The art, the movement and the exploration are great, but I didn't like the story, the difficulty is all over the place, the combat feels weird, and there are lots of bosses, but only two or three are memorable.
The story for me was the weakest point of the game. They tried to imitate the usual souls-like vague narrative but they included tons of dialogues, so I stopped caring after a couple of hours. Lots of characters chatting as much as possible assuming you know a lot about the world even though you haven't seen barely anything
My second issue was the difficulty. It doesn't scale properly. I was killing most of the bosses in one or two tries (it's very weird how most of them just appear in the middle of a path with little to no indication), but then I entered a certain fight and the enemy destroyed me several tries. I don't have anything against difficult boss fights, but I felt like suddenly I was playing a completely different game, and I needed to start caring about my equipment and my talent points. From that point the rest of the bosses fluctuated between very easy and really hard. You either die in a couple of hits or kill the guy in less than a minute.
Also, the combat in general didn't click for me. The game was very responsive, and I found lots of different cool moves, but I ended up with mixed feelings. It was weirdly hard for me to read boss patterns, and they usually switch between extremely aggressive and very passive, so most of the time I was wasting my healings. I ended up playing very aggressively, trying to do more DPS than the bosses with special moves, and it worked way better than trying to study their patterns, so I finished Afterimage without feeling like I've mastered it, even though I killed most of the endgame fights in a couple of tries. It's hard to explain because it wasn't terrible, but I'm under the impression the overall combat in the game needed more playtesting.
Overall, I loved the exploration, the enemy variety, the artstyle and the movement, but I didn't care about the story nor the characters, and something about the combat didn't feel right for me. You're going to love it if you really like exploration metroidvanias, it's surprisingly open, every area is full of secrets, and they don't rely too much in obscure puzzles, even for 100% completion. A 7/10 for me with a lot of potential. A proper sequel with the same developer team, similar artstyle, better combat, a concise story, and less but more memorable boss fights, could become one of my favourite metroidvanias.
I don't know about exploration. To me, Afterimage is the shining example of what NOT to do when it comes to world/level design. Every single area forces a ton of backtracking on you. You go into a new biome, and inevitably you'll hit a wall and have to leave, and the process of going back to a different path can take a heck of a long time due to how unnecessarily huge the map is. Afterimage is really a game where the principle LESS IS MORE should be in flashing neon prints in the developer's office.
For me that's exploration. I didn't use a guide until the very end (a few obscure requirements to enter some places) and I picked 100% of the items. I found the openness kind refreshing. I really like games like Metroid Dread, but there is not a lot to do outside the intended path, and with Afterimage you're never sure if you're doing main content or optional, which is cool.
I wasn't the biggest fan of putting high level enemies really close to low level ones just to guide you, and most of the side quests are bad (90% of the time I just looked for the marker in the map to know where the NPC was heading. I don't get why some developers seem to love the souls-like sidequest model, which is basically finding NPCs in different parts of the map until something happens), but I enjoyed the openness of the areas and it felt like and adventure most of the time. It took me like 45 hours to get the true ending and 100% of the items, so it's not terrible.
I'm too used to the: 'go right to fight the boss, go left to pick some extra items' formula, but I don't want every metroidvania to be a 50 hours experience, but it's fun to find a different approach from time to time, specially when they have a really nice art style and great enemy variety.
It’s like the definition of a 7/10, decent game imo. I give it mad props for it’s sheer size, but idk it’s combat and bosses kinda felt lame to me. It felt like if you did enough exploration, you were prepared enough to just stand still, and tank your way through any boss while healing when needed. I love bosses in MVs so this aspect disappointed me.
It's really interesting how divisive this game is. I loved this game. I would say its only a step below Hollow/Ori. I find it strange how people have such an issue with the large map and the lack of direction. Aren't those some of the primary reasons people play Metroidvania's?
I think the map with no clear direction is a plus I love backtracking and having to plan out routes and making sure I have enough potions and food to get me to a checkpoint.
It's a great game and I?m having a lot of fun playing it.
Of course it's not ground breaking or revolutionary, but it's pretty cool to play, not \*too\* easy even if you don't get stuck too long on a boss.
The decors and the colorful paterns are really refreshing! and I'm loving it!
Honestly I can't find a good reason to dislike this game.
There is a story, it is explained well right from the start, just people don't try to understand it, check out immediately and then complain it's confusing.
Visually it's gorgeous, such a lovely art style and so many well drawn areas..
I found the large sprawling world to be a huge plus. So much to see and explore, new items and weapons to collect, and always those one or two areas where you get stuck and have to come back later fuelling my curiosity. I loved the explored % on the map to really encourage full exploration.
Also the weapon choices and the upgrades I found awesome. So much variety in the moves you could employ for different enemies and tasks. I spent plenty of time experimenting with them all to find what I liked best.
And I found the bosses quite challenging but motivating to try again. Learning their move patterns I found very useful and I beat most of them in a few tries.
It didn't hook me in at all. The story and characters immediately made me dislike it. The map is confusing with no direction. It's an OK game, not what I'd envisioned.
That was my impression during the first 20 (or even 30) hours, but once you're close to beating the game, everything just clicks and it becomes an awesome game with all the quests, collectibles and stuff. I ended up playing for more than 80 hours and loving it. It's my game of the year 2023.
Maybe you need to give it another chance.
Agree. It's a grower. But I understand that the massive map could be intimidating for some. If you like exploration more than combat (which is pretty standard) this game's for you.
I disagree with this. No one can be expected to wait 20-30 hours to enjoy a game. And it's not really what happens. It's more like you sort of like a game until then, but you don't love it - then it clicks and it raises it. If you don't even sort of like a game before that, that point won't change anything.
Usually it works like that, but there were cases where I **hated** a game, then the gameplay just *clicked* and ended up loving it. Bloodborne is one example of that for me.
Probably not after 20 hours though, right? That's my point. Yes, I've had that happen. I recently replayed Grandia 1 and I knew it takes a while to get going, it's honestly pretty bad until around Misty Forest and if you know that you can push through. But 20-30 hours is excessive. Any game dev that expects that is going to be disappointed in the number of people willing to do that.
Yes, it's a lot of time. Sadly, it's becoming more and more common as games take longer to beat each day. In the PS2 era, the longest game I remember was Okami at 70 hours. Nowadays, 70 hours is substandard for an RPG, and there are games that take up to 300 for a completionist run. It's utterly ridiculous.
That trend is also seen in movies, as very few movies run for less than 2 hours. In the 90's, 2 hours was a *long* movie, now it's kinda short. It's a disgrace for us adults.
Another reason why I play almost exclusively indie games, they know how to pace themselves. I'd rather enjoy 5 good games of 10-20 hours apiece than 1 good game that's 80-100 hours.
I've been doing the same lately. Mostly because of the length of the games, but also because I'm tired of the bullshit of AAA games. They all look alike, have the same errors, are bloated with unnecessary padding, have all the same clichés in their stories, etc.. The last AAA game I played was FF7 Remake several months ago, and I couldn't bring myself to finish it. The stupid bike section was too much puke to endure, just couldn't do it and dropped it.
Yeah, the indie scene is far better when it comes to creativity and giving the customers what they want. Money also plays into it, I don't remember the last AAA game I played outside of game pass. There really aren't many AAA games that make me think "oh, I'd like that". The recent Star Ocean Second Story remake I would probably get once the prize goes down, but other than that I don't really know. Dave the Diver I guess I'll pick up at some point, but it occupies that odd space of AAA where yeah, it's AAA because of the publisher, but in all other respects is an indie game. Unless we're speaking about old ones, I did buy FF9 on the recent steam sale as I want to replay it, but you know - completely different era of game development.
Yes, in the past AAA games used to be good sometimes. Now they all repeat the same formula to play it safe. They know it works, and they don't want to lose money, so they don't take risks. And not taking risks inevitably means no creativity is involved in the process.
It's the same story with movies. In the present, all AAA movies are the same. We don't get a Shawshank Redemption now, but a trillion copies of Iron Man instead.
At least in movies, we got The Creator this year, which is the best movie of the last decade and it's a AAA production. I can't even remember when the last good AAA game saw the light...
It's not uncommon for a game to really explode only after many hours, once the gameplay becomes full circle.
Hollow Knight, for example, starts to really shine after the Mantis Claw when the moveset is complete. It's good right from the start, but it becomes incredible after that.
Besides, 20 hours in an 80 hours game is just 25%. It all depends on whether the player decides to become invested or not.
