Barbarian Saga: The Beastmaster

This was passable for a few hours as there was nothing special but also nothing seriously wrong either. That was until I realized the severe limit on user placeable markers. I tried to keep playing without markers but it did not take long for me to lose track and end up going in circles and get lost without markers.

OK, I get this game was only made by a team of 3 people, but "Barbarian Saga: The Beastmaster" needed WAY more time to cook before serving. It felt like playing a slapped-together Flash game. The Barbarian theme has promise, but the delivery is so shoddy and rushed I'm worried Selecta Play was hurrying the team along to get something out. Music was composed weirdly. Tutorial was just black screens. Characters had no personality beyond their edgy yet DeviantART-esque designs (one character was just a dude shrouded in a cyberpunk cloak holding a cellphone... in a barbarian dark fantasy). Dialogue was delivered in black boxes that had no emotion and sometimes weird delivery. Story exposition was just thrown at me in the dialogue. The Metroidvania navigation had no goal points and was just aimless exploration. Enemies had weird hitboxes you often couldn't connect to. Some treasures were in chests, others were purple wisps of smoke on the ground. I had no motivation to learn about the story of the protagonist or the wise-cracking sword he finds, yet the game seems to assume we SHOULD already know this. Most bizarre were the MIDI-music 90s cartoon opening - which surprisingly had more …

JUMP, CLIMB, ATTACK, JUMP CLIMB ATTACK. COLLECT COINS. DIE RINSE AND REPEAT BORING AF TBH, PLAYED A MILLIOM OF THESE, NOTHING NEW, NOTHING SPECIAL.

It’s not perfect, but then again, what game is? A fun, old-school Metroidvania with a decent length, excellent gameplay and a soundtrack that’s well worth listening to. I’ve read some fairly harsh reviews, though on the whole they’re positive. I don’t know what more you could ask for these days from an indie Metroidvania. Play it and enjoy it just like when you used to pop in a Mega Drive or Super Nintendo cartridge, or when you played a game on your Amiga 500 – it’s a game made with a lot of love, and I’d like to give it credit for that.

I really want to love this game but I can't. It looks like an alpha version, unfinished, unpolished game. Many annoyances and I only played ~1h30. Monsters that walks in straight lines and will run into you and deal stupid contact damage really makes combat unpleasant. These stupid lights/candles that does AOE damage and serves no purpose, just pure annoyance. Maybe I'll play again later when a few patches land, but for now I don't recommend it at all.

Getting health potions in the game is following capitalism-like which means players have to buy them from merchants. I wish there were some alternatives for it, boss fights at least. Other than that I think the game is placed where close to good.