#and the statues inspired by grotesques and gargoyles… I wanted to make it sure it felt like a Sabira painting

[floweroflaurelin]

Speaking of Decked Out, I’m excited to reveal to you all that I had the honour of working with Tango himself to create a super detailed dark fantasy desk mat design for the first wave of Decked Out merch!! I crammed it FULL of references to the game—I’m particularly fond of the Ravager statues 😁✨

You can preorder it here! Let me know what you think!! I can’t wait to have one of my own 🙌

[clickbliss]

Odallus Review

by Amr (@siegarettes)

Odallus

Developer: Joymasher

Publisher: Digerati

Switch, PC

Odallus is definitely the more ambitious of Joymasher’s two retro style games. In contrast to Oniken’s discrete levels and eclectic sci-fi aesthetic, Odallus brings a sprawling map, RPG elements, and a grotesque gothic art direction. The map branches into different paths, and each stage has several passages to take and items that open up new ones. The heavy atmosphere is delightful, but the sprawling approach overreaches and creates an uneven game.

Oniken’s Ninja Gaiden inspired approach had its own problems, but with the format came a focus. The short stages made it at least possible to find a quick path through it, even if I generally had to grind for long periods to make that possible. Odallus’ core mechanics, by contrast, attempt for a more methodical approach, but end up dragging down the pace further instead.

Odallus pays homage to the Castlevania and Ghosts and Ghouls games, and owes at least some aesthetic influence to them, but in spirit it feels closest to the Gargoyle’s Quest/Demon’s Crest games. There’s a methodical approach to movement and combat, with an emphasis on verticality in level design. Tools and subweapons open up new areas and approaches to combat, and stages can be revisited to explore further.

When this comes together it can be rewarding, but too often the open design of the levels drag out encounters, and make failure more punishing. Limited lives mean that each time you fail you need to start the stage over and make the long trek back to the boss. Puzzle rooms and key items remain solved and collected, thankfully, but that also means it turns once important challenge areas into more dead space to be walked through. And while I could safely pass a lot of the enemy encounters on the way, the currency system encourages grinding, since not only would I need the money to earn more lives, but also to ensure that each life had enough subweapon ammo to make sure the fight didn’t drag out.

Increasing shop costs prevent grinding your way to victory, but it doesn’t negate the serious advantage it gives you. So the choice becomes whether you want to grind enemies earlier in the stage, or speed through and drag out the boss fight. Either way, failure grinds down the pace, and for a game that pretty much demands that you fail, it begins to turn into a chore.

There’s no inherent joy to the combat or spaces either. Movement is off, neither committing to the weight of a game like Castlevania, nor the relative fluidity that was present in Oniken. Attacks have long animations and root you to the spot, leaving an awkward period of vulnerability. Often I’d attack in the air and still be finishing my animation as I hit the floor, unable to move, but able toinstead instantly reverse my position and stick my sword in the other direction. Subweapon attacks, on the other hand, were canceled if I hit the floor while attacking from the air, wasting an opportunity. Instead of reading like heavy, powerful attacks, they instead read like the hero is getting stuck in glue after every strike.

If I’d found the world compelling I might have found it worth pushing through despite these faults, but Odallus, for how wordy it can get, lacks any strong narrative. The main characters only shouts declarations of revenge and triumph, while enemy bosses mostly amount to variations of “I’m gonna kill you”. The merchant and puzzle dialogue occasionally have a worthy line, but most of it filler or straight references to other media, ripped of context. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to get out statues inscribed with “fire walk with me” or the merchant’s “what a horrible night to have curse”. It’s my least favorite type of writing.

Odallus is a ball of wasted potential. It’s aesthetics are powerful, and I love the care it renders its gothic world with. But the core verbs don’t have that same attention, and they turn Odallus into a sluggish mess. Odallus’ ambitions then exasperate the problems at its core, turning what should be a satisfying journey into a long, aggravated climb.

Final note: The Switch port I’m playing again lacks the ability to turn off filters or change controls, which was present in the PC version. This particularly hurts since the control layout is awkward, with attack and jump on opposite sides of the face buttons.