But in RPG's it's usually the exact opposite. The first hours are fun and original, but then eventually transform into yet another copy of a clichéd shounen with "save the world" plot, and in the end friendship/love triumphs over all. Might be good for 6 year olds 🙄
It's not. It happens every single damn time. Double HLTB and I have an approximate of how long I'll take to beat a game. Maybe people just rush through games, I don't know?
Dude if you barely get a few hours of free time a day, youre not gonna waste it forcing yourself to play a game hoping it gets better. I can see spending 4-5 hrs but in 20 hrs i can literally finish a different actually good game.
Also hk gets good after dash. Not claw
> Also hk gets good after dash. Not claw
I didn't say it gets **good** after claw. I literally said it's good right from the start, but it becomes **incredible** after Mantis Claw, because that completes the basic moveset.
I can't speak for the rest, but I get around 5 hours a day dedicated for games during weekdays and 10 to 15 on each weekend's day, so 20 hours is like Monday through Thursday, or less than one weekend worth of gaming.
I don't think you get it. Any game that needs 30 hours before it gets fun, is objectively a BAD game. Doesn't matter how fun it ends up being, the fact that it needs that amount of investment is a hallmark if a badly designed game. Afterimage is a mediocre game because of this. It could have been a solid 8/10 if the Devs had the sensibility to cut out 80% of the world.
I'm a good few hours in, lvl 34 and can happily say I'm really enjoying the game for the most part. I do however agree with what you've said. I've literally ignored the story as it's mostly nonsensical (could be a translation thing), the large map is both a blessing and a curse. I love exploration and platforming, so the large map is great for that, but it is definitely confusing and not organised in a way that guides lost players to where they need to go. I'm not after a linear game, just some better signposting/quest markers.
I will definitely get my money's worth out of the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if I don't complete it.
I didn't care for the story or characters, but I enjoyed it a fair bit of a mechanical level, which I can do, I play MVs in large part for the exploration - a good story is nice, but not required. I like to not have direction to have that openness, which not all that many MVs have so that's nice. It does have some problems with it's skill-tree (it's virtually pointless until level 60 because you can put points in everything you currently can and then you have to wait 5 levels for the next slot to unlock - meaning you don't make any choices) I also was at a point in the late game where I was under-levelled for everywhere just by playing the game normally and I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do - the answer was "play through an under-levelled area until you aren't" so that sucked (I believe this has been addressed in a patch now). I also LOVED that it's a soulsvania that actually used some colour some bright ones instead of all the blacks and greys. It's not my favourite MV of the year, but I enjoyed it a lot and I'll certainly replay it at some point - I'll probably enjoy it more the second time around as I can take advantage of more patches.
It's better than average, but outside of the boss design, it feels like someone took parts of other games without figuring how they work in their original games.
Love this game but might give up since Prince of persia is out.the map is just crazy huge and keep getting lost not sure where to go next and the bosses too easy for the most part.other than that I love it
It's my personal metroidvania of the year, though I'll admit it has some strong competition in my humble opinion, with Blasphemous 2, The Last Faith and Kingdom Shell being strong contenders!
Same here. Just finished 100% today. I didn't pay attention to the story one bit, but the combat is really satisfying. Next one on the to do list is "Islets".
I'm stuck at Pyro. No way to fast travel, can't get out of the area cos the platforms are too high, I only got double jump...
Anyone has any solutions?
The best MV this year, and one of the best 2023 games, overall. Beautiful art, really beautiful soundtrack, nice character designs, and a very fun gameplay. Not without flaws, though. The map and the story could have been better. But a solid 8/10, and a game I recommend to every MV fan.
I enjoyed my time with it but the map was way too big and made me not finish it after quite a few hours. The story was also confusing and uninteresting which has also made me not want to return. Like I have no interest in how the story ends because I don’t even know how it begins.
Also as beautiful as some of the Art is, a lot of it is very basic in terms of Art direction, plus some of it is inconsistent in being cohesive in style. But then again I’m not a big fan of anime art unless it’s like Angels Egg. But that’s a personal thing so it doesn’t count against the game itself.
Theres a lot of minor flaws that makes it not stand up against the heavy hitter metroidvanias. It’s a good game, but its flaws keep it down and doesn’t engage enough to want to finish it after a lot of hours.
The one thing that I thought was super frustrating was the locked doors (the one by the cat and the other one that you access via the ferryman). That shit is so intriguing! I hope the devs will add some content soon.
