Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition

Well, what an interesting game. I’ll say this, the art style, story and even gameplay concepts presented here are really unique. However, unique doesn’t really mean good unfortunately. The movement in this game is point and jump, linear movement to a surface, but in several occasions now I’ve had the game force my trajectory to where it though I wanted to go and not where I actually wanted to go. I can’t think of anymore more frustrating that repeatedly dying because the game thinks it knows better. Yes, please throw me into that fire ball and I’ll get stuck in the air, not the surface behind it, that’s perfect.

I really tried to like this game. I have around 6 hours of actual playtime (ignore the 46 hours shown — I accidentally left the game running in the background for a couple of days), but unfortunately, I just could not fully get into it. That said, there are definitely things the game does well, so let me start there. THE GOOD 1. Beautiful pixel art – The visuals are fantastic, and I especially love the design of the main character. 2. Great music – I have yet to hear a track I dislike. The soundtrack is genuinely one of the stronger parts of the experience. 3. Well-written dialogue – Conversations are easy to follow, and the writing feels clear and natural. 4. Smooth controls and decent level design – Movement feels responsive, and some of the environmental ideas are genuinely interesting. 5. Exploration and secrets – There are plenty of puzzles, hidden chests, items, and branching paths for players who enjoy exploring. THE NOT SO GOOD 1. Maps feel overly large and repetitive – Many areas look visually similar and contain multiple branching paths, which sounds great in theory but becomes exhausting in practice. Because the scale is so large and movement is repetitive, explo…

One of my top games, playing it on switch for... I want to say 7 years by now... Use controller if you want a somewhat logical control scheme... The mouse controls are quite funny, I enjoyed them a lot, but I have ~[i]experience[/i]~ Also, yeah, the controls are weird af, you get to struggle with them for a few hours but you get an amazing speedrunning game out of it. [strike] Oh, and the game keeps trying to trick you to slow down, don't beleive it, you can serpentine through most things with a few well placed attacks if you... can do them... hmmm... I guess once you learn the controls it gets much easier... [/strike] seriously, try this one. the DLC is free, FREE, and seamlessly integrated. The base game is worth it too. Anyways, I'm off to suffer with a no level-ups run.

Not a huge fan, but it's pretty good. The unique movement is fun, made it worth sticking out despite the awkward design. Most of the game goes pretty smoothly, and by the time you're at the super annoying stuff, you should be in too deep to quit. If you think it looks cool, try it out, what's the harm? Ok now the bad bits, I hated the backtracking. Not the game for it, and locking fast travel behind a late-game unlockable was diabolical (though acquiring it was the best part of the game imo, a very fun segment). Difficulty was also not handled well sometimes. I don't want to play a bullethell, stop throwing everything at me at once (this is a complaint about the final boss specifically). The movement is NOT fluid enough for that, far too often did I feel I got hit unfairly. Oh and the story, what even was it? Absolutely nothin' as far as I could tell. Glad the salt is happy, or sad, or not sentient, unless that's bad. So ya, not a hard recommend, but I did beat it. That must mean something, right?

Very good surprise! Original and fluid gameplay, a lot of good ideas and amazing level design.

Dandara is a game I honestly have mixed feeling about. It's a very stylish game that utilizes its central movement mechanic well. It's aesthetically excellent and utilizes it's Brazilian influences very well. I think it's a good game and a lot of people would probably enjoy it, I did but only up to a point. I only got to the regular ending, the "secret" ending I bounced off of, partially because I softlocked the game, partially because Dandara is a game that has a lot of backtracking - too much for me in fact, the developers really get a lot out of the map they made. What's more the game doesn't give you much direction, which I personally just find annoying although I understand that's personal preference. I do recommend Dandara, but admittedly I couldn't finish it. I watched a playthrough on YouTube and it does look neat but I wasn't going to replay 45min of the same rooms multiple times to see it.