Carestia

Pretty bizarre metroidvania. At its best is a puzzle game aligning tool to transfer power/electricity across rooms to open up doors. Taking these tools between rooms, trying to circumvent forbidding gates that deny you entry if you're carrying prior gear. At its worst you just eternally march downwards underground, shooting scorpions blindly marching back and forth, clearing spike pits with your singular jump, falling stalactites that will *never* hit you if you don't stop. This interminable opening section lasts about half of the game unfortunately before the game shifts focus onto it's more unique aspect of building laser beam networks on the fly. In other ways it's bizarre: You get the double jump beyond the halfway point. It's followed up within minutes with the Dash ability. You can jump, dash once, jump again mid-air and air dash AGAIN. It's a nice movement boost, but the problem is that they then head into the Factories, an area with springs and ceiling spikes and slime pits that's challenge is pretty much trivialised immediately. Why jump on the springs, when you can just double jump in the sections that don't have spiked ceilings? Why play around with one tile wide platf…

It's simply boring ███████▄▄███████████▄ ▓▓▓▓▓▓█░░░░░░░░░░░░░░█ ▓▓▓▓▓▓█░░░░░░░░░░░░░░█ ▓▓▓▓▓▓█░░░░░░░░░░░░░░█ ▓▓▓▓▓▓█░░░░░░░░░░░░░░█ ▓▓▓▓▓▓█░░░░░░░░░░░░░░█ ▓▓▓▓▓▓███░░░░░░░░░░░░█ ██████▀░░█░░░░██████▀ ░░░░░░░░░█░░░░█ ░░░░░░░░░░█░░░█ ░░░░░░░░░░░█░░█ ░░░░░░░░░░░█░░█ ░░░░░░░░░░░░▀▀

It's a really fun and beautiful game. I've loved the experience so far. There are challenging bosses and puzzles but not at the point of making to hard to be fun. Great abilities can be unlocked that will make you want to come back and explore the rest of the map. 100% recommended.

Pretty fun platforming/metroidvania game. The puzzles are different than any other game I've played before and challenging enough to make the game interesting. Give it a try, support indie devs ;D

I really liked this game, but I do have one little complaint. The map. It sort of reveals itself room by room, just as soon as you enter one, not progressively like other metroidvanias, so it's really hard to keep track of unexplored areas that might be in that room and that you can't access right away, which makes it really difficult to find all the collectibles unless you painstakingly go through the entire map after finishing the game, which honestly I was too lazy to do. The "shortcuts" from one area to the next are just not enough. Other than that, sure, the game is fun, but this little flaw makes it also kind of frustrating.

https://youtu.be/ZWdu9iZWrSw So you've read the description and now you're down here in the comments trying to figure out what's it all about. Click the video above to see some of the gameplay, mechanic and hear my thoughts on the game. Carestia is a Metroidvania-lite puzzle platformer that'll have you blasting all sorts of bizarre creatures in order to obtain all of Earth's energy crystals. The game has pieces/parts of the metroidvania system i.e. collecting an upgrade to progress through a certain area or over an obstacle but cannot be truly considered a full metroidvania as this system is far and few between. It is mostly a puzzle platformer where you have to collect pieces such as mirrors, generators, and lamps to puzzle together in order to open doors or progress through a section. The art style is charming and the music is quite good. Games with this price point in this genre that are good are far and few between. I highly recommend picking this up as it will scratch that retro itch you may have and it's a fun way to kill some time.