Teslagrad

[h2]Another Metroidvania I played and just couldn't get into[/h2] I couldn't get into Teslagrad and I'm not completely sure why. Maybe it's the art style, all I know is the game just didn't click for me and I found myself bored. Even though I do like a lot of Metroidvania style games, I picked this one back up several times and eventually found myself shelving it yet again. Even though I couldn't get into it, this game deserves more of a maybe than a no because of the qualities it has going for it, such as the charming art style. [h2]6/10[/h2] [h3][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45905648-Gork%2527s-Game-Grind/]Check out my curated list of games[/url][/h3]

It's a short game, but an enjoyable one. If you've played games like Hollow Knight or Braid, it's like a combination of the 2, just a bit shorter.

Not a Metroidvania. It's a very linear puzzle platformer. The core mechanic concept of magentization is intriguing, but it's just not pleasant to play in this iteration. To boot, the art is choppy and the music uninspired. Still, since I got this with Teslagrad 2, I'll give the sequel a go in hopes they've improved.

Game starts up in some random non-system language. Get suck on some puzzle(?) screen 5-10 minutes in with flashing lights and no hints.

Overall, this was a very fun game to play. I beat the game with all 36 capsules (I don't know what they were, maybe they were power cells or scrolls or something else) in about 9 hours of play (8 hours before I beat the final boss the first time with some capsules missing), and I enjoyed it very much. I thought the difficulty of the game was pretty good for me; the puzzles were relatively challenging without being too hard and the bosses were pretty well balanced (although perhaps slightly more on the unforgiving side than I would like, but not by much). I think the capsules were well placed and a good extra challenge to not only find but figure out how to get to; although a few were very easy to find and obtain. Something I really liked, but could be a drawback for others, is that there were no tutorials or pieces of dialogue in the game, meaning you had to figure everything out for yourself. There were a couple of graphics to help, but generally it was left to the player. It did mean I didn't realise there was a map and list of obtained capsules available to me until I looked at the control screen after I beat the game, but I guess that's on me lol. I have a few minor nitpicks …

The game is cute but my biggest gripes are: - The map cannot be zoomed out so you can only see the adjacent rooms - Your character movement is really floaty and you slide on every surface - The boss design is atrocious