I had an extended weekend due to labour day being on a friday this year, so I have tried playing some games to pass the time. I have had a lot of fun replaying Hollow Knight and Silksong on my SteamOs machine recently, so I first tried finding a good game with metroidvania design elements.
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is one of the highest rated games in the metroidvania category on Steam, so I tried playing that. The graphics looked really promising, and the tutorial section was very well made, but then I ended up in an open-ended city section that did not seem very metroidvania like to me. The city section also emphasized some of the weak points of the game including a quite silly plot/setting, an overabundance of surreal humor, and a lack of direction. I unfortunately had to quit playing the game due to these faults ...
Crypt Custodian is one of the other highest rated games in the metroidvania category on Steam, so I proceeded to try that out. Again, the graphics looked really promising, and the setting seemed fun and mysterious to me as well, but the game turned out to be a slog with huge levels with a lack of meaningful gameplay to fill up the huge spaces. Some reviews seem to indicate that the game will get better if I invest more time, but I do not know if I want to at this point.
After these failures I tried to reignite my interest in
FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, but I was instantly distracted by other things, so it probably was not fun enough or I picked a bad spot to pause the game in the beginning of Vence.
Finally today, the last day of the extended weekend, I went back to my dear Windows gaming PC and had some fun continuing to play
PRAGMATA. I am liking the density of secrets in the first real levels compared to the tutorial section. The tutorial made the game seem very linear, but the actual levels have a lot of platforming challenges, optional combat challenges and hidden secrets. The graphical design in the second level came as a bit of a shock in a very positive way, and also seems promising for things to come later. I really enjoy how the game introduces new gameplay concepts and remixes combat encounters constantly. It seems quite reminiscent of Resident Evil 4 in that way, which I guess should not come as a surprise ...