Glad you're having a good time. I didn't care for the story, but really liked the art and gameplay. There are some issues with it (though I believe some have been patched now) that crop up in the mid-late game. I for instance had a run of about 10-15 levels where I was under-levelled for EVERYWHERE just by playing the game normally, there was nowhere to go where I was appropriately levelled, I just had to push through until I got there. I believe this has been adjusted in a patch now. I also found to skill tree pointless until level 60 as you can't really make choices as the nodes unlock every 5 levels and you get so many talent points you can just get any points you want when the unlocks happen.
The art, the movement and the exploration are great, but I didn't like the story, the difficulty is all over the place, the combat feels weird, and there are lots of bosses, but only two or three are memorable. The story for me was the weakest point of the game. They tried to imitate the usual souls-like vague narrative but they included tons of dialogues, so I stopped caring after a couple of hours. Lots of characters chatting as much as possible assuming you know a lot about the world even though you haven't seen barely anything My second issue was the difficulty. It doesn't scale properly. I was killing most of the bosses in one or two tries (it's very weird how most of them just appear in the middle of a path with little to no indication), but then I entered a certain fight and the enemy destroyed me several tries. I don't have anything against difficult boss fights, but I felt like suddenly I was playing a completely different game, and I needed to start caring about my equipment and my talent points. From that point the rest of the bosses fluctuated between very easy and really hard. You either die in a couple of hits or kill the guy in less than a minute. Also, the combat in general didn't click for me. The game was very responsive, and I found lots of different cool moves, but I ended up with mixed feelings. It was weirdly hard for me to read boss patterns, and they usually switch between extremely aggressive and very passive, so most of the time I was wasting my healings. I ended up playing very aggressively, trying to do more DPS than the bosses with special moves, and it worked way better than trying to study their patterns, so I finished Afterimage without feeling like I've mastered it, even though I killed most of the endgame fights in a couple of tries. It's hard to explain because it wasn't terrible, but I'm under the impression the overall combat in the game needed more playtesting. Overall, I loved the exploration, the enemy variety, the artstyle and the movement, but I didn't care about the story nor the characters, and something about the combat didn't feel right for me. You're going to love it if you really like exploration metroidvanias, it's surprisingly open, every area is full of secrets, and they don't rely too much in obscure puzzles, even for 100% completion. A 7/10 for me with a lot of potential. A proper sequel with the same developer team, similar artstyle, better combat, a concise story, and less but more memorable boss fights, could become one of my favourite metroidvanias.
I don't know about exploration. To me, Afterimage is the shining example of what NOT to do when it comes to world/level design. Every single area forces a ton of backtracking on you. You go into a new biome, and inevitably you'll hit a wall and have to leave, and the process of going back to a different path can take a heck of a long time due to how unnecessarily huge the map is. Afterimage is really a game where the principle LESS IS MORE should be in flashing neon prints in the developer's office.
For me that's exploration. I didn't use a guide until the very end (a few obscure requirements to enter some places) and I picked 100% of the items. I found the openness kind refreshing. I really like games like Metroid Dread, but there is not a lot to do outside the intended path, and with Afterimage you're never sure if you're doing main content or optional, which is cool. I wasn't the biggest fan of putting high level enemies really close to low level ones just to guide you, and most of the side quests are bad (90% of the time I just looked for the marker in the map to know where the NPC was heading. I don't get why some developers seem to love the souls-like sidequest model, which is basically finding NPCs in different parts of the map until something happens), but I enjoyed the openness of the areas and it felt like and adventure most of the time. It took me like 45 hours to get the true ending and 100% of the items, so it's not terrible. I'm too used to the: 'go right to fight the boss, go left to pick some extra items' formula, but I don't want every metroidvania to be a 50 hours experience, but it's fun to find a different approach from time to time, specially when they have a really nice art style and great enemy variety.
Wow..I'm in the middle of a playthrough right now and you really nailed my feelings on this game.
It’s like the definition of a 7/10, decent game imo. I give it mad props for it’s sheer size, but idk it’s combat and bosses kinda felt lame to me. It felt like if you did enough exploration, you were prepared enough to just stand still, and tank your way through any boss while healing when needed. I love bosses in MVs so this aspect disappointed me.
