The Shaman's Ark

An indie game from start to finish. The title lacks a lot of the polish you'd expect from almost any game at this point, but it more than proves its worth with such unique additions to the metroidvania genre. The semi-two-dimensional art style and rhythm focused battling system are things that immediately pulled me in. The setting and story the dev was able to put together were also a refreshing surprise. Amortiz deserves praise for what has been accomplished here.

Well, it’s a good game overall — not perfect, though. Some design decisions are questionable, and one is EXTREMELY questionable, but I’ll get to that at the end. Also, it seems I might be the only one writing about a hardcore difficulty playthrough, so this part is for fellow hardcore players. The game left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, I genuinely enjoyed playing it; on the other, there was a moment where I was very close to dropping it entirely. I decided to start on hardcore difficulty right away and don’t regret it — otherwise the game would have felt very extremely dull for me. That said, this led to some situations that feel either under-tested or simply unfair. The QTE mini-game was easy for me. Yes, there were very fast rune sequences, but unfortunately, not enough of them. It’s a shame that by the end of the game this element only gets slower — it became trivial and boring. Overall, the gameplay felt comfortable enough that I didn’t even need to grind levels — until I reached the “Sarcophagus of the Giver of Flies” (somewhere around the middle of the game, maybe 60–68%). What’s wrong here? You have a slowing swamp and a boss that constantly jumps at you,…

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The Shaman’s Ark is a dark fantasy metroidvania developed and published by Amortiz Games, combining exploration, action role-playing mechanics, and rhythm-focused combat into an adventure built around mystery and ancient mythology. While the genre has no shortage of titles centered on interconnected worlds and ability-driven progression, this game attempts to stand apart by introducing a combat system tied directly to music and ritual. Rather than relying entirely on conventional weapons or traditional fantasy combat design, it creates an experience where rhythm and timing become essential parts of survival. The story unfolds within a world shaped by catastrophe and fragile hope. Long ago, civilization stood on the edge of destruction as a force known as the Abyss threatened to consume everything in existence. Humanity survived only because of the actions of a legendary Great Shaman who created a sanctuary known as the Ark, protecting civilization from extinction. Over time, history faded into legend and peace replaced fear. That peace begins to collapse as corruption slowly spreads once again, bringing signs that the ancient danger has returned. A mysterious Shaman emerges from d…

It's a very unqie game being weird and esotric with a rythem based combat that i havent really seen before. It's pretty good but it does have a few outstanding issues the combat inst very tough im not particually amazing at rythem but as long as I was half pay attention enemies litertally could not hit me unless there was a type of attack i exclipitly could not deal with because i didnt have the skill, the navigation is pretty poor. its very unclear where to go but you often run into paths you cant take and have to loop back around but tehre was a few times after the eye of the storm boss i think (which i did hitless) and i looked uo a guide only to find taht even in an edited down guide video there was hlaf an hour of walking around trying to figure out where to go, perhpas its an issue with the video but past that boss is another area where you run into enemies with attacks you cant deal with and it becomes very confusing having to look around through every past area. I didnt end up finding where to go but i do think if you know ahead of time its a bit of a where do you go kinda game it probably isnt so bad. It's still a very very fun game and I would recommened it to pretty much…

Enjoyable.