Pseudoregalia

Awesome music and awesome platforming.

The game is rough in certain areas, but DAMN this is promising. The dev NEEDS to capitalize on this and make a "real" 20 hour platformer. The ingredients are all here, and they clearly have great talent.

9/10 A very fun metroidvania 3D platformer, with both the metroidvania and platforming aspects done wonderfully. As a platformer, it plays like a dream, your movements quick and fluid. You start off with fairly limited mobility, which can make the early game feel a bit dull on replays, but only makes it more satisfying once you've unlocked a few abilities and get to zip around the map again. Once I got a good grasp on the controls, I was surprised at just how many little sequence breaks there are scattered across the game. Even before getting all the abilities, you can pretty much get anywhere if you're crafty enough with what you have, which is honestly both a highlight for me, and a bit of a fault. At times, it feels as though the level design isn't made with the moveset's full potential in mind. Skipping sections you don't have a correct abilitiy for yet using just wall jumps is fun, but it can feel like the developer wasn't aware just how truly flexible Sybil's capable of being. Little challenge minigames were added to the map post-launch that do amp the difficulty up a bit, but I'd still love to see a harder sequel that goes all out and bases entire sections around being quick, clever, precise as possible with the movement. Metroidvania-wise, the game is very, very pure in this regard, giving the player essentially zero guidance other than a few vague hints. Abilities can be unlocked in several different orders, the late-game ones especially. The exploration feels fairly intuitive. I feel like I rarely got lost or confused after gaining a new ability. Pretty much as soon as I unlocked one, an opportunity to use it was always presented to me soon after, then I'd find plenty more just by walking around and playing the game. It's honestly just one of the freest metroidvanias I've played in general, it's very delightful how the game simply trusts the player to figure things out on their own. Lastly, one complaint I'd like to address is with the boss fights. There's only two, one at the beginning, and the final boss. They're honestly not even bad fights, it's just the small amount that irks me. The game has a mechanic where as you damage enemies, you're given magic to heal yourself with, and that mechanic could be used as an excuse to make out some really engaging, drawn out fights. I don't think you'd need to add too many, maybe four or five total would be a good number for a game of this length. Preferably ones themed around abilities you'd have just gained, so you're not just slashing and dodging 'til the boss is dead.