Memoirium

Disclosure: this review is based on a pre-release build, which I was granted access to because of a connection to the developer. Conflict of interest applies. TL;DR: I love the exploration. The combat's solid and feels fair but boss fights demand a bit too much mastery for my taste. [b]Exploration[/b] [i]Memoirium[/i] understands how important it is to have variety during the explore phase of a soulslike. You often find yourself in a fresh scenario, thinking on your feet while pressured by dwindling estus reserves and no idea how much farther the next bonfire is. So even if each individual enemy, stage hazard, or room layout is fairly simple (basic, even), the game keeps switching up the permutations to maintain the novelty, to the point that many mechanical gimmicks show up only to spice up one or two rooms. The same applies to the longform wayfinding vibes. Each zone succeeds in putting you into a different kind of journey-planning headspace. There's a zone that feels like a linear gauntlet, a zone that's a meandering search for a bonfire, a maze, a VERTICAL maze, even a... poison swamp. In one of the later zones, I got lost and I loved it! It's neat that all these places are arranged with the commitment to make everything a singular world that fits together exactly, without using wormholes to cheat connections between them. But hilariously, this means that many zone connectors are either goofy elevators or a realtime MMO (speed)boat ride. So while you can be impressed by the scale, you're never really impressed by the connection itself, especially since the dreamworld doesn't need to make logical sense. Except for Baheim. That connector was a blast. Where the exploration can break down, I think, is the combination of nonlinearity and power progression. It's entirely possible to do an easy-tier zone after you've bulked up and have a fat estus flask on your hip. At that point, you can just trade hits and chug chug chug. This defuses most of the tension from needing to play tight enough to survive the unknown. [b]Combat and Bosses[/b] I'm not skilled enough to evaluate a combat system, so I can't confidently say if it's good or bad. What sticks out to me is that regular movement feels noticeably looser compared to soulslike tradition. You're a lot less committed to your position and it's easier to juke and punish with a long weapon. Maybe that's why John Memoirium from the cover art holds a spear. But loose movement also makes it easier to disengage and chug, so the game rarely has those classic moments where you're forced to keep your cool and hold steady at critical HP, while you wait for an opening to drink. Overall, I'm satisfied by the Simon Says combat system, with its parry timings and "perilous attack" indicators. In the early boss fights I can do the thing the screen tells me to do. Sight reading the parries, even. My attempts are sloppy, but enough to reach the finish line on a good run. Starting midgame, bosses start having health bars that are so fat that sloppy play doesn't cut it if you limit yourself to plain attacks and parries (maybe they've been toned down on release). If you go that route, you really need to know every tell and execute your answers reliably enough to survive a loooong fight. I admit that I don't have the patience to take a break, return when fresh, and practice for an hour. I just want to see the next zone, damn it! But the game FEELS fair enough that my gut tells me that I can get that pure-fundamentals-only boss clear if I tried. Find out for me. For casualcore, there are escape hatches like NPC summons and low key cheese strats. But for the mediumcore, you probably need to engage with spells, items, or the elemental/status system. The problem with items is that I don't find them fun to use. Zoning the boss to throw bombs is low risk and plays the same every time, while enchanting your weapon or armor just means calling a timeout in the middle of the fight (remember, it's easier to disengage). For spells, okay fine I should try a run where I lean on them. But I don't see myself doing any interesting weaving or spellswapping. Instead, I expect to spam one "best" spell for the particular boss. [b]Conclusion[/b] It's already up there in the TL;DR I ignored the room IDK if it's good.

