Clockwork Ambrosia

手感相当舒适的射击类银，地图庞大且设计有相当多的隐藏，枪械改装提供了类似noita的战斗风格，在后期插满mod的武器可以打出覆盖全图的恐怖火力，同时也让每一处地图收集品都有价值。全篇几乎没有任何跳跳乐要素，收集品主要通过获得新能力发现新道路获得。悠远山、蘑菇洞窟等区域的bgm也很悦耳。美中不足之处一是重复跑图太多，即使获得了传送功能但是可传送点位又太少，前期没有什么跳跃能力的时候想要舔图就得来回倒腾。其次是boss数量太少了，很多单独的区域比如树顶、树精群居地等等明明是极好的放支线boss的位置但是却只有几个血厚点的精英怪加上宝箱就没了，整个游戏打完boss也就那么几个，完全没打爽。最后是根本没有剧情，把见到的会动的东西全杀了就通关了，但是毕竟不是游戏的核心卖点所以无伤大雅。整体是一款相当优秀的游戏，环指学徒给出的评分是A

A surprisingly meaty (20 hours!) Metroidvania that I enjoyed a lot! I saw the lack of direction and fast travel listed as the primary reasons for negative reviews, but I personally did not have that problem at all: I LOVED the open-endedness and non-linearity of the map, I actually enjoy it loads when a Metroidvania lets you get lost in every single area you can manage to access. However, if you take a moment to talk to NPCs, they do give pretty clear textual hints as to where you can progress. Fast travel is actually available. The "main" method takes a bit to unlock, but there are several other forms of fast travel available. Additionally, you unlock shortcuts (gates, switches, keys, et cetera) as you progress through areas that make backtracking much, much faster. Beyond that, there's a measure of detail and care put in to the pixel art and presentation that I absolutely adored, and you can concoct some truly outrageous combinations effects on your gear, and your weapons, especially as the primary reward for exploration is additional modifiers and modifier slots for your weapons, gear (which is visually represented when you equip it!) with meaningful, gameplay-impacting effects (stuff like extending the length of your dash, changing how health/armor works, hoovering up enemy drops from a large distance) and movement abilities. Additionally, combat gets rewarded with currency for shop purchases and crafting upgraded versions of equippable gear. All in all this game has easily cemented itself as one of my favourite Metroidvanias that I played in recent times, and one of my all-time favourite indie Metroidvanias period.

There is a lot to like here. But after losing an entire hour of progress due to being glitched into a wall thanks to a current and a bunch of fish, I'm done. The combat is fun. Boss fights can be intense. Lots of enemy variety to deal with, and it even looks good. The game's world looks cool, even if the story seems to be a sidenote more than anything. But navigating this large world falls a bit on the tedious side of things. I unlocked some fast travel via the mushroom folk, but that's mostly useless as that doesn't really take me anywhere I need to be anymore. The amount of dead ends you run into that just have a weapon mod that you might not even use is astronomical. I know the weapon mods can be useful. It makes sense to have them. They make combat have some pretty cool variety. But you don't need to use the full assortment of weapons most of the time. So the mods don't always make that exploration worth it. Especially considering you'll need to backtrack through so much to get back to where you're going. I liked that you unlock equipment that opens up more exploration options. It's just so tiresome to constantly run through the same areas all the time. Being able to fast travel to previous save locations would have been amazing. Great pixel art and music. But maaaan. I just don't have it in me to slog my way through the tunnels to get back to where I was. I suppose navigating through the map has been slowly eating away at me the entire time.. But losing progress knowing I've got a long trek to get back to where I was... And knowing that might just be leading me into a dead end.. Yeah, I just don't have that kind of patience.

I was first introduced to Clockwork Ambrosia at a convention in Seattle where I played a demo and chatted with the dev. I was immediately impressed, and apparently I was the first one to beat the demo at that con. Since then, I kept a loose eye on it, and now I finally got around to playing it. I could not be happier with what I found, as this is a true gem. There's a few rough edges for the moment, but the fundamental design is rock solid. It's a game that shows the team has a lot of love of metroidvanias and games in general, as there's a deep understanding of encounter, enemy, level, and puzzle design on full display. I play on Linux with a less=than-stellar keyboard, and I ran into some bugs around movement. I can't say if it was entirely the game or my computer being a bit funny. However, there were also a couple visual glitches, and some intermittent audio issues. Nothing game breaking, nothing that caused more than, at most, redoing a room, or restarting the game. If you love metroidvanias, they are not bugs that are going to stop you. My only other major issue is that i feel the story is a bit weak. It's perfectly serviceable, and gets the job done, but I'm more in it for the gameplay. Beyond those two points, I would struggle to find more to really take issue with. Polish up a few of those rough edges, and there's something here that any fan of the genre would enjoy. I'd say it's well worth your time.

A great addition to the MV genre, and Id even go so far as to say its just under SoTN and SM as one of the best. It does alot really well, and a few things not so well, but what it does well it does so good that the flaws are easily over looked. Note that this is a pretty open ended MV, and there is NO guidance or direction for where to go, so if you get frusterated getting lost and exploringm this may set you off. This is so much better then those overrated bug games. Guys give it a try, make it popular so the MV genre isnt just riddled with diehard bug fanboys that will lash at anyone who doesnt like the things they do!

This game got its hooks in me immediately. Exploration is extremely fun, with a great mix of easy and tough environmental puzzles. There's a small amount of design choices I at first thought were a little out of place, such as not being able to aim your gun in any direction other than forward, but it didn't take long for me to see the charm in it and appreciate it from a design perspective - all game, that limitation provided just the right amount of challenge. Boss fights were tough but fair, exploration was rewarded, and I only was stuck a few times and for short amounts. Right before I bought the game, the developers improved the map system and added more pin types to it. The map and pins aided me greatly, so the times I was stuck, it was pretty easy to process what areas to try going next. The map is HUGE which is rad, but not overwhelming to navigate until close to the end, but by then you have fast travel so it's okay. Fast travel is unlocked later than is typical for a Metroidvania of this size, but there are many shortcuts and interconnections between areas you unlock as you go - just explore an area until you find a shortcut to backtracking and you'll be just fine. The weapon customization is the big hook of the game and it's rad as heck! I love how different the four core weapons are, before you even get to the many mods you can use to adjust a given weapon to different playstyles. I enjoyed the mod variety for all four weapons, although I particularly vibed with two of the four and used them basically all game. They cater to different playstyles, rather than feeling overe/underpowered from each other. Very cool stuff! All in all, I loved this game, and will definitely come back to it to 100% it and/or replay it!

Great Metroidvania. Huge worlds, crazy customizable weapons, fun lore, balanced fighting, responsive controls, and lots of collectibles. Big recommend.