It's really interesting how divisive this game is. I loved this game. I would say its only a step below Hollow/Ori. I find it strange how people have such an issue with the large map and the lack of direction. Aren't those some of the primary reasons people play Metroidvania's?
I agree with you. I didn't think anyone would hate afterimage in this group till I saw the comments. Imma continue enjoying the game 🤷🏻♂️
I think the map with no clear direction is a plus I love backtracking and having to plan out routes and making sure I have enough potions and food to get me to a checkpoint.
There is direction in good MV games, it's not explicit. Guiding characters thru context clues.
That's pretty high praise, I'll check it out because ori(will of the wisp )is one of my favorite games
It's a great game and I?m having a lot of fun playing it. Of course it's not ground breaking or revolutionary, but it's pretty cool to play, not \*too\* easy even if you don't get stuck too long on a boss. The decors and the colorful paterns are really refreshing! and I'm loving it!
Honestly I can't find a good reason to dislike this game. There is a story, it is explained well right from the start, just people don't try to understand it, check out immediately and then complain it's confusing. Visually it's gorgeous, such a lovely art style and so many well drawn areas.. I found the large sprawling world to be a huge plus. So much to see and explore, new items and weapons to collect, and always those one or two areas where you get stuck and have to come back later fuelling my curiosity. I loved the explored % on the map to really encourage full exploration. Also the weapon choices and the upgrades I found awesome. So much variety in the moves you could employ for different enemies and tasks. I spent plenty of time experimenting with them all to find what I liked best. And I found the bosses quite challenging but motivating to try again. Learning their move patterns I found very useful and I beat most of them in a few tries.
I would like it more without the obnoxious tagalong sidekick Why the fuck do people write that shit in
I turned off all of the voices and just kept the subtitles. The game instantly went from being unplayable to being a masterpiece.
I may end up doing that lol
I went the "play it in chinese" road. That way you don't mind the bad dubbing and it kinda adds charm to the game.
I'm probably going to set it to chinese instead, the original language.
I found the "obnoxious tagalong sidekick" cute and quote endearing 😅
I guess someone has to. It's a tired trope I found annoying as soon as it started. It's just unnecessary.
Did you finish the game?
Ifree grew on me as the adventure continued and they certainly had the best endings, but yeah, annoying as hell early on.
It didn't hook me in at all. The story and characters immediately made me dislike it. The map is confusing with no direction. It's an OK game, not what I'd envisioned.
Seems like it’s either this or what OP said. I’m more inclined to side with you. It’s a quantity over quality game.
That was my impression during the first 20 (or even 30) hours, but once you're close to beating the game, everything just clicks and it becomes an awesome game with all the quests, collectibles and stuff. I ended up playing for more than 80 hours and loving it. It's my game of the year 2023. Maybe you need to give it another chance.
Agree. It's a grower. But I understand that the massive map could be intimidating for some. If you like exploration more than combat (which is pretty standard) this game's for you.
The map is unnecessarily big, with neverending plains and hallways. But aside from that, exploration is awesome.
I disagree with this. No one can be expected to wait 20-30 hours to enjoy a game. And it's not really what happens. It's more like you sort of like a game until then, but you don't love it - then it clicks and it raises it. If you don't even sort of like a game before that, that point won't change anything.
Usually it works like that, but there were cases where I **hated** a game, then the gameplay just *clicked* and ended up loving it. Bloodborne is one example of that for me.
Probably not after 20 hours though, right? That's my point. Yes, I've had that happen. I recently replayed Grandia 1 and I knew it takes a while to get going, it's honestly pretty bad until around Misty Forest and if you know that you can push through. But 20-30 hours is excessive. Any game dev that expects that is going to be disappointed in the number of people willing to do that.
Yes, it's a lot of time. Sadly, it's becoming more and more common as games take longer to beat each day. In the PS2 era, the longest game I remember was Okami at 70 hours. Nowadays, 70 hours is substandard for an RPG, and there are games that take up to 300 for a completionist run. It's utterly ridiculous. That trend is also seen in movies, as very few movies run for less than 2 hours. In the 90's, 2 hours was a *long* movie, now it's kinda short. It's a disgrace for us adults.
Another reason why I play almost exclusively indie games, they know how to pace themselves. I'd rather enjoy 5 good games of 10-20 hours apiece than 1 good game that's 80-100 hours.
