Odallus: The Dark Call

Odallus: The Dark Call is a perfect game that pays homage to the NES games in the right way: by discarding what made them tedious and tiresome, and embracing what made them memorable and unique. It’s not often that I see a flawless execution of an attempt to recreate the NES formula; thus, I can wholeheartedly say that JoyMasher is a master of their craft. The game is not simple enough to breeze through, but it’s not complicated or difficult enough to bore you, either. At first glance, the trailer could give you the idea that you’re looking at a metroidvania title, but Odallus: The Dark Call is a straightforward platformer that heavily encourages exploration since there are many secrets to uncover, some of which are even mandatory for progress. If you rush through the game, it indirectly tells you to go back and explore the previous levels to unlock the remaining secrets that lead to hidden levels. Then, and only then, are you allowed to face the final boss. Apart from hidden levels, there are health and carrying capacity upgrades for sub-weapons, and direct upgrades to your armor and sword. The mandatory abilities that are required for progression, such as dashing and double ju…

Odallus is a side-scroller with RPG elements created by JoyMasher in a retro style. The protagonist goes through many stages inspired by old Castlevania games, collecting resources and a few upgrades while searching for secrets and fighting some difficult and unfair bosses. The simple and smooth gameplay is undoubtedly fun, but one can notice that the software engine is very, very crude. The result is a game with unnecessary limitations and several technical problems that will follow your tough gameplay and more than once will hurt your enjoyment. After facing multiple bugs regarding the saved progress, I have to consider this game too technically problematic to recommend.

Classic-vania and metroidvania elements. Nice average difficulty. Movem4ent progression is really really fun and end game the movement tech is really thrilling! Underrated gem for sure! Atmosphere and storytelling with a nice dark theme also deserve mention.

You know if you'll like this kind of game or not. If it looks like you'll like it, you will. It's a good retro SNES/Genesis style platformer action game, had a lot of fun.

I'm not very good at these types of games, but I certainly used to like them back in the early 90s. This one takes inspiration from the NES-era Castlevania titles, and the 16-bit Ghosts 'n Goblins/Demon's Crest/Metroidvania type of adventures and mechanics. It's not as easy as some reviewers have noted, but slightly on the difficult side, albeit not super unforgiving as the old classics. I liked almost everything about this one.

A lot of games call themselves "metroidvanias" but this one feels like an actual perfect combination of the two. Instead of one giant connected map, there are levels like Castlevania. But once you get new abilities, you can access more of the levels (and sometimes find new, hidden levels) like Metroid. Items feel very inspired by Castlevania, but they are required for some environmental progression like Metroid. Combat is slow, precise and deliberate like Castlevania, but platforming is quick and fluid like Metroid. - Very nice pixel art and cutscenes - Good music and SFX - All of the items and special abilities are useful both in combat and in the environment - Levels that are just the right size so it's easy to go back explore with new abilities - Game tells you how many secrets are in each level and how many you've found which also encourages exploration - Decent difficulty, though might be on the easier side for veteran platformer players - Simple story, but told well without being overly verbose like an RPG or overly obtuse like Souls - Combat controls are clunky, which gives an NES Castlevania feel. I like this as it makes you learn enemy patterns and be deli…