Shadow Labyrinth

You get isekaied from your boring life in the big city and find yourself in the body of a cloaked puppet wearing programmer socks that is haunted by the ghost of Pacman. For me personally, the levels are slightly too big and the pacing is a bit off. You find your first shop relatively early and will go for quite a while until you find another. Movement tech and general skills are also pretty late. It's still an absolutely solid metroidvania game and reminds me a bit of Astlibra Revision, which is the best I can say about any metroidvania, really. The Pacman influences are fun, and I like the story and lore it's building.

The game is broken. Projectile and weapon damage passes right through you, also parry and counter attack abilities do not work. The only thing that actually damages the player is coming into contact with enemies. Its a shame, the game looks good and has a fun story, but I cannot recommend a broken game.

Fun game, but they need to fix parrying and allow projectiles to hit you again. Parrying isn't possible on the current patch, and most projectiles just go through you without damage. This makes most of the bosses a joke.

Played on OG 512 Steam Deck without any issues. This is an ok game, it’s really large and typically I love that but I couldn’t keep playing it after finally getting the most important ability in a Metroidvania so far along into the game. This one is curious in that I never got an ability and felt like there was a place I wanted to revisit now, just couldnt think of it. Game is good overall and has accessibility options so be ye not afraid. Enjoyed the pac man rails too. I held off on this one at launch and glad I did. I liked this game overall.

**CAUTIOUS RECOMMENDATION** Shadow Labyrinth is an odd amalgamation of the Metroidvania subgenre and Namco's beloved PAC-MAN franchise. During your journey, you are accompanied by a PAC-MAN-esque character (PUCK) that serves the purpose of driving the storyline forward, eating defeated enemies for resources, and traversing specific pac-lines in the environment. It's a unique fusion that feels risky but ultimately pays off despite a number of glaring issues. You get a "lot of bang for your buck" here, but it's a case where "more isn't always better." Shadow Labyrinth is HUGE. And not in a good way. Environments seemingly go on for far too long, interconnected by doorways that break the 2D plane and make it nearly impossible to figure out where to go. You just kind of wing it and hope for the best. This problem is exacerbated by a horrendous map that can't keep up with the level design or make it easy to fast travel. Conversely, the movement in this game is so damn good that you can basically fly through these sections after a handful of abilities have been unlocked. The map size is offset by just how rapidly your character can gain momentum and zip from place to place. This is heightened by the sheer power fantasy of upgrading your character, gaining abilities, and becoming an offensive force of destruction. Backtracking basically sees you obliterating enemies at a breakneck pace, using all the shortcuts you've unlocked to shave time, and in this way, these larger environments, while still a chore to some degree, much more manageable and less overblown than many reviewers will make you think. The PUCK aspect of this game is both hit and miss. Using Pac lines as a traversal mechanic is fun and a creative way of navigating tight corridors or finding shortcuts through larger areas. Unfortunately, the controls while using PUCK are wildly erratic. The game enables a "guide line" by default which shows you the trajectory PUCK's jump, but it can shift rapidly and without warning, sending you flying in a completely different direction than intended. This isn't terrible until you encounter specific areas of the game that lock your combat form into PUCK, but thankfully these moments are few and far between. The combat is generally very fast, fluid, and incredibly enjoyable, which I think absolutely voids out many of the game's other shortcomings. Melee combat feels punchy with enemies often getting launched across the room when defeated. Ability variety lets you play defensively by shielding or offensively with a fluid and incredibly effective (and very generous) parry that rewards the player with a massive follow-up damage buff. Combat upgrades are found in the environment, earned through a battle arena, or via vendors and traders when currency & resource requirements are met. The latter can feel a bit grindy at times, as resources are only gathered when you initiate a devour move with PUCK after an enemy is defeated. It's an animation that takes several seconds to play out, but one that never felt intrusive enough to pull me away from the experience. A huge selling point for this game was obviously the PAC-MAN levels that initially resemble the arcade classic from 1980. My previous gripe with PUCK's controls honestly wipe every ounce of fun from these sections. They are these odd PAC-MAN remix levels where you gather power pellets but also smash ghosts using wall jumps and speed boosts. There is clearly an ebb & flow to these sections, but PUCK controls so poorly that I never got the hang of them. These sections culminate in a boss fight that's equally as tedious if not visually and audibly stunning. Your mileage may vary here as most reviewers pin these sections as the highlight of the game, but for me, they were the ones I wanted over the quickest. Story wise, Shadow Labyrinth tells a surprisingly deep tale that has you questioning the morality of PUCK and the characters you encounter. These characters all come and go infrequently enough as not to be overly distracting, but are to the point with dialogue and make their mark without overburdening the player in a novel of conversation (I'm looking at you Iconclasts and HAAK). At times, the set pieces can be outrageously grandiose, making this feel like an anime more than a Metroidvania. And I'm OK with that. I very much enjoy this game but urge players to BUY WITH CAUTION. This game is bloated and loaded with pacing issues. Environments are massive, often difficult to navigate, and backtracking can be a nightmare. PUCK's controls and 1980's PAC-MAN sections can be a serious pain, but still add much needed variety (visually and audibly) to game that often feels too big for it's own good. That being said, Shadow Labyrinth does a lot well, and is unique enough to set it apart from many other's in the subgenre. There is an abundance of content here, tons to unlock, and lots of reward for experimenting with builds and abilities. When it hits, it really hits. And when it misses, it stumbles hard. This puts Shadow Labyrinth in an position that makes it challenging to recommend but still a great title for those willing to overlook the shortcomings.

