5.7 hours played
Written 19 days ago
This may be my most controversial review on Steam yet, so here we go. Despite me playing all the way to completion (once I start the game, I will finish it, with rare exceptions where I just drop it), and almost finishing the post-game stuff, I had to put the controller down a little bit and share my thoughts on this game. It's a very hard game to review, because while I did have SOME fun and enjoyed some aspects of it, the general feel I had was a little overwhelming.
So to start things off, this is a Metroidvania game based on the popular Touhou Project franchise. As it usually go with fan games, you can expect EoSD characters, but there's also Nidori, as seen on the screenshots. I get it, the characters from Touhou 6 are popular, but oh well, it is another fangame using the same characters. This did not affect my review score or my enjoyment of the game, but I just wanted to mention.
You play as Sakuya, the maid from EoSD. As it's on her home-game, she can manipulate time and have moves based around that. You first start with a slow-mode attack that be activated by charging, and soon after, you are also able to stop time completely, which is the main gimmick of the game. While this mechanic sounds cool at first, it quickly wears off, as the game was designed around this mechanic, and it's... honestly, kinda painful.
First things of, by freezing the time, you are able to stack multiple knives (which can be upgraded with more), and throwing knives don't consume MP, but your time goes by faster. You are also able to "Easy Graze" to get MP back. Regular "Graze" is available when not frozen to time, and you get health back. Here's a big issue I have with this system, and specifically how throwing knives consume your mana.
It's just not really that fun to have to freeze time just to be able refill your mana, and later on, you unlock special abilities that also rely on mana. I haven't used them very much, outside one that is, frankly, quite overpowered, as it automatically attacks for you, in the cost of 1 mana per swing. This made bosses a little easier to beat, but it was felt cheesy (for instance, the final boss I mostly relied on this special ability, and kept just dodging stuff while the time was frozen to get back the missing Mana). It doesn't do too much damage, but it's a viable strategy.
This move also affects the environment itself. This is something that die-hard Metroidvania fans may not like it, but this ability, the same one that auto-attacks enemies, also uncovers hidden areas. This makes the exploration kinda meaningless, but to be fair, you only get this ability later on, but still. I decided to only use this one since I got it, for the exact reason that it can just uncover secret areas without me having to throw knives at random walls.
Speaking of which, secret passages are just randomly scattered through the world, without any rhyme or reason. In Metroidvanias, you can either have a slightly different wall texture and / or make so that secret areas are only on "empty spaces" of the map, together where all the other spaces around it have non-secret spaces (for example, there's 9 spots on the map, and the secret area is located on the middle, where the other 8 spots are from regular gameplay).
The more you progress through the game, the more you realize you are constantly stopping the time. You stop the time to deal with enemies, you stop the time to do platforming, you stop the time to refill your mana, and so on and so forth. Another big issue I have with this system is that, we all know that the Touhou franchise has some banger songs. Well, guess what happens if you stop time? Yeah, the song gets muted. I sorta get it, but honestly, they should either make the song slightly slower, distorted, or go with the same approach that Touhou 13 Ten Desires did, having an alternate track. While an alternate track may not be as good as the regular one, it would still keep the song playing constantly throughout the game.
Another HUGE problem I had with this game is an unlock you get later on, that lets you use your knives as platforms when you stop time. The problem is that, during bosses, these tend to get in your way, as even VERTICAL KNIVES makes you unable to go left or right. Yeah, seriously, that's a thing that can happen. Okay so, just don't throw knives before freezing time? Oh well well, once you get that upgrade, you would already have in your arsenal another upgrade that lets you double jump. But unlike other games, the double jump actually throws two knives below. This can actually be used to deal with enemies, but it's also the BANE OF MY EXISTANCE when I freeze time, because these fricking knives fall vertically, and it blocks your passage during the worst moments in boss fights.
Now, before anyone says about skill, I don't think the game should make an UNEQUIPPABLE upgrade have an disadvantage. You are already dealing with the boss that is constantly shooting stuff at you, and, the your own knives are hard to read when there's multiple other things happening on the screen. It's just not fun. This can sometimes get in your way during the exploration part of the game, but isn't too often. I honestly believe that the upgrade should allow you to climb knives stuck to walls, and make so that knives have a little bit of delay before they fell to a wall. You can use this mechanic to dodge attacks of some bosses, however, even though most of the time it gets in your way instead.
One last thing about bosses is that, every boss have a "last attack" they can do. They are more powerful and more difficult to dodge, however, they are always interrupted by a couple of line of dialogues that can disrupt gameplay.
The game also has a health/mana-refill vending machine (that is free), and a save point, these are separate. Sure, that's fine, I can see the game letting you refill your stuff but not let you save, but there's a problem... You see, save points don't refill your things, but, if you die, you are returned to that save point with full health and mana. So... why doesn't the save points refill your stuff? When I realized this, I reached a save point when I had very little HP. I was like, oh no, do I have to go back with this little HP? This will be challenging... Then I realized that the game refills once you die. A strange design decision.
The art direction of the game is nice, but I do feel a bit odd with the choice of design on the characters themselves. It goes for a regular body-proportion while also being chibi (large heads). I felt like it didn't match the overall tone of the game and also the environment. The pixel art animation and everything is all top-notch, but the characters themselves, I don't know man. Probably just a me thing.
One last thing, which is more of a nitpick. The game's story was quite average. [spoiler]Remilia is bored so she made a world to have fun. And the most obvious thing happen in the end, who didn't say that coming!?!? But to be fair, it had some twists and turns here and there.[/spoiler]. The English translation is pretty decent, outside one dialogue that had a space problem, and another that was translated to "It can't be helped", a common Japanese to English mistranslation.
While I had an okay experience, I ultimately wouldn't recommend this game. While the concept of freezing time sounds cool on paper, it just doesn't really work here. There's way too many mechanics based around stopping time, and even your basic ability, throwing knives, cost mana. Although there are games that this works (see YOHAZE Deep Blue), here, it just makes the game very samey.
If you want a more fleshed out experience from the same devs of this game, try out "Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-". It's a great Metroidvania with some neat ideas, such as absorbing projectiles in the same way that Ikaruga does (light and dark), and a much better map-layout and secret area placements.
5/10
