Afterimage

I liked it. Good artstyle, big world, lots of equiment and secrets. It was maybe a bit on the easy side and the story could be better. Took about 30h for the main story. There's some aftergame content, independent stories which I didn't care so much about.

I've been playing this a lot on steam deck and some on PC, so the game time above will show incorrectly. I've got maybe 3 or 4 hours in game right now? I play a lot of metroidvanias. I own tons of them. I can be pretty picky with them, as well. This game stands among the very top of the genre. It's one of the most beautiful, technically complete and rewarding metroidvanias I've played. That said, it isn't without its flaws. Firstly... its huge. Is that a flaw? Maybe. When I say huge I mean really huge. I couldn't believe when I saw some of the quest markers... I literally had to scroll past screens worth of black area on the map (undiscovered areas) to find my objective. It's going to take a lot of time to move that far across the map, especially one with so many nooks and crannies as this. This game is not for the faint of heart. I'm sure you could easily dump a hundred hours or more into this. Second thing I consider a flaw is the dashing. It has no i-frames. Yup. There, I said it. No i-frames on the dash. You cannot dash through enemies. The way the game works is as long as you aren't pushing left thumbstick, if you just hit the dash key it does a back step dash. That's your avoidance. Well, either that or jump up and dash over. I just find this system so basic... and it lacks the true feel of a good combat system like in a souls like. I mean it works.... most of the bosses and enemies have been tuned specifically for the distance on your back step. If you use a slightly longer range weapon, judge your distance well, and use back step you can avoid most basic ground attacks. That said, I really wish this had a normal dash with i-frames. The worst flaw though. The thing that will make or break you... the abundant preschool level dialogue and story design. Yeah sorry, you have some of the most awful, awful tropes here. Main character is waifu, which is fine... but accompanied by stupid, childish, unnecessary floating toy companion with really annoying, screechy high pitched voice? Yup, that's in the game. Conversations read like something out of a pre-schooler's text book on how to make friends? Yup, that's in the game. Don't get me wrong... the actual story is good. The minute by minute dialogue though, and how the events play out... get ready to be back reading at a 4th grade level. Ok, enough of the flaws. This game has positives in spades. This is one of the most beautiful metroidvanias out there, hands down. The colors are vibrant and vary so much from biome to biome. The backgrounds have just enough detail to add to the experience, and the foreground platforms have enough level to make movement clear, but enough of a natural edge to look more organic. The artwork is superb. The characters look great as well, and the voice acting is good (though see above for the content of the dialogue). The enemy designs are varied and colorful and fun. Really such a great job by the art team here. The sound design... oh my goodness the sound design here is superb. The thumping clangs and whacks of combat, the goopy squishy sounds when you kill jellyfish, even the soothing background tracks.... all really well done. A+ sound design here. I strongly recommend a great pair of headphones for this game! The weapons and abilities are really great. You get a number of different types of weapon, and basically you just pick whatever two you like and go with it. Maybe you change up for certain boss fights? Or maybe just to give yourself a change of pace from now and then? Great options. Each weapon feels a bit different. They aren't really evolving the game play but they do add just enough change to how you play that it works. This isn't a precision platforming game, but it has some really cool platforming nonetheless. You have to time well, and there are areas you will need to try a few times to get. Combos of falling, dashing, weapon swinging in mid air all work to help work you through various obstacle courses. It's really quite relaxing in this game, and takes your focus most of the time. The balance of platforming and combat here is really just well done. The spells are a bit limited so far, but from the skill tree I can see there are going to be a lot more options so I'll just leave a placeholder here for that. In either case, this is primarily a melee combat game. The difficulty is on the easier side, but I'm playing on normal. It has a harder difficulty mode. I have no need for it, I've found the game fun and relaxing in every way I appreciate. If you are looking for a souls like though, this isn't it. This is definitely more of a hack and slash. Ultimately I think this is one of the best metroidvanias on the market for you if you love good artwork and vibrant colors, and if you enjoy playing a kind of casual but still focused game that never ends. You do get more powers, ability points, and grow over time which helps keep things fresh... but you aren't looking for really tight, deadly combat. Other games offer that. This one offers something much more sublime.

It is a pretty game. It is very long as far as Metroidvania are concerned. It is just too vague. The story begins similar to many JRPG's but assigns confusing names to characters and objects. I hang on hoping that the environmental storytelling would bring some clarity, which it does. There are places that you can end up that if you defeat the boss ends the game without really telling you that is what happened. I have swept almost all of the areas of the map and still have areas that I cannot access or require a story item to open access to. As others have noted, the game lacks clarity of where you are supposed to go or what you are supposed to do. I've played the genre since it the beginning with the original Metroid and Castlevania on NES. I would say in terms of vagueness this would line up close to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest on NES. It took a guide to be able to complete the game. There was one location that required you to squat and hold it for something like 10 seconds to be able to access the next area. Afterimage has some of that similar jank. It could be a good game but falls just short.

