Xanthiom Zero

Best ~3 hrs experience. Short but fun.

Masterclass in metroidvania design. The author obviously loves the greats but manages to do almost entirely their own thing with many mechanics. I never had a problem with the SM walljump but I like the zip-grip-jump here. There are lots of good games out there but every now and then you find one which is so artfully crafted that you feel inspired just playing it. This is one such game. If you like SM or SotN then play this.

I haven't written a proper Steam review in ages, but I was looking into Xanthiom 2 when I remembered to check my minireview in the GameHounds Discord server. "I think my favorite part may have been the puzzles that required a specific permutation of weapon mods enabled. Without them, I probably would have never changed my current loadout. On the downside, I think I got lost more than average. The map gives you a set of markers to place and I was late to bother. I like that process to be automatic. Overall, I enjoyed the game enough to wishlist the old-school Zelda-like Side Scape (which Xanthiom Zero is a prequel of) and I'm hoping the announced Xanthiom 2's development goes well." Xanthiom Zero has now convinced me to wishlist TWO others by the same developer so even if my review is lacking, I don't think the game is. =)

A great little Metroid-esque adventure. It's exceptionally good for the price, a fun experience all the way through.

I think that this game is for a specific target audience, and for those people I think that there is a good game here, but I am not in that audience. Idk, either I am dumb or I got soft locked like right away in this game. I tried playing this on steam deck, and the controls felt horrible. definitely not a great experience for me. Because of the soft lock I would need to restart the game and I know I only played for like 10 minutes, but I just didn't feel like spending 10 more minutes starting over lol. TLDR; not for me

Solid Metroidvania, slightly funky default control scheme.