Umbraclaw

I don't know platformers that well but the art style is pretty cool.

It really hurts to post a negative review. I actually love the game. I'm really hooked by the interesting mashup of Metroidvania and Rogue-lite gameplay, vibrant art style, and the variety of ways to navigate the areas depending on what form Kuon is in and what skills she has collected. The boss fights have kept me on my toes. All in all it's pretty fun gameplay wise. So, now for why I'm giving a negative review. As fun as the gameplay is I cannot excuse two serious technical issues with the game and a specific design choice that has cost me hours of lost progress. The first issue is Steam Cloud Sync does not work. Umbraclaw puts its save data in its install folder instead of AppData or Saved Games. While there is a workaround for this issue it's something players would need to be aware of and tech savvy enough to apply manually to each machine they want their save to sync to. The second issue is a combination of a design choice and a game freezing bug. The design choice is there are no checkpoints, no mid-level save points, no way to bookmark your progress. Do not start a run if you could potentially be interrupted or don't have ample time to complete it. The gam…

The game's whole premise is that you start out as a regular cat with the baseline abilities of basic movement, a walljump, a dash that doubles as a dodge, and for bosses, a FATAL SKILL that you charge up by dodging through attacks and completely empties one of a boss' healthbars. Very basic kit, you don't even start out with any way to deal damage, and for a while a single (1) touch from any hostile force will kill you and take one of your nine (9) lives, which will in turn give you some offensive, defensive, or mobility skill to make your trek easier. Honestly a cool experiment on paper. Certain skills are also more likely to appear based on what enemy or hazard killed you. If you're really going through it and die enough times, you turn into the humanoid Kittyman-Zero, turning the game into a classic Inti Creates joint. People have said that this game is more fun the worse you are at it. I get it, you get to play with more of the game's systems, there are plenty of skills to play with, there's an upgrade system for some reason, but it really highlights the main issue: the game is balanced around the base cat form, assuming you have no special abilities available. The goal in yo…

After 100%ing this game: It's a really fun game but after the first playthrough in my honest opinion it takes a little bit of a nose dive. This game incentivizes you to replay it after you finish it the first time to get all the endings, and if you get all the NORMAL endings and some of the hidden dialogues, I think it's really cool. Getting every achievement is such a pain in the ass. I also dislike how easy it feels to cheese the game. Shadowdash feels way too generous for it's I-frames and there's some combos in Human forme that makes you feel almost invincible even without upgrades. If you're not a 100% completionist like me and want to sink like 2-5 hours into this, Amazing game, Very fun and the artstyle & story are really charming. If you want to 100% it however, it took me ~15 hours to 100% a savefile & get all achievements, and that's playing fast after my first playthrough. A lot of the requirements are weird & extremely frustrating for some of the harder achievements. [spoiler] The final secret ending is also kind of a letdown for how much work you have to put into it. But it makes sense given the title of Do you like being upset? [/spoiler] Even after al…

fun game its a little short but has several endings encouraging repeat playthroughs

This was fun, I really liked the ease it was to play it.