Everslash

Everslash was a very short game, but it played very nicely. For the price it is to be expected to not have that much content, but sometimes a short game inbetween is just what you need, right? I am writing this review from memory, as it's been quite a while since I played this and just remembered it. The story inbetween is fine, but its mostly about the gameplay here. Because the movement works so well, it was pretty fun to move around and none of the fights really felt too hard. Just a bitesized platformer you can't really go wrong with.

I feel bad to not recommend this since I love indie devs, but I also want to say I feel like I could find a game like this on Newgrounds for free. The game feels good and fun to play the hack and slash precision platformer, but the story elements start to drag the game and makes me ask... Why is there a little reporter girl with a scythe in a laboratory saving her older sister? The Story seems to lack a narrative cohesion with the game play and the world it introduces, and the message the story gave didn't stick with me because I was just too busy playing the game compared to sympathising with the characters. I rather the game have developed with more levels, be more arcade like, and have a different aesthetic that fits the way the game is played rather than having all the story in the game that seems quite disconnected to the game play.

You have a scythe that lets you cut through the air in a way that allows you to stay in the air for long periods of time. But the scythe has a stamina bar of sorts. You can't just mash the attack button and stay in the air indefinitely. You have to space it out just long enough to effectively float in the air indefinitely. This is required for some of the challenges and the final boss. Most rooms leading up to the bosses involve defeating every enemy to open a door or dodging lasers. It's fun, but way too short. Story mode takes 1 - 2 hours depending on skill. There are save points generously spread throughout the game to make the challenge manageable. When you beat the game though, it saves you at the start of the ending sequence after the final boss. So loading up your beaten game does nothing for you gameplay wise. You need to start a new game to play again. There is one achievement tied to beating the story mode. Every other achievement is tied to the speedrun mode and taking no damage. It was fun to play, but there is little to do in my area of interest. This is a short, linear, skill-challenge type of platformer. Only get this on discount. The music is really good chiptune.

This is probably the single best game I've played from PsychoFlux so far. I only got around halfway through before needing help though, as this game is brutally difficult. I don't think I can recommend going for the achievements, as they are some of the most difficult I've seen in a game thus far. Especially asking the player to get through a full playthrough no hit. That is the most absurd thing I've seen in a while. If you don't care about that though, I think the game is a solid 8/10.

A thumbs up with several caveats: 1. When you take damage, you have no idea what will happen to you. You can get thrown in several directions, you can lose control, you can be forcefully respawned in a "safe" location that sometimes isn't safe. 2. Diagonal inputs are funky on controller. I tried both pad and thumbstick on my DS4 - pad is more consistent but you really gotta press down. 3. Hitboxes can be hard to predict. Some spikes you can pass with zero pixels between you, some you get jumpscared because you're really focused and aren't expecting to bump them. 1 is less of a problem as you get better, 2 and 3 you start to get a feel for. Add in solo developer and low price and it's pretty good all things considered.

The gameplay is good and the performance of the game ran fine, there was definitely a difficulty curve but it was not gradual, levels were very difficult near the end, the bosses had the same difficulty curve as well. The story is short, simple and sweet. Overall, the game was still fun even though it felt a little unfair at times.