FOREWORDS:
Game completion: I played for around 30 minutes, collected around 5 keys, explored ~10 rooms (out of 21) and did not finish the game. Please understand: I wanted to review as many games as possible and didn't want to focus on just a single one too much.
The goal of this game jam (from my point of view; this is key in order to understand the way I reviewed this game): "you, developers, have to remove a fundamental mechanic of a genre and have to find a new, creative mechanic to make up for that". The important part of this challenge is actually the second one.
REVIEW:
[1/2] As a Metroidvania per se, I didn't like it.
- Jumping feels off (you jump too high too fast), camera is too close to the player;
- enemies attack too fast and are often placed too close to the room doors;
- the healing mechanic turns the game into a waiting game.
- Rooms look all the same, no secret paths (because of no breakable stage elements). Map is too simple with very little branching paths. Backtracking is almost absent.
[2/2] Then there's the new original idea, which the developers had to come up with in order to maintain the game genre intact while removing a basic mechanic. They removed power-ups and character progression and introduced... keys. But this is very problematic:
- No character progression means - if present at all - no meaningful backtracking, because you don't feel empowered when you revisit previous rooms, which detracts a lot from the Metroidvania experience (one could argue that you as a player become better at the game, but that's not the case either because the controls and battle mechanics are just not deep enough).
- The fact you only have one way to access new rooms, that is via doors opened by keys, limits strongly the map design. No secret paths, no puzzles, no exploration. Just go in all rooms, collect all keys, defeat the final boss. It's a 2D Platformer.
TO WRAP IT UP:
The developers removed a fundamental game mechanic (power-ups), which detracts a lot from the overall experience, and the idea they came up with (keys) is uninspired and doesn't make up for that. The "traditional rest" wasn't good, either.
Needless to say, I didn't like this game. 2/5.