With the most lovingly-crafted pixelart thigh-highs I’ve ever seen, there isn’t a single frame of animation that doesn’t highlight our protagonist’s Absolute Territory.
…Oh! Uh, right, the game, then-
Genuinely though, the first thing anyone is going to notice is how sublime the pixel art animation is. Momodora’s crisp and fluid sprites share a pedestal with Shantae and other juggernauts, blending seamlessly with the frenetic pace of the gameplay, never obstructing it.
It’s a not-quite-metroidvania free-roam platformer situation. There are upgrades to gather but by and large these have no specific impact on your ability to progress in certain directions, more frequently just giving you extra options in how you traverse the world rather than opening up new places to explore. in that respect, it feels somewhere between Cave Story and AnUnititledStory, two comparisons which are only ever complimentary.
Also of note- it’s HARD. Hard as balls. Kaho is a priestess, not a tank, and she seems to take just a little bit too much damage from pretty much everything. Touching spikes is an instant game over. Thankfully checkpoints aren’t too far apart, and there are difficulty settings you can choose at the start of the game, but this isn’t one for the inexperienced.
Fin or Bin:
Oh, this is my scene. A lovingly animated pixelart platformer with fluid gameplay and tough challenging combat? Tough as nails boss encounters that dare you to squeeze just one more hit into their stun cycle? Thigh-highs? Sign me up. And better than anything else, it lets you turn screen-shake off in the menu.
(Please, every pixel-art developer out there, for the love of god, if you insist on putting arbitrary and terrible screenshake in your game, let me turn the damned thing off.)
This one couldn’t be more of a Fin. The stream is here!
(Steam)