Pharaonic

I enjoyed this game, but objectively speaking, it's not an extraordinary one. Pharaonic faithfully follows the Souls-like recipe, but in 2D. The gameplay is therefore slow, the player must analyze enemy animations and attack accordingly. There's a "quick" attack, a powerful attack, a shield to parry or counter, and a dodge. Healing is done either with a flask or, towards the end, with an equipped item "spell". Progression takes place in levels with many branching paths, making it quite maze-like, contrary to what the 2D aesthetic might suggest. The environments are quite varied, as are the enemies. And even though the graphics are rather simple, I find them quite beautiful. The theme is original but the story is quite basic. There are also some NPC with few lines of flavor text, and sometimes some requests. So what's wrong with Pharaonic? Not much, but at the same time, the game doesn't do enough. Our character's stats are rudimentary, as are the few character progression options. Overall, the game doesn't evolve from beginning to end. But the adventure isn't very long, so boredom doesn't have much time to set in. Although each level are quite maze-like, the adventure ultimately …

uff. One of those games where I sincerely doubt the developers played it themselves. The relatively untouched setting and 2,5-D-perspective is already the most positiv-ish one can say about Pharaonic. Visually/creatively bland, basically only two types of enemies copypasted endlessly (light and heavy - even most bosses are just an iteration of one), painfully slow combat (hit-hit-wait for enemy attack-dodge and repeat for the overly long healthbar), every movement feels like being underwater, nonsensical and inconsistent hitboxes and -detection (for the player as well as the enemies), grindy leveling and so forth. Was even to boring for killing the time while waiting in the hospital bed. Runs well enough on the Deck at least.

Ancient sands conceal Every blade demands patience Death guards forgotten kings

Good Game 11/10

Judging from the other reviews, this is a highly underrated game; sure enough bringing souls-like mechanics to a 2Dish environment could feel strange, however the gameplay is curated and well-thought, with many and diverse weapons, skills, rings, spells, enemies, boss fights and maps. On top of this, truly great settings, great egyptian vibes with many references to their cult and religion. Great sound design as well. Story is also good. I also very much appreciated that enemies' gender is randomly chosen.

I had already played it back on PS4 but had to get it again for PC. I still think this game is a lot of fun and underrated. A very well done, challenging 2.5D Souls-like game with a fresh setting. I also like the art style a lot. Not the most demanding graphics, but it just feels nostalgic in a good way, a bit like fun PS2 games in prettier. I would wish the devs would return to this game some day and make a second one in the series. Great fun!