[i]The Messenger[/i] was surprisingly fun and charming for a 2D platformer that had an amazing start, at least up to the second half of the game, and it is this last sprint to the game's conclusion that really brings it down a few points and makes it unenjoyable when it started so strongly and was immediately an 8/10 rated video game.
Generally, I am cautious about video games of this genre but unlike its cousins, it is not at all unforgiving with its punishments and consequences while still maintaining some level of challenge mixed with plenty of fourth-wall breaking humor, clever references and wit. It's very obviously inspired by the original NES version of [i]Ninja Gaiden[/i] that will have been lost to time by now.
The plot isn't anything new or original, and it's another game that introduces a time traveling aspect to solve what the writers have clearly designed as an otherwise impossible problem to resolve otherwise without the copout usage of time to solve all problems. There's some sort of demon invasion that has resulted in the mass eradication of humanity where some of the surviving remnants have sought refuge in a corner of the planet somewhere, having become practitioners of ninjutsu apparently, where they await prophecies to be foretold like one involving the arrival of a "western hero" who is supposedly meant to be their savior. Western hero no doubt referring to a manly American male as who else can you really rely on to wipe out demons? America has been doing that for centuries now. He does arrive, albeit slightly too late (typical America), and thus starts your character's adventure as an important scroll-holder where you must journey to deliver it to some trio of wisemen where there is somewhat of an interesting twist regarding your adventures.
But you quickly realize that this game was hiding something underneath its surface and is actually a metroidvania in that its maps are interconnected with varying horizontal and vertical pathways, where some are otherwise locked to you before you've unlocked the appropriate equipment, lots of secret areas to seek, etc. As I was saying before, it has its challenge here-and-there but is not so hardcore and unforgiving like many others you will play of this genre, which I think is refreshing given the gaming subculture that has tricked so many developers into believing we need more "git gud" games that are often terribly unbalanced and filled with artificial difficulty in order to achieve that demand.
I would not really label this 2D platformer as one that aims to scratch that hardcore itch. It is better described as being a more casual adventure for people who don't want something too challenging, or perhaps a good introduction into this specific genre for those who are still new to it, where they'll progress into bigger, better metroidvanias. Because while this can be tagged as such, it's lacking in some basic QoL evolutions that have come with modern gaming such as a fast travel system. Backtracking is a common aspect of the metroidvania but perhaps the game should have implemented a more convenient way of traveling from one side of the world map to the other. This design choice really ruins the pacing of the game and I think will result in some people quitting preemptively as it is tedious and actually prevents the game from being highly rated. Once the metroidvania aspect of the game unlocks, you're completely confused about what to do and where to go, and getting hints from the shopkeeper NPC requires exorbitant amounts of your gems that you need for upgrades to your character. There are these weird time rifts that transport you between the past and future, and all of this confusion really just boils down to the developers really thinking that time dilation and time travel and everything relating to time was a good plot device for the game. Don't get me wrong, it's cool to see the graphics change in real-time in addition to some other minor changes like the music, but it just ruins it as it does with everything else that tries to make sense of how the construct of time works. I immediately got a headache and just wanted to quit the game, ultimately giving up and just resorting to an online guide as to where to even go because this design choice really seems like the developer's attempt at a scum tactic to pad total gametime. The game, at this point, really overstays its welcome and probably should have ended prior to this new mechanic.
I found that bosses were relatively easy and most I defeated on my first attempt, including the "final boss" that I realized immediately could be cheesed by just jumping on its floating golem hands, but the dialogue afterward usually helps add to the fun. Checkpoints are commonplace, eliminating the annoying factor that many of these games rely on as part of its difficulty: the tedious runback to bosses in the event of a rematch. And bosses and generic enemies that are found throughout each map are not so overpowered that it does more damage to your character than it really should. A gripe about the combat is that enemies will constantly respawn off-screen as the camera follows your character's movements, and so taking even just a few steps backwards or jumping too high will require you to dispatch an enemy you just killed five seconds ago. This also makes farming the currency for upgrades easier as you can obtain more gems than you'd realistically get if you are patient and dedicated enough to just farm the map, which I don't necessarily agree with doing myself, but it's a video game and so people are allowed to exploit the mechanics that exist and were never patched out of the game if it was truly game-breaking.
There is the character upgrade shop that you'll be introduced to pretty early on into the game, with the usual upgrades: health, magic, and one tree for acrobatics like swimming faster, as some maps do have you underwater. The shop has new abilities that are available once you've unlocked the metroidvania part of the game. Aside from the gear/items you'll find as you progress through the game, like the standard claw that lets you climb walls, the upgrades in this shop are all passive boosts to your character and are purchased with the money you get for killing creatures, finding secret caches, and jump-attacking the floating objects that you utilize for the pogo mechanic that these games typically use.
I loved the art style, and especially the music, the combat was tight and animations were fluid and the boss fights were generally fun, but there needed to be a dedicated attack animation for downward and upward attacking without needing to initiate a glide. There'll be areas you 'pogo' in but it's counter-intuitive in order to do so when you have to constantly initiate your gliding ability because that's the only way you can attack downwards. It can be inconsistent in that it feels like it doesn't always activate, which is detrimental to one particular boss fight where you need to pogo around the arena to avoid a "floor is lava" type of situation. I guess they didn't teach all of the basics in ninja school when it comes to different attack directions.
It's a hard game to recommend while at the same time I don't necessarily want to not recommend it. It's one of those game that sits more at a neutral rating, where perhaps you might like the end-game scavenger hunt that you are obligated to play along with, or maybe you won't. The build up to that point was great while it lasted, though, and I wish there was more of that or the game just concluded with your getting to fight the boss of all demons.
Also, there's no proper fullscreen windowed mode in a game that released in 2018. That's unacceptable.