Cannot recommend this game. Though I appreciate the effort it took to create, and wanted to like it, having gave it a few attempts. You are slow, floaty and clunky, with big stamina costs. This would be fine for me, yet the enemies can attack quickly and often. There is no hit stagger, and the game loves to throw multiple enemies at you at once, so you have no crowd control; the enemy placement is haphazard and a lot of it. Everything you do beyond basic attacks, is a charge-up. Heavy attacks? Charge up. Every single spell? Charge-up. Enemies attack quicker than your charge-ups? Count on it. Additionally, sprinting and jumping massively drains your stamina; sprint for 2 seconds, wait 3 seconds for recharge, etc. The zones feel big, and often require a good deal of jumping, which makes this stamina cost a real annoyance. The level design itself is reasonable; there is some cool parts to it, and it rewards exploration with hidden shortcuts and the like. But out of my small playtime, a lot of it felt labyrinthian. Or it had thin platforms with death drops and enemies blocking your path who will push you off. Sadly, the game has an over-reliance on stopping zone progression with locked doors; it is does not feel good to go into a zone to then be stopped midway and have to go to another zone, for it to then happen again. Fighting enemies does not feel satisfying; I began to run past them instead of dealing with them, especially the ranged enemies that do a lot of damage and are tough to take out. The in-game information is lacking; you'll read what an item / spell does, and barely understand it for how little it tells you; lots of obfuscation, you're better off testing items in a safe space than relying on the UI to tell you. The game also has some armour that gives you an upside, but also gives the enemy an upside, such a quicker movement, more mana, etc, etc. I'm not a big fan of this. The upsides for you are situational, while the enemy's upsides are always beneficial (e.g., one mask reduces enemy vision, making them easier to sneak up to and backstab. But all enemies have increased movement speed; and most enemies cannot be snuck up on for a backstab). TL;DR: Game is slow and clunky, with gated exploration, many ganks and unsatisfying enemies. The game will test your patience with how annoying it can be.

Its actually really satisfying, Straight into the game as with usual souls, and everything just has so much character (I love fighting a dude who is attacking me with a chair, who was eating another bro a moment ago) Responsiveness 10/10 Audio 10/10 Music 9/10 Graphics 7.6/10 Cat Sassy/10

This is a really cool game with some really cool dreamy environments, killer (literally) enemies and bosses, fun (difficult) mechanics, and banger music. Being new to the soulslike genre, this game is kicking my ass hard. But I'm really enjoying it. Even when I feel like rage-quitting, I get to take a break and decorate my lovely room. It's easy to feel how much the dev put their heart and soul into it. It's crazy to me that all of this was made by a solo dev.

中盤ぐらいまでは手軽にサクサクッと良い感じで楽しめたのでおススメ！と言いたいのですが 後半からアスレチックと大量の遠距離攻撃持ち雑魚+フィールドギミックのコンボによる不快要素の波が押し寄せてきて激萎えです。ソウルライクは本家含め色々と手を出してますがこれは上位に入るエグさですね。 　なんとかラスボスに勝ちました。雑に強制？異常付与や唐突な遠隔攻撃など酷かったです。僕が下手なだけで何らかの対応策があるのかもしれませんが… 　余談ですが、メインボス撃破で手に入る鍵はボスの幻影に返却で魔法をチェックポイントで使用してボス武器の二択になります。（説明なくて途中で気付きました） とりあえず二週目消化してから冷静に再評価してみようと思います。

Genuinely one of the best soulslikes out there at the moment. What you've got here is basically Yume Nikki-Souls. Huge, sprawling dreamscapes full of bizarre landmarks and offputting creature designs which are all "out there" enough to come across as cohesive. Every single dungeon is super visually distinct and each boasts their own share of unique enemy designs and mechanical gimmicks that make all of the game's areas super memorable. The major bosses take a quality over quantity approach, which works out great. Instead of bogging each area down with half-baked minibosses, each level boss gets to genuinely shine as the apex of their respective dungeons, forcing you to put everything you've learned throughout the level to work. The build variety is massive, and the relatively unique skill tree and mask system had me combing through every nook and cranny looking for more tools to use. The game is short on documentation, which actually came around to be really fun for my first playthrough. Going in with no guides or handholding had me super immersed, and constantly reveling in little "Ah-ha" moments as I sleuthed out where to go next. Memoirium is a sick little indie souls game with incredibly impactful artistic direction and a level of forethought put into its level design that I haven't experienced since the original Dark Souls. Untouchably great game; if you're remotely interested in the idea of a "liminal" or "weirdcore" take on the soulslike subgenre, you should pull the trigger on this game asap.

Love the art style and the gameplay reminds me of DS1 with how interconnected everything is.

Saw this game during the indie spot light, and I am blow away by the creativity shoved into this game. I read the developer's soliloquy about his late mother, and her inspirations as a loving parental figure that he manifested into Memoirium. The inclusion of our character having a room in which we are able to transcribe our thoughts and emotions was fun and definitely a new/sparse addition I personally don't see much in games