Archvale Reviews

Good, want more

really fun game. wish there was a harder sequel.

i went the wrong way and still progressed and the weapons are all so cool, 9/10 dont play on hard mode its not worth

Archvale is an incredibly shallow game that fails as both an RPG and a bullet-hell game, and I don't think it should be at the $15 price point. As a bullet-hell: many fights are simply too chaotic. Enemies and bullets move too fast, and there's just too much on screen (and too much that happens off-screen that can come at you fast). This works ok on easy and normal difficulties as the RPG elements allow you to take a hit, but it doesn't feel like you're getting better at the game -- your character just gets strong enough to deal with all the randomness. By end game you're focusing more on killing before things can cause damage than on dodging. On hard mode, the game is just too difficult in an unfun way. The bullet-hell challenges where you must avoid taking a single hit don't feel great due to the speed of the projectiles; I was able to get them eventually, but it felt more like I got lucky than that I got good. As an RPG: inventory management is terrible. Progression is all over the place. Most of the items and badges are useless and immediately outclassed. There must be over 100 weapons, but you'll only end up using and upgrading 5ish of them. Same story with armor. There's tons of close range weapons, but they're basically outclassed by long range weapons due to enemy and bullet speed. Areas are repetitive and clearly padded out. Map and dungeon layouts are uninteresting, and dungeons don't have anything like puzzles besides a few annoying platforming challenges. Platforming feels terrible due to the extremely strict dash timing windows; you need to memorize button presses in advance instead of reacting since the window for mid-air dash feels like literally a few frames. Storyline and character development are basically non-existent, besides a few lines of disconnected dialogue. Rooms don't have any significant atmosphere or story embedded in them and are just generic tiles, often repeated. The most interesting part of the game is the bosses. They're still a bit too random and fast to reasonably no-hit, but they were significantly more engaging than the overworld fights. But, you'll spend about 0.1% of your time fighting bosses and around 80% of your time in chaotic overworld/dungeon fights. Overall, the core game loop wears out its welcome quickly, and the game just doesn't have anything fun or interesting in it beyond that. I'd skip it.

Please do not play this game on hard mode this is a warning. Seriously I cannot recommend the game if you intend on playing it on the hardest difficulty it's just not fun enough for all of the suffering. Skill issue warning out of the way, the game is pretty fun outside of the very last bit of the journey with lots of weapon variety and some interesting builds. The environments and enemies are pretty well done, making exploring the entire map a rewarding endeavor. If you plan on playing this game on easy or medium difficulty AND ONLY ON THOSE TWO, I would recommend this, as though it's pretty short, it's fun and challenging. Here is my experience playing the game on hard difficulty, it took me 23 hours to beat and the last 10 were all spent on the final boss because you get 3 shot when there's a million projectiles on screen and the devs were very very stingy when giving the player immunