ITORAH Reviews

I am revising my review after finishing this game with even worse opinions. This game is pretty bad no matter how you slice it, no matter how you flip it doesn't matter. When it comes to the platforming and level design its alright but that's it. Metroidvania : Terrible Performance : Terrible Graphics : Terrible Design : Not very good Controls : Terrible Combat : Terrible Sound : Okay Story : Terrible

I don't have a good track record with Metroidvainias. The mechanics and design often appeals to me, but I have a hard time ever finishing them. Luckily Itorah held my attention from beginning to end. The whole experience was a breeze, and I had a lot of fun progressing through the game's dungeons, upgrading my gear and abilities, and getting slapped around by bosses. The only issues I had were that Itorah's jumping and combat mechanics feel a little imprecise. The character will duck when I want her weave. She'll drop out of the air instead of doing a butt stomp. These problems led to some significant frustration at the various points in the game. In truth the difficultly level of the game is sufficiently low that I was always able to blunder my way through encounters that were made more difficult by Itorah's imprecise controls. Beyond that, there's a lot to like about Itorah. The music and art design are excellent, and I'm really impressed that this is the developer's first game. It's a big accomplishment for sure, so it'll be exciting to find out what they're doing next. It's a game I'd recommend to everyone who is looking for a casual Metroidvainia experience. Personally I loved it because that's exactly what I was in the market for.

Wonderful metrovinia game, Game disadvantages\ -There is no Fast Travel -There is no skills tree -Only one weapon -Very tired running by "R2" button

Not a bad game, worth in sales. However, be aware that the controls are very clancky and unresponsive. Hard to match what the physics expect from you. Nonetheless, still worth a shot.

Loved the ending. Made it a beautiful complete story The full toolbox of skills makes moving fun. Even if the [S,D] UI + [A,W,E] and arrow-keys were strange in the beginning. I think it's possible that some 2 of the echoes & 3 of the feathers were in the non-reenter-able areas which made that last chance to explore & upgrade a bit of a waste. Edit: I agree that some fast travel would have been nice at times. And the return trip [spoiler]via the zipline[/spoiler] mid-game had low survive-ability without preceding & backtracking for another checkpoint. Would have liked to be able to max the character & re-explore closed areas at the end.

good looking art but terrible animations missing all the frames. they look like vanilla quake 1 the game render is locked in letterboxing the controls do not work. if you try to rebind it will just ignore all your changes. half the necessary buttons refuse to be assigned you literally can't play because the games refuses to assign actions to any keys and i'm using xinputs, i tested two different ones, i'm not using any emulation or directinput

Itorah is a pretty basic "action" platformer, that isn't a "bad" game, it just isn't a great one either. If you haven't played this type of thing recently and aren't fatigued by exposure to the genre, then it's...okay, or if you're relatively new to the genre it's a relatively pleasant (ish) addition. But having just played Blasphemous 2, and having previously done games like Hollow Knight / Deaths Gambit and the Ori tittles, this feels like "my first bland action platformer" and a step or two back from those games. I don't mean in terms of the presentation, because this is a graphically appealing game by comparison. I don't mean in the sense of everything making squeaky baby noises, or the tedious "hahs" and "hoos" and "hees" that your character makes every time she attacks, because Ori was just as twee in this regard. The issue here is that I'm close to three hours into the game and the combat is flimsy and simplistic. The enemies are boring to fight and its getting so mind-numbing that I started just running and jumping past them, rather than engaging them. The platforming has gone from pretty dull and easy to significantly more challenging. That would be fine, but unfortunately the controls are a bit iffy and this is compounded by the level design. Hey! You've just done a section that went on a tad too long to be engaging, would you like a breather? Well....tough! Here's another bit that just goes on, and on, and on.... I wouldn't mind so much but the music is rather uninteresting and saps any energy from the game. Add this to the irritating sound effects, the boring repetition of the same enemy over and over again throughout three hours of playing it, and the bland combat. Then add in the shonky platforming and a lack of anything you haven't seen a million times before, and the main thing this has going for it is it's "charm". Now, just because the last game I played before this was super gory doesn't mean this tweeness is an issue. But it's no Ori, and I've played, and finished, both of those games and they are just as twee. This is missing a certain something to keep my interest. Whilst some elements like the boss-battles are fairly well done, and the set-pieces are..okay, albeit pretty derivative, it's one that's going into the back-log because it's dull and a bit tedious. It needed a bit more creativity and polish being applied (and music that isn't snooze inducing wouldn't hurt either), but, well, it didn't get those things, so...... It's not awful by any stretch, but if I can't be bothered to play it anymore and am highly unlikely to anytime soon, that's tough to recommend.