Riptale

[h1][b]Not Recommended[/b][/h1]

Rad! Killer slashing and cool tunes inside the stages! Love it!👾

[b]TL; DR[/b] Rip, tear, and live to tell your tale. [b]Note[/b] I played with KBM. [h1] Story [/h1] Dragons are buried beneath the earth, and they have been unleashed. Our weapons do nothing, humanity faces extinction, but the Astral Gems have the power, use them, tear them apart. The story is optional, there is only one mandatory dialogue. Worldbuilding, and backstory is all handled with notes found in libraries or at the end of a section, you can skip all of them. All you need to know is told to you in the introduction but sure you can read the notes and some of them are interesting or a sort of deadpan fun, but I stopped bothering after a while because it is not why I like playing [i]Riptale[/i]. [h1] Presentation [/h1] One of the first things to pique my interest in [i]Riptale[/i] is its striking visuals. Retro designs with little to no depth or shadow in black and white but then contrasted by a vibrant red. It is and always has been a killer combination. The fact that the enemies are easy to tell apart is a plus, as is the fact that all hazards have something red on them. So [i]Riptale[/i] ends up being quite readable even with a low focus and with the blood splatt…

I cannot give Riptale a good review. The base game is quite fun, but I have to give a negative review because of my experience playing on hard mode. Play this game, get every achievement except the last one. The hard mode has a lot jank, and you'll die to things that just are not your fault. Whether its the lingering projectiles after exiting and re-entering a room, or having my dashes go straight through enemies, or when the enemies in the underground forest kill me over and over with their unpredictable movements, or when enemies in a room I've never been in camp the entrance and instakill me upon entry, there is a lot that makes hard mode unfun. On top of that, restarting runs to find a double HP shrine is a miserable process. None of the bosses are of any concern except for maybe the twins. The music also got annoying after 10 hours. All of which is a shame, since I love the way this game plays overall. Could have easily made the hard mode difficult another way, other than forcing you to complete the same game on 1HP. How about enemy movement speed? Or having enemies deal more hearts? Or enemies per room? 6/10 game

Only playing for an hour or so, I already love this game, it's challenge, and how quickly you can blast thru it (likely towards your death). It's just a lot of fun and really encompasses the retro aesthetic on a level most games cannot replicate, but still has the speed and fluidity of something modern and a bit more polished. It's not perfect and could still use some fine tuning, but very minor gripes aside, I know that I will come back to this again and again. It's one of those games I can fire up and play a few quick rounds of when I need to reset my brain between projects. This is just all around good, fun stuff.

Unfortunately did not enjoy this game. Cool on paper in reality you are bored within 30 minutes and running past everything to get to a boss. Nothing is really explained, a big meh.