This game is amazing! The map is 20 times larger than Hollow Knight, but in such a good way. It interconnects through tons of different biomes, there is fast travel and a *Spoiler* way to travel the world which I wont mention here. The gameplay is tight, the graphics are great, the upgrades and systems are the best in the business. This is the most underrated metroidvania ever released. 20x bigger than Hollow Knight, 10x better than Ender Lillies and just as beautiful as Ori (well almost :p). BUY IT NOW

i truly loved this game so much, i played hollow knight, ori, and so many other metroidvania games and this one is on the top of the list for me. beautiful graphics, amazing challenging boss fights, and story as well. i enjoyed every second playing this game and i hope ill see more games like this from you in the future!

This is one of the best metroidvanias out there, and is really exceptional at what it does well. Most concretely, this game absolutely nails effective exploration. There are many different kinds of items to find, the rpg elements of leveling and monster item drops make even less-successful secret hunts still feel valuable, the maps are huge and filled with items and paths to find, and your movement tools are very powerful and satisfying. It's also worth really emphasizing that this game is huge - you will constantly have more places to explore and you'll constantly find that what you expect to be a small place to clear out ends up being entire new zones. Exploration is really what makes this game excel and if you're specifically focused on other goals - strong narrative, heavy combat focus, challenging platforming - you might find that afterimage feels diluted with everything else in the game. Those elements aren't bad, but the focus on exploration and the sheer size of the game mean that most of your experience is going to be some form of exploration and at times other elements can feel secondary as a result. (Also as a note on the story: It's neither as incoherent or as confusing as some people like to claim, but it does expect that you're okay wandering without having much specific direction and that you're okay not understanding a lot of details until you get more context from the worldbuilding.) All in all though, this game has seriously impressed me and truly stands as one of the best in the genre. Not every fan of the genre will agree, but those who like this game will probably be similarly impressed.

I can't comment on it for metroidvania experts, but as someone who doesn't normally play metroidvanias, I've had a lot of fun with this game. So, if you're not really an avid player of the genre, I can recommend it for sure (Maybe even to avid players of the genre, but I just can't comment on that since it wasn't my experience). It's fun enough that I'll definitely be poking around for similar games once I finish this one (but I'm not in a rush because I enjoy having this game to just open up and chill and play for a while). The art is pretty, the music is really relaxing, and I like all the different weapons. The only real place I think it needs some improvement is that it's not really clear where you're supposed to go, but at the same time, the game is fun enough that I was able to take a long break and then pick it back up and now I'm back in the groove again. Just look up a map I guess! (It worked for me!)

I loved Afterimage. The game-play and combat are fun and satisfying, there are some very fun boss fights, and the graphics and atmosphere are gorgeous. Lots of weapons and interesting ways to build out your character. Has a very unique take on NG+ (I wouldn't even call it that), which is a second playable character with a different perspective on the events you played the first time through. The story on the other hand is almost incomprehensible, especially on the first play-through. By the time I finished the NG+ content I had a fairly good idea of the plot, but between mediocre translation from the original Chinese, and just generally opaque writing and a amnesiac protagonist.... just go along with it and kill stuff. You'll have fun.

wow, what a game! After watching many enthusiasts gush about Afterimage, I purchased the game and kinda forgot about it. Well after completing Astalon while looking over my library deciding what to play next I landed on Afterimage and boy am im sure glad i dd. This game is spectacular. It is immersive and enormous, seriously it is massive. Going into it I saw folks complaining it was too large and that the story wasnt as enthralling as they would like, for me i couldnt care less, no offense to the devs but i just do not care about the story in almost all games, i am here to play not watch anime or whatever, im smashing thru all the dialog scenes(Thanks for that opportunity and not punishing me with making them not skippable), not only did I thoroughly enjoy this game but I would say it's one of the best of the genre I have played. I couldnt put it down, I beat it and then kept going back to explore more and to try and complete every section of each town/village in the game. It is super fun, the combat felt great and the game was a blast overall. I do have to tip my digital fedora at whichever dev came up with the Cradle finish, not because it's markedly different from the other sequences but because of the Alice in Chains reference, well done, when I saw that I decided alright time to put this down and close the game out on a serious high note. I really looking forward to the next iteration of Afterimage. This is a masterpiece, well done

Not sure why this is mixed, this has EVERY aspect an avid metroid gamer would want. Incredible story, super chill soundtracks (I fking love the soundtracks) and a HUGE map for lots of exploration. Did a great job on the enemy variety as well. The story is deep and sometimes not easy to follow as you have to double back to other maps a lot, but all the dialogues ultimately intertwine at some point. I love this game, lots of content. Do not read the reviews, go for it trust. The only complaint I have is the lack of a parry system, lotta dodging during the boss fights but it's really fun and also the devs kind of dropped the ball on the cover and character choice. The character's look does not fit this type of game imo and may sway some folks away from the game.

i really enjoy the game, battle, story and else are incredebly wonderfull. even make me rethink about life. story really depict how human are. but one factor that make me dont really like metroidvania genre is the map structures. sometmes make me confused and give me a headache, no quest pointer, only a map guide that i found on reddit. but afterall its a pretty good and beautifull game

I don't know why so many give this game negative reviews. I really like this one. Art Style is beautiful, music goes almost perfect with the ambience. Some skills are bit wonky and annoying to use (like Windwalker's Anklet / Divekick is a bit random some times, or my controller is getting too old) but still this is good metroidvania game. Don't give negative reviews only because you did not try hard enough, or because the game is not better than your favorite metroidvania game :)

Honestly was 50/50 about giving it a good or bad rating. The map is huge, bigger than any other metroidvania I've ever played. While that sounds great, eventually there is so much to explore that I hit a point where I just want to be done with exploration. If you follow just the main story, the game will take you through maybe 30%-40% of the game's map. The combat is neat but once you figure out the greatsword animation cancel with that one move where you hold up and swing the sword and keep cancelling it with a backstep and repeating, it trivializes the bosses and enemies. Ended up killing a level 76 boss at level 60. Also, having levels in a metroidvania is more of a con to me. I ended up exploring a lot and unintentionally overleveling which lead me to deleting bosses without even using the greatsword cancel. I ended up beating the game without even knowing I could enhance my weapons. I liked that there were multiple weapons that fit your playstyle. Sword, Scythe, katana, dualblades, whip, greatsword and probably missing one. Each one has it's own pros and cons. The art is beautiful, the game is very pretty. Story was mildly interesting but it gave an enormous lore dump in the first hour of the game and that almost made me stop playing. I got the 1st ending in about 9 hours, then I tried to explore the rest of the map, but as I said it's way too large for me to enjoy without the desperation of wanting to be done with the map. I'm the type of person that loves any and all metroidvanias but this one is a mixed bag for me. Theres pros and cons but yea. That's my 2 cents.

This is the first metroidvania I have played, and I regret my choise. I wouldn't call this game outright bad, but it is definitely not good. The music and art is great, and that is generally the only thing going on for this game. There are two main problems in this game - gameplay, and the world. Gameplay: It is just bad, and the main reason is the enemies. It feels like the movesets for them were chosen at random, and not fine-tuned so that it would be a pleasure fighting them. Instead, it is a chore. Trying to actually dodge is too tedious, and the damage is not that high anyway, so there is no reward for playing good. The game just allows you to tank all the damage, and spam the enemies with regular attacks, which works almost always. The situations with bosses is even worse. You just spam them, without dodgind, that's all. Setting a bigger difficulty is not an option, any game should be fine tuned to normal difficulty. Map: Most of it is pointless. All of the little secrets you find are just a little of money. The quests are boring. Notice how i didn't mention the story? Yeah, cuz i didn't even notice there was a story after the first half an hour of the game.

Great time exploring, lives up to the nonlinear description. Cool weapons, amazing music, but the story takes a bit to understand.

Pros: •Gorgeous graphics •Decent UI Cons: •Very clunky, finicky combat •Too easy, on the difficulty I played at least. Which makes it worse in conjunction with the clunky combat •Story feels forced •There's no incentive to explore the world. The world feels anti climactic and unrewarding I'm a big fan of metroidvanias, but this one really bummed me out. Overall, I don't recommend this game. It feels like all the budget went into the art and none of it into the mechanics or story.

visuals: 8/10 soundtrack: 7.5/10 combat: 7/10 story: don't care/10 characters: 6/10 overall, a pretty solid, underrated vaina that's worth a shot.

Excellent metroidvania with tons of content. Absolutely worth the money.

If where the f@#$ do you go was a game. It's still fun, but come on man.

amazing metroidvania!

Nice game

Bom jogo

Fun

good

The design is very Megaman X