Cantirium: God Slayer

Technical issues and severe lack of polish prevent the game from being enjoyable. Because the intro appears to be broken, the first impression is not positive. There is only a black square that should have text, but it is completely empty. Due to the lack of key prompts, I had to push random buttons just to get through the intro screens and play the game. I hoped this was simply a minor hiccup, but it was clear right away that the problem was much more serious. Simply said, the text does not display correctly. You have no idea which button to hit because each square is entirely empty. I also found that you may choose specific topics during talks, but this is pointless because you don't know what's going on. You're missing out on knowledge about yourself, the world, whether you're good or bad, your motives and purpose in the game, and so on. The story appears to be important because squares show up frequently while you play the game. The "ESC" key normally closes them, however they can sometimes remain on the screen or prevent you from moving, which can only be solved by force quitting the game. Naturally, you lose all progress. This drastically affects the gameplay, which is decent but nothing new. The game is an action platformer with standard controls. Gamepad is not supported. Your hero can jump, attack with a knife that has a very short range, and use magic to heal itself. Jumping is a bit finicky because you need to stand on a flat surface with your entire character to be able to jump. If you’re too close to the edge, the button won’t work and you’ll simply walk right off the edge. Platforming can be a bit too much because each screen so far has a similar design with the same type of platforms everywhere. It’s mostly floating rocks. New areas don't seem to add much because the textures appear to be the same, with only the color changing. Castle area is a bit different, but it comes with its own set of issues. First you have big spikes that hurt and respawn you a few steps back if you hit them with your sword. This should not happen. And the second are moving platforms. Depending on the direction, you either can't jump or don't move along with the platform. You just stand on the spot while the platform is moving left or right. Magic can be replenished by killing enemies. You start with slimes, flying bugs, brutes and continue with other classic enemies. At least one of them has a cheap attack; a plant comes out of the ground, but there's no indication that it's hiding underneath. The only thing enemies drop is money so there’s no need to waste time on them. Money can also be found lying around on the ground. Because it’s very tiny and matches the color of the environment, you don’t know it’s there until you walk over it. Money is spent in shops to buy extra health or keys. Enemies are brainless because of a weird collision issue. When two or more move in a different direction and collide, they won't turn around or try to avoid it. This creates a funny situation where you see enemies stuck in place because each enemy is pushing in its direction. You lose 5 coins when you die. This isn't bad because you only need to kill 2 enemies to get that back. The bad part is that you have to restart the current screen from the beginning and go through all conversations/events again. Combat is basic. The only thing you need to worry about is that some enemies don’t have any knockback. This means an enemy will keep moving on its path until it’s dead. Honestly, the hero's short range hurts the experience the most during boss fights. Except for your jumping capabilities, you have no dodge. So when you need to go right to the boss to strike, you will definitely get hurt. The map is not useful. While it shows all of the world with distinctly named areas, it does not display your present location. It appears to be a metroidvania map, however I'm not sure if the game is linear or if you can revisit earlier screens. When I try to return now, all I get is a blank square. If it turns out the game follows a linear path, there is missable content. I found a key in one location and a door a few screens later. If you want to take a shot, get the game at a heavy discount because it's not worth the current price. It's simply too broken and doesn't have anything to make it stand out.