Elden: Path of the Forgotten

The game has good ideas let down by poor execution. The premise is good: make an indie soulslike-type game which uses visual and environmental storytelling only, with (originally, at least) all text in a fictional language. Unfortunately, most players do not appreciate these kinds of elements, and the storytelling in the end product is incredibly basic. While the original narrative loop is closed, the very limited interactions the protagonist has with other people in the world (there are a handful of repeated run-ins with the same two people, plus the item trader) are so basic that is is unclear who they were or what the actual chain of events was. The actual gameplay has some good ideas and I found myself warming up to the combat towards the end, however the weapon variety is limited and the lifesteal rune you can find (which is an item usable on a cooldown) completely breaks the game's difficulty over its knee. Combine this with low enemy variety and poor enemy AI, and the end result is lamentable. The enemy AI is especially poor because the boss state machines can change mid action; this was probably intended to make them more difficult, however the result is that it is complet…

"Elden: Path of the Forgotten" is a console ported 2D retro pixel (sigh) twin stick brawler with a (very) mild adventure game aspect as you wander around some spooky temple ground looking to fight some bad monster. It's unclear why. This is caused by your mother (we only know it's your mother because of the sales blurb) reading a book then opening a portal then throwing herself into the portal. That's just Darwin if you ask me, but anyway, you decide the best thing to do is wander around and fight monsters as a result. The fighting and combat is average at best, feels generally lacklustre and unpolished. The chief problem, apart from the deplorably weak technical implementation which I'll get into, is just poor, sloppy and lazy game design. There's no map and very few hints, leaving you to figure out what to do on your own... which would be ok if there was a reason to want to, but the game offers no rewards for discovery or exploration. A key example of a developer just "not getting it". But the funny part is the developer themselves gave out a negative review for the game Vampyr... why? Because he didn't like that the in-game map (which this doesn't have) didn't help much…

Unfortunately can't recommend. Pros: Game has a great ambiance and I like the minimalist visual style here, it works fairly well. Music and sound can be nice Cons: Mostly it feels unfinished. It's lacking that polish to make it feel solid. I experienced multiple bugs in the first 20 mins. A key disappearing, and an audio distortion bug (I hope or just terrible design) that ruin the experience. Additionally combat doesn't feel good at all. some enemy spells didn't seem to be showing up on my screen I think?? Some weapons are a little difficult to use, but then the others are basically unlimited stamina and free stun locks on enemies... With a little more work this game could be quite nice. Found a few more bugs, game feels more like a cash grab or student project than legit game.

Need polish. The controls feel unresponsive, so the fights are unnecessarily annoying.

bad controls, bad combat, no story. and the heart pounding sound when your health is low gives me a headache.

Short and sweet from a great studio. Get it if you like challenges