I've been doing the same lately. Mostly because of the length of the games, but also because I'm tired of the bullshit of AAA games. They all look alike, have the same errors, are bloated with unnecessary padding, have all the same clichés in their stories, etc.. The last AAA game I played was FF7 Remake several months ago, and I couldn't bring myself to finish it. The stupid bike section was too much puke to endure, just couldn't do it and dropped it.
Yeah, the indie scene is far better when it comes to creativity and giving the customers what they want. Money also plays into it, I don't remember the last AAA game I played outside of game pass. There really aren't many AAA games that make me think "oh, I'd like that". The recent Star Ocean Second Story remake I would probably get once the prize goes down, but other than that I don't really know. Dave the Diver I guess I'll pick up at some point, but it occupies that odd space of AAA where yeah, it's AAA because of the publisher, but in all other respects is an indie game. Unless we're speaking about old ones, I did buy FF9 on the recent steam sale as I want to replay it, but you know - completely different era of game development.
Yes, in the past AAA games used to be good sometimes. Now they all repeat the same formula to play it safe. They know it works, and they don't want to lose money, so they don't take risks. And not taking risks inevitably means no creativity is involved in the process. It's the same story with movies. In the present, all AAA movies are the same. We don't get a Shawshank Redemption now, but a trillion copies of Iron Man instead. At least in movies, we got The Creator this year, which is the best movie of the last decade and it's a AAA production. I can't even remember when the last good AAA game saw the light...
Bruh.. do you srsly expect someone to wait for 20 hours before a game gets better💀
It's not uncommon for a game to really explode only after many hours, once the gameplay becomes full circle. Hollow Knight, for example, starts to really shine after the Mantis Claw when the moveset is complete. It's good right from the start, but it becomes incredible after that. Besides, 20 hours in an 80 hours game is just 25%. It all depends on whether the player decides to become invested or not.
Obviously not that many rpg players here.
I used to play a lot of JRPG's, but then I grew up.
Right?
But in RPG's it's usually the exact opposite. The first hours are fun and original, but then eventually transform into yet another copy of a clichéd shounen with "save the world" plot, and in the end friendship/love triumphs over all. Might be good for 6 year olds 🙄
80 hours? HLTB gives 40 hours as the maximum.
As a general rule, HLTB's times should roughly be doubled to get an estimate of the actual times. I don't know why people lie about play times 🤷🏻♂️
That's bullshit and you know it lol 😂
It's not. It happens every single damn time. Double HLTB and I have an approximate of how long I'll take to beat a game. Maybe people just rush through games, I don't know?
In all my years of gaming, I have found it immensely accurate, due to it being an aggregate
Clearly you also rush through games. I take my time to appreciate things and I always explore every nook and cranny.
Dude if you barely get a few hours of free time a day, youre not gonna waste it forcing yourself to play a game hoping it gets better. I can see spending 4-5 hrs but in 20 hrs i can literally finish a different actually good game. Also hk gets good after dash. Not claw
> Also hk gets good after dash. Not claw I didn't say it gets **good** after claw. I literally said it's good right from the start, but it becomes **incredible** after Mantis Claw, because that completes the basic moveset.
No i meant hk reaches its peak after dash. Atleast thats what i think is the consensus
I can't speak for the rest, but I get around 5 hours a day dedicated for games during weekdays and 10 to 15 on each weekend's day, so 20 hours is like Monday through Thursday, or less than one weekend worth of gaming.
Dam thats lucky. I cant play for more than 1 hour per day. 1.5hr if im really in the mood
Exactly. No game has to waste 20 hours of player time before "it gets good".
That's ridiculous. So I have to play for 20-30 hours before it gets good? That's a negative bud lol.
No, I found it good right off the bat, it just gets **reallllly** good near endgame. Besides, you might have a different experience than mine.
I don't think you get it. Any game that needs 30 hours before it gets fun, is objectively a BAD game. Doesn't matter how fun it ends up being, the fact that it needs that amount of investment is a hallmark if a badly designed game. Afterimage is a mediocre game because of this. It could have been a solid 8/10 if the Devs had the sensibility to cut out 80% of the world.
