Vision Quest: A New Ascent

Tight level design. Tighter combat!

Full disclosure: I'm friends with the developer and a couple of my songs are in the game, so my opinion might be slightly biased. But I do think that either way I'd feel like this was a great little indie gem. Vision Quest: A New Ascent has you fighting enemies in some very tough but fair combat as you climb to the top of a mountain. Gameplay functions a bit like a twin-stick shooter, with the right stick allowing you to aim a sawblade in all directions. Letting an attack go at the right time will get you a critical hit, which also restores health if you're hurt. You'll die pretty easily if you're not careful -- this game has some old-school difficulty to it. The atmosphere of the game is great, with beautiful hiking trails and ambient forest noises all around. Some of the characters you run into along the way also inject a bit of humor into things. The game is only three levels long and can probably be beaten in 2-3 hours (I'm stuck on the final boss myself, so I'm almost there), but it continually introduces new gameplay mechanics that keep things fresh. There's a lot of thought given to the different obstacles that appear in each area, as well as the tools in your arsenal to …

Nice game with plenty of indie charm. Pretty challenging!

Perrenial Order brought me to this game and happy to say that it scratched that itch! The music is really charming and the gameplay was smooth and engaging, with a little bit of grace added from this creator to not be as punishing as Perrenial Order. Would recommend for anyone who wants a good challenge for a good price!

Challenging combat that feels like a dance with the enemies. It feels fun mastering the moves, and the bosses are unique and neat.

An absolute delight for my twin sticks, which are now sore and purple. Highly recommend!