Somber Echoes

Not a bad game, but not really good either. Somber Echoes feels like it has some great aspects, but it also ends up unfocused and feeling underbaked. Starting with the good, the game looks great, very detailed world and rendered in pretty high fidelity. The dynamic lighting also helps add to the gloomy atmosphere. Though it could be a bit better optimized, and it would've been cool to have a dark area that actually takes advantage of the lighting with mechanics instead of just using it to look good. It also controls very smoothly. Unfortunately I don't have much else positive I can say. The combat is very basic, with no customization available to you and enemies that all have pretty simple behaviors. It also doesn't have many bosses, and the bosses seem poorly balanced. I found the semi-final boss harder than both the final and true final bosses. It feels like there was more planned that never got added, as there were mentions of things in the archive like mixtures of flesh and machine for one area that never show up. It also focuses in too hard on puzzles focused on one ability you get towards the end, which reminded me of Shinespark puzzles from Metroid and they were mostly enj…

Stuck on a spot that seems completely impossible. Hey look! It's exactly the same boss as the first time but has some extra help! Why can I not come close to beating it for anything, and there's no 2nd option like in a good Metroidvania, so maybe I can build up my character? Should I ask for my money back?? I don't mind that it's mostly derivative, I do like that it has a couple elements that are different from other metroidvanias, I WANT it to meet those standards and I really feel like it kind of doesn't yet. So get better? "You need 200 for this upgrade" WellI have 2000 except I'm missing some bs extra thing I can't get to until I beat this guy PRESUMABLY, again the same guy I've already beaten but there's an addition of other guys this guy is based on. LOSING INTEREST FAST

Solid little metroidvania! The gamefeel is never quite as polished as I'd have liked, but as your moveset expands, I started to enjoy it more and more. The movement system is built around a delayed 360 degree dash, which starts out feeling a little awkward, but as you get more charges and used to the mechanics, it opens up what you're capable of. The highlight is the superdash puzzles, which feel a lot like the shinespark puzzles in Metroid Dread, and are just as satisfying to pull off. For a small team, this is an impressive game, and it even has some bonus challenges to round out the package.

The controls are very clunky, when in combat most of the times, the key presses yield nothing and the character just stays there doing nothing. It is a pity, the game was somewhat interesting, but it is impossible to progress like this! Also the lack of an HP bar for the enemies also detracts from the visual progress of the fights.

good game

I rarely find games to enjoy right from the beginning, but this one stick to me. It's really, really great and the game mechanics are awesome and fun. No bugs, fluid gameplay, great graphics, good story! GJ! I strongly recommend it!