Column on the Sea

I didn't enjoy it all that much. I understand that it imitates old-school games, but it also imitates some of their problems and thus it becomes a chore to play. The combat is clunky, with bad collision detection and attack animations that can't be canceled, bosses are damage sponges (the final boss especially is a slog) and you never feel powerful even after getting most of the upgrades. The spells seem interchangeable and barely useful, mostly used to break doors down. The exploration feels like a chore as well, because of all the backtracking that leads to minimal rewards. And the grating soundtrack and overly long, unskippable dialogues are annoying as well. Some things are just weird too, like toggling the run on and off despite there being no reason to walk instead of running, at all. However, under all that jank there's a somewhat nice metroidvania, though not a particularly original one.

Slow-paced and repetitive. I kept thinking that second part was going to change, but it never really did.

Not the best looking, sounding or playing indie Metroidvania on Steam, but the game has a lot of heart. The solo dev who made it certainly had fun doing so, and it clearly comes across.

[i]---see where this game landed on my Metroidvania tier list beneath this review!---[/i] Column on the Sea is a totally obscure minimalist metroidvania that feels a bit like a gameboy/NES game. I played it on the harder difficulty, and it took me about 12 hours to complete. The game consists of a main hub with areas/biomes branching off of it. You will return to these areas for collectables that you may lack the upgrade to get on the initial pass. Most powerups are unfortunately glorified keys, but there are a few exceptions (mostly stock standard). You don't map as you go, but rather you acquire an areas map when you find the map room contained within it. Each area also has a compass room, which will reveal collectables that you haven't found yet. I found this system to work fine, I was rarely confused on where to try and explore. Sometimes you might miss the map room in a biome and struggle to get your bearing for a little bit, but none of this felt egregious to me, I enjoyed the system. There are also save points where you can restore your health, and you can teleport between these. Once you get quite deep into the game, enemies and bosses will become HP sponges. N…

There seems to be little attention/reviews for this one - so I'll throw in my $0.02! This game does a great job of blending the vibes of games from the NES/Gameboy era and gives it a modern sheen with the art style of a cartoon (the developer is primarily a cartoonist). The gameplay consists primarily of classic Metroidvania elements with both projectile and hack-n-slash combat. The story and characters are a lot of fun and it's all well written - makes you want to play and finish the game. While I had a few minor quirks with this (I do wish you could remap the controls for example), this game has a lot of heart and soul and does much more right than wrong. If you're looking for a solid Metroidvania that feels like both a homage to the NES era and cartoons then this is well worth checking out. Hopefully the developer decides to make another game at some point!

"Column on the Sea" is the kind of game I am always excited to play: a game none talk about and have less than 10 reviews on Steam. I know it sounds wrong I wish to play games which didn't have a high recognition from the gaming community, but hey, I like to discover new unknown stuff. Laika and Erhardt, a group of treasure hunters, reach the lost ruins of Big Twin Island and find its many secrets and riches. Laika is indeed the little girl who holds the big freaking knife, ready to use it to unexpected monsters and other foes. Erhardt stayed behind on their ship to give moral support and headaches to Laika. The story has many anime tropes present which either you hate or love. Yes, there is even a scene where Laika complains that it is normal to have small boobs (because she is under 18 you see…) and it is a running gag for a long duration in the game. There are also some references to other games but they don't hit the mark… An early tip on the house: go to the options and switch to always run. You will thank me later. The gameplay starts very simply and it gets a bit more demanding with each upgrade you get. There are many classic ones like wall jump, breathing underwater…