Vyanka's Memories

SIdeways thumb. I decided to stop playing this one long before finishing. I think I was at around 40% completion. For a solo project it is actually pretty fun sometimes but there are some really bad design decisions here and there. The games main idea is that there is a cluster of enemies on each screen, and by killing all of them you obtain a new power. Sometimes these are just passive stat boosts, but often they are true metroidvania abilities as well (like getting a higher jump). It's a cool concept, i guess. I found myself very restricted a lot of them time though when it came to exploring compared to other games in the genre. There were times where I was holding an enemy at the side of the screen, waiting 30 seconds for abilities to come off cooldown so I could hurt the enemy again (some are immune to normal damage and this is your only means at times to kill them, at least until later when you get more powers). There were about 6 of these enemies in one small area and so I spent many minutes sitting around, waiting on the cooldown timer. Not cool. There were some runs back to boss fights that were mildly annoying but not so bad that I wasn't willing to put up with…

Review Time! Story: It's not really a priority while you're playing. The main characters grandfather lost his memories to due a vampire attack and now you're on a quest to kill the vampire and retrieve them. There are some nuanced things about your source of power but nothing overt yet. All in all it's fine. Controls: The controls are below average. Combat controls are fine, exploration is okay if a little clunky. but the menu controls are atrocious. When you're interacting with one of the few upgrade menus it doesn't stop your character or disconnect your attacks. Meaning that if you're like me, who uses directional buttons to navigate menus, you'll be pleased to see all your spells go on cooldown just behind the opaque interface you're using. I didn't see any way of changing these controls either. Graphics: It's actually fairly good looking. The sprites are all good looking, the player's sprite is responsive and moves well. There are some strange interactions between different sprites sometimes, and the player character can be stuck in a specific movement when falling though the air, but I didn't have too much trouble. The backgrounds are pleasant, with several areas that are …

I enjoyed this game, though it is fairly simple. The gameplay loop starts out satisfying -- kill all monsters of certain types to earn a new upgrade for Vyanka. Each area has several monster types to hunt down, unlocking stat boosts, skills, and upgraded versions of skills. As I got further into the game, i found the gameplay loop got a bit tedious. Larger areas have more enemies, and the upgrade always returns to the statue at the beginning of the area (though some areas have the statue later in the area, which is wise). Combat is smooth, sometimes overly so, and I like the action in general. There could be a bit more weight to combat, though. Visuals are really good and I enjoyed the music. If I could give a half-thumbs-up, I would, as I enjoyed playing through the game 3 times to see the full ending, but the gameplay did get a bit repetitive by the end. A solid first game from the dev, certainly! https://youtu.be/m42cDMk4nQE