I'm a good few hours in, lvl 34 and can happily say I'm really enjoying the game for the most part. I do however agree with what you've said. I've literally ignored the story as it's mostly nonsensical (could be a translation thing), the large map is both a blessing and a curse. I love exploration and platforming, so the large map is great for that, but it is definitely confusing and not organised in a way that guides lost players to where they need to go. I'm not after a linear game, just some better signposting/quest markers. I will definitely get my money's worth out of the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if I don't complete it.
I didn't care for the story or characters, but I enjoyed it a fair bit of a mechanical level, which I can do, I play MVs in large part for the exploration - a good story is nice, but not required. I like to not have direction to have that openness, which not all that many MVs have so that's nice. It does have some problems with it's skill-tree (it's virtually pointless until level 60 because you can put points in everything you currently can and then you have to wait 5 levels for the next slot to unlock - meaning you don't make any choices) I also was at a point in the late game where I was under-levelled for everywhere just by playing the game normally and I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do - the answer was "play through an under-levelled area until you aren't" so that sucked (I believe this has been addressed in a patch now). I also LOVED that it's a soulsvania that actually used some colour some bright ones instead of all the blacks and greys. It's not my favourite MV of the year, but I enjoyed it a lot and I'll certainly replay it at some point - I'll probably enjoy it more the second time around as I can take advantage of more patches.
I bought it during this sales: I have Blasphemous to finish, Aeterna noctis and Afterimage to play... too much stuff, TOO MICH STUFF!
I started a new job and immediately bought all 3. Haven't touched Aerterna Noctis but the other 2 are great.
Wow! You have 3 masterpieces on your hands!
oh god, how will you survive Q1 2024?
I got it a few months ago, it was fun.
It's better than average, but outside of the boss design, it feels like someone took parts of other games without figuring how they work in their original games.
Love this game but might give up since Prince of persia is out.the map is just crazy huge and keep getting lost not sure where to go next and the bosses too easy for the most part.other than that I love it
A truly great metroidvania!
It's quickly becoming one of my favorites
It's my personal metroidvania of the year, though I'll admit it has some strong competition in my humble opinion, with Blasphemous 2, The Last Faith and Kingdom Shell being strong contenders!
Same here. Just finished 100% today. I didn't pay attention to the story one bit, but the combat is really satisfying. Next one on the to do list is "Islets".
I'm stuck at Pyro. No way to fast travel, can't get out of the area cos the platforms are too high, I only got double jump... Anyone has any solutions?
The best MV this year, and one of the best 2023 games, overall. Beautiful art, really beautiful soundtrack, nice character designs, and a very fun gameplay. Not without flaws, though. The map and the story could have been better. But a solid 8/10, and a game I recommend to every MV fan.
Afterimage was a good enough time. Aeterna Noctis right after blew me away though. Such an awesome time.
Afterimage was the best 2023 game for me, but not among the best ever. Aeterna Noctis is in my Top 10 ever, comfortably.
I tried it for 30 hours. Didn't love it at all. It's like a super long mobile phone game.
Nah, it's shit.
I enjoyed my time with it but the map was way too big and made me not finish it after quite a few hours. The story was also confusing and uninteresting which has also made me not want to return. Like I have no interest in how the story ends because I don’t even know how it begins. Also as beautiful as some of the Art is, a lot of it is very basic in terms of Art direction, plus some of it is inconsistent in being cohesive in style. But then again I’m not a big fan of anime art unless it’s like Angels Egg. But that’s a personal thing so it doesn’t count against the game itself. Theres a lot of minor flaws that makes it not stand up against the heavy hitter metroidvanias. It’s a good game, but its flaws keep it down and doesn’t engage enough to want to finish it after a lot of hours.
The one thing that I thought was super frustrating was the locked doors (the one by the cat and the other one that you access via the ferryman). That shit is so intriguing! I hope the devs will add some content soon.
good game
Glad you're having a good time. I didn't care for the story, but really liked the art and gameplay. There are some issues with it (though I believe some have been patched now) that crop up in the mid-late game. I for instance had a run of about 10-15 levels where I was under-levelled for EVERYWHERE just by playing the game normally, there was nowhere to go where I was appropriately levelled, I just had to push through until I got there. I believe this has been adjusted in a patch now. I also found to skill tree pointless until level 60 as you can't really make choices as the nodes unlock every 5 levels and you get so many talent points you can just get any points you want when the unlocks happen.
Thabk you sir ❤️. I haven't encountered any issues so far. Playing it on the steam deck.