Kandria

So far, I'm having a lot of fun with this game. It's a challenging platformer without being over the top difficult, the controls are fluid and smooth, and I'm really enjoying the characters, especially Jack. Admittedly, I haven't gotten very far, but I honestly want to just give this game a thumbs up to support LISPers and more usage of LISP in game development!

I liked it, but note that platformer sections are brutal and require exceptional precision. There are accessibility options that include game speed though.

Fun 2d platformer showing Common Lisp in action.

Pros: 1. [b]Unique Narrative:[/b] Deep, post-apocalyptic story filled with mysteries. 2. [b]Engaging Exploration:[/b] Open world with diverse environments for discovery. 3. [b]Impressive Pixel Art:[/b] Detailed and expressive visuals create a distinct world. 4. [b]Atmospheric Soundtrack:[/b] Music enhances theme and atmosphere. Cons: 1. [b]Navigation Issues:[/b] Unclear objectives may confuse players. 2. [b]Challenging Platforming:[/b] Some segments may frustrate with difficulty. 3. [b]Shallow Combat:[/b] Lack of variety in combat mechanics. 4. [b]Incomplete Explanations:[/b] Mechanics may lack clear guidance. Overall, the game offers a unique narrative and engaging exploration, but faces challenges in navigation, platforming, combat depth, and explanations. Its distinctive qualities make it worth considering.

Elements of Celeste, Cave Story/choose-your-metroidvania, and a bit of Nier Automata are all here, if you liked any of those you'd probably like Kandria. Especially if you've played Celeste before, that'll be the first thing you're reminded of when it comes to the core movement and this game's source of challenge. But after completing the story I can say Kandria is its own game and I didn't feel like I was just playing any of those others yet again. It was also refreshing to play something without ability and upgrade locks, though there are a couple movement and combat tricks you learn as you go. Very calming atmosphere even though it's post-apocalyptic and some of the rooms I came across were challenging enough that I gave up on them for the time being. There's a bunch of accessibility options if the challenge is too much but you just want to explore, though I haven't messed with them yet.

Nothing is wrong with the gameplay but there are two major technical issues that are stopping me from playing it. I'm getting no sound at all in game, and there is an unusual brightness around the character and outside that make it hard to see and hurts my eyes. Workarounds mentioned on the forum are about changing various hardware settings that I can't do, as my setup for streaming and work is more important than getting one game to function properly. If they can fix these issues, I'll change my review.

Intriguing story, great mechanics, very responsive platforming. Hints of celeste in some of the challenge areas - and those areas are pretty challenging! Only a few hours in, but will come back to play more, likely on my Deck. Played flawlessly on my Linux desktop.

It's a precision-platformer with pretty simple combat. The accessibility configuration to slow time is helpful, but even with it, some of the rooms are quite hard to get through. As described, you can travel anywhere from the start of the game, which means there are no interesting upgrades: you can make your sword stronger, and I think you gradually increase hit points over time. Choices in conversations also don't seem to have any effect. The end of the game also just stops, without resolving any of the mysteries raised during the game.

The game has very enjoyable exploration and I liked the effort spent on making the world make sense, for example by using dialogue to give some extra details about things. The graphics and music are also very good. The game feels like it has a lot of little rough edges and bits that could've been polished more; almost all of these are minor, but compound enough that the game ends up feeling slightly less finished than I would've liked. Overall I did enjoy my time with the game, though.