Before I start this review, a warning: If you play the game at 60FPS (default) or an uncapped framerate, it's pretty much guaranteed to break the game to an incredibly boring or impossible to progress state. I was able to fully enjoy the game at 120FPS and v-sync off, however (and I only have a 60Hz monitor). I tried this game because I love Pac-Man. This was the first metroidvania game I was ever able to actually get through to the end. Others I have gotten bored or frustrated quite early on. But then this one hooked me, and I played all the way through to the end and even decided to 100% the game. Exploring was quite addicting, and it was fun to go back and utilize the new abilities as I uncovered them in the places I had been before. This is a staple of the genre, though. I never felt like the game got tedious. There are fast-travel save points frequently enough that you never feel like you have to run through too much of the empty areas, and the map is easy to read and understand with helpful icons that help you know where you have and haven't been and what you need to do in the places you had to leave behind because you didn't have what was needed to progress. I did take a bit of notes, but a lot of times I didn't even have to reference them, because I was able to tell what was possible to do just by looking at the in-game map. The game does put a giant question mark icon on the map over items you haven't picked up as long as they have been on the screen (even if it was only a pixel of it, and even if it was obscured by a foreground wall or something to make it 'hidden,' so there's not really a point to even hiding them a lot of the time because the map will just tell you where it is anyway. I think this did make finding all the items quite easy, but honestly I would not really enjoy it if there were tons of hidden items where you needed to slide under a small rock to go behind a foreground wall and there was no way to see you could do this without looking extremely carefully at every single bump along your journey or worse, pressing against every single wall or something just in case you can walk through it. The game does feel a bit easy at times; I don't know if this is normal for the genre, but most of the time you're just kind of running and doing simple platforming while fighting weak enemies as you move from place to place. That could be intentional, though. Then you will have some segments that can be quite challenging, whether it's because of tricking platforming required or fighting a difficult boss. Many of these challenges felt very satisfying to overcome. There is an item farming mechanic -- when you defeat an enemy you can optionally eat it (which takes a second in which you cannot move but are still capable of taking damage) and convert its body into an item. You then can turn these items into perks in a crafting-like system, among other things. To be honest, I didn't do a lot of 'grinding' and was able to get everything in the game. I just kind of ate most things I came across, especially if I felt the item drop from them was more rare. Later you get perks to increase Ora drops (money you get for defeating enemies) and double your item drops (sometimes even tripling or quadrupling a drop). Ora becomes a non-issue after a while, but early on you'll be making some decisions on where to spend it. I probably only spent about 2 to 3 hours refighting the minibosses to try to get rare drops from them, and those hours were spread out over the course of my 50+ hour playthrough. At the very end when I was doing 'cleanup,' I only needed 5 types of items to finish buying all the perks. I got 3 of these items in about 2 minutes, and then the other two types I did have to fight some minibosses several times before they dropped them, but I'd just go fight them after a few attempts at doing other things I needed to, so it never felt annoying. One of the minibosses only took seconds to defeat, too. Overall, I found this game to be far less tedious than other metroidvania games I have tried, and the challenges when they were presented were very fun. The exploration always felt chill and satisfying, and figuring out some of the solutions to advance was fun as well. There are a bunch of perks that I never bothered to equip, and most of the ESP abilities (special moves) I found little to no use for. One of them I used a single time, and a few others I never utilized at all other than to just try them out. There's also a mech that you can transform into, and I basically never used it outside of the times the game forces you to use it to progress. The story was interesting enough. The main characters weren't particularly amazing, but the underlying lore to the universe in the game was pretty cool, and I enjoyed learning about it. I would really like to see a sequel or something that explores this universe further. PUCK, the little Pac-Man buddy that follows you, ended up surprising me with her depth as a character, and there were some moments that quite surprised me as well. Throughout the game there are also many references to classic Namco games, which is really cute and fun. I had fun trying to piece together the lore and overall story as I went before a lot of the bigger reveals late in the game. in conclusion, this game sparked my interest in trying other games in the genre, because I found this one to be quite enjoyable. i never felt bored or frustrated in my time playing except for about 15 minutes when I thought the double jump timing was just obnoxiously precise before figuring out that the framerate was breaking the game. I really enjoyed learning some of the boss patterns and putting together different perk builds for different parts of the game. The grind never got to me as I was able to do most of it here and there over the course of regular play. I never had to consult any guides or outside information, as the game gave me enough information to do everything on my own, and there were no super arbitrary solutions to anything. I don't know what other games in the genre are really like beyond the first hour or two of play, but unlike the others I have tried, I never got frustrated or bored with this one, and had a blast playing for over 50 hours. So I'm not sure if I can recommend it to fans of the genre as I can't fairly compare it to anything else, but in general if you just want a good time for 50 hours I feel like this game was quite satisfying.

Bought the game post patch 1.1 and I think contrary to the reviews at launch, the game is decently enjoyable as a whole if not a bit repetitive during the last quarter. In its current state veteran Metroidvania players should have no problems finishing the game at veteran mode. It’s a meaty game at ~30hrs, Combat lacks variety but the tech is decently fun. Map design may be a bit incoherent at times but feels good (not great) to explore. Biggest cons are the Pac-Man sections which are still bad, grinding for materials, and end game boss HP scaling. I’d recommend the game on sale for those that can look past completing everything 100% and want the novelty of playing a Pac-man metroidvania.

正月休みにやり残しを片付けるためにプレイしたら、 当たり判定がおかしなことになっていた。 敵攻撃に当たり判定が無く、パリイが出来ない… （モード変更なし） 流石にもういいかな