Angeline Era

The first boss already sets the tone for the game and reveals that the developer has no idea on how to create quality engagements. Difficult to parse hitboxes aside, it feels like the boss battle is created with the harder difficulties in mind first and then the normal difficulty is tacked on by increasing player's health a little. The result is that the new player is actively punished by playing slow and learning the patterns because rushing down the boss during i-frames is so much easier. The rushdown victory feels hollow and at the same time mastering the fight offers little enjoyment due to the difficulty spike, general wonkiness of the combat & the lack of reward for doing so

The gameplay wore out its welcome pretty quickly. Running around bumpslashing things is okay, but later in the game the screen fills up with enemies that spray projectiles everywhere and it started to feel clumsy. Eventually I turned the difficulty down to easy just to get it over with. There are a few interesting ideas scattered around, but the world feels barren. There are only a few NPCs that have an effect on the plot. Having so little to discover made exploring feel unrewarding. By the end of the story I didn't feel like anything was accomplished, and the ending dragged on way too long. There are probably a lot of secrets that explain things better, but I don't have any interest in exploring further.

Angeline Era was a fascinating gaming experience that will stick with me for a while to come. Its "one mechanic" combat is surprisingly deep, and kept me interested through the game's whole runtime. The search mechanic created many exciting moments of genuine discovery. I was invested in Tets, Arkas, Niamh, and the whole world of Era, but sometimes it felt like the game was fighting my attempts to connect with it. I don't mind ambiguity in a story, but even after rolling credits, I don't think I could describe to another person what happened in this game, or why most of the main characters made the choices that they made. However, the vagueness in Angeline Era's lore and the context of its world greatly appealed to me; it sparked my imagination in the way I remember games from my childhood doing. In a sense, Angeline Era feels like an excellent episodic adventure. When it comes to the central conflict of the story, I felt that Angeline Era was more interested in maintaining its mystique than in making me feel something. For most of the main story, I felt more disoriented than anything else. However, each individual boss/region has a tight, efficiently told story. The moments that I loved in Angeline Era (and there were quite a few!) were found in these stories: Caitlyn's estrangement, the tragedy of the mines, Tets' grief at home, Arkas' pain, and so on. These tales were so strangely intimate and moving, each in their own unique way, and I think I'll remember them for a long time.

A mechanically fairly straightforward “bump combat” action-RPG, where Angeline Era shines is the decisions made around the margins. One of the core decisions the game is built around is having a dedicated “search” button, which you have to use frequently. Every location on the overworld has to be discovered using this search, and each location holds a number of secrets that can be found by searching, ranging from a few extra coins to a secret passage leading to a hidden section of the level, or even a whole new pathway in the overworld. The game stays charming and surprising, though the difficulty is quite spiky and can occasionally be frustrating (I played on the difficulty one tick up from standard). Some later surprises are exceptionally strange and completely shift the context of the game in quite interesting ways.

it is genuinely difficult for me to overstate how special this game is. all of its constituent pieces are so so so incredibly thoughtfully done and they all come together to make a truly unique experience that I still think about constantly. play it.

First time writing a negative review. Honestly, there are many games I disliked more, but this one is special in the sense that I very nearly like it. This is a great game held back by some of the worst, most frustrating game design I've ever seen. First, every difficulty above normal is absolutely ridiculous. Not only do they almost completely get rid of health pickups, coins become much rarer, meaning it takes HOURS to get a single upgrade. Ended up lowering the difficulty to normal. Second, the combat is servicable at best and annoying at worse. From enemies that are just unfun to fight to borderline bullet hell enemy placement there was not a single combat encounter that actually fekt satisfying. Third, the scales - which are the game's main way of upgrading the main character - become nearly obsolete about 8 hours into the game when you hit the soft cap on level up. Keep in mind, this only takes like 21 scales, in a game with at least 41 (that I have found, and I haven't even ENTERED all areas). The writing of this game is amusing at times but mostly unremarkable. The story is nearly nonexistant. Finally, I stopped playing at one of the game's few levels that you actually have to complete. In that level the entire gameplay changes into a mining simulator, unfortunately the devs have no idea how to make an enjoyable mining simulator. The drill is extremely slow with no way to upgrade its speed, and there are no elevators in the entire level. Moreover, if you die you return to the beginning, and health pickups are disabled. Merely returning to where I was took me several minutes. I spent over an hour on this level, died extremely close to the end, and decided this was just not worth it. The thing is, there are many other things in the game that are excellent. The exploration is some of the best I have ever seen, ant the absurdist and weird vibe this game has are genuienly fun to experience. Unfortunately, like I said, this is held back by really unfun game design.

I’ve played some of Analgesic’s other games (Anodyne, Sephonie) which are all fascinating and personal and weird, but this one feels like the tightest game design. The “bump slash” combat system is inspired by the early Ys games but is really unlike anything I’ve seen before. And the levels are all bespoke design, often with adventure-y puzzles and secrets. Not to mention the haunting narrative; the game really dips into some Kurt Vonnegut-type beats in the last act.

Angeline Era is very, very good. I imagine it is probably a bit of an acquired taste, but for me, it has basically everything I was looking for in a game like this. It is unbelievably nostalgic, and not just in the usual “N64/PSX inspired indie game” way. For some reason, this game gives me hardcore Twinsen’s Odyssey vibes, and I love that so much. The atmosphere, level design, and world are honestly some of the best I have ever seen at capturing that strange liminal, dreamlike quality that so many older games had. It really feels like something from that era, but with modern indie polish layered on top. It is a huge game too. The level design is fantastic, especially later on. It constantly feels like there are secrets around every corner, because there actually are. Levels can open up on repeat visits throughout the game. That kind of discovery gives the world this layered, mysterious quality. It makes exploration a lot more interestign than I was expectign in a level based game with an overworld. What I love so much about the level design here is it actually feels liek the locations you visit are heavily tied to the overworld, they don't feel as disconnected as most games. Mechanically, I am not sure I personally would have chosen bump-style Shiren the Wanderer combat for an action platformer. It definitely works better than it sounds like it should, but it still creates this slightly strange tension where the game is fast, movement-heavy, and action/platformer oriented, but you do not have a traditional sword slash button. That said, once you adjust to it, it does work, and I respect that it gives the game a more distinct identity. But really, the mechanics are only one part of the appeal here. For me, Angeline Era is about the whole package. It taps into my childhood in such a specific, targeted way. The mysterious world, the strange characters, the vague atmospheric storytelling, the sense that you are wandering through something in a waking dream, all of it just works.