I played a couple hours of this last night on PS5. I’m definitely enjoying it. I went in completely blind except for this thread and a couple trailers.
The death mechanic is a welcome break from the more hardcore/roguelite games I’ve been playing recently. Your estus flask is a Phoenix feather with charges. When you die you drop a charge at that location and respawn at the last shrine (bonfire) visited (there’s plenty and I’ve yet to find one that was more than a screen away from a boss). If you don’t want to do the boss fight again yet or can’t be bothered to go back to get the dropped feather (again, 1 charge - I currently have 6 total) you can reclaim all dropped feathers at any shrine for a pittance.
The aesthetics and area themes are a little all over the place right now, but not in a bad way. I don’t know if some of the areas I’ve been in are the newly added ones. The boss I just beat was electricity themed (positive/negative charge) and the area leading up to it was very 8 bit Metroid feeling (while all previous areas were medieval high fantasy themed).
Surprisingly there’s voice acting for most characters and the story seems pretty good so far. It’s interesting enough that I’m as curious to see where it’s going as I am to see the next boss fight.
Gameplay-wise I’d say it’s a mix of Salt & Sanctuary and Hollow Knight. There’s classes that generate ability energy in different ways (blocking, parrying, and others I forget) with an RPG stat system, gear slots with stats, and a consequential but not significant death mechanic. It’s Chill Souls. Combat and exploration demands to be taken seriously, but you never have to be anxious about losing the last hour of “souls” you collected but haven’t yet spent.
Synj this was the metroidvania game I was trying to think of the damn name last night. It’s pretty cool. They just revamped it and made it a lot bigger, more bosses, loot, etc. so I’m doing my second play through.
Dandai you get to the black and white boss yet? That fight was so fuckin cool/unique. Haven’t hit it yet on this play through, interested to see if they made any changes to it.
