricky for you personally.