Angeline Era

Angeline Era feels like something not from this world. It's like videogames, without us the players knowing, had to turn left or right at some point in time and chose a direction, evolving in a quite specific (although varied) manner and with specific influences. Angeline Era is a videogame coming straight from that unknown opposite direction. I'm not as bold (or knowledgeable) as to declare it's the first game doing the bump-slash combat or implementing an inspect action to discover secrets in every level (and even on the world map itself), but it's sure as hell the first game which does both together plus more, like the atypic way the levels themselves are handled, their extravagant ever-changing designs, the surprisingly deep but mostly weird dialogues and finally a fleeting story with the most unpredictable conclusion. Originality doesn't necessarily equal to quality but all of the elements above are well executed and I had a wonderful time with the game.

Amazing game. The graphics are reminiscent of PS1 N64 era, feels like an oddball game you would randomly rent at block buster and have a blast. It has a bizarre atmosphere that the rudimentary graphics really emphasizes, and the feeling is one of being dumped into a dreamlike world that operates by its own logic - nothing is fully explained. This coupled with the searching mechanic leads to continually pleasant surprises. At one point I ended up in a mining mini-game with unique mechanics specific to a few sub levels that took the whole afternoon. The bump combat mechanic is simple yet addictive and satisfying - I get the feeling some of the negative reviews about the combat weren't utilizing the full arsenal. If you don't upgrade, the game can become miserable in later levels or higher difficulties, but as you get new weapons that can push enemies away, or artifacts like mines and grenades, or a gun that only shoots up, lots of strategy and crowd control is introduced into gameplay. This just hits all the right notes for me. Utterly unique and strange, simple but not straight forward, very engaging. Will be checking out the other releases from this developer for sure.

hey! this is really good!

I don't know how to explain it, but this is very nostalgic. It feels like those video games I used to rent on N64 and get lost in other people's saves as a kid. Amazing game, one of the few I've actually completed, and I plan to replay it at some point on a harder difficulty. I'm sure there are more hidden secrets that I missed on my first playthrough.

TLDR: The combat and exploration is so fresh and fun, but the last few hours of the game kind of fall apart. Combat is bullet-hell-ish where you have to dodge bullets and attacks to bump into your enemies. It feels great. Plus there's a good puzzle aspect to the game where you often times only have to kill certain enemies to advance. The exploration also felt satisfying. It mostly centers around finding out of place spots in the overworld and levels. if you detect them then you can uncover secret levels, upgrades, or even nothing at all. This game is often giving you hidden areas that only contain a neat npc, or a pretty view. The game frequently encourages you to take it in as a piece of art. There are many aspects that are meant to be enjoyed just for how strange or interesting they are instead of serving any gameplay purpose. Unfortunately the story and gameplay take a hard left turn for the last few hours. It railroads you into a very linear unsatisfying experience on both fronts. It's not enough to sour the whole experience, but I honestly think the game would be better if they just cut the last few hours altogether. So maybe after you Fight the queen. just ... stop…

(Finished on console on Melos’ Trick in 21h. Proof is here: https://infinitebacklog.net/users/sabitakabuto/achievements/xbox/1670255787. Might also edit this later on some reflection, clean up, and doing a Han-Tani’s Challenge playthrough.) ———————————————————————————————————— Excellent game, easily one of the most refreshing, unique, and well-designed experiences I’ve had this year. I feel structurally this feels like a relic from the future of this medium, cause this combination of honed design, polish, and scope just completely perplexes me. I’m not really a fan of the story - and I’ll get to that later - but all things considered I’d really recommend grabbing this if you want something creatively uncompromising and realised that is unlike anything else you’ve experienced before, especially if you’re like me and don’t usually place a lot of emphasis on video game stories. Going to spend the rest of this review delving more into the individual components of the game. [*] Difficulty tuning on Melos’ Trick feels pretty on point. Which is very surprising seeing as it’s basically just ‘you take more damage compared to Normal’. But the amount of hits you’re able to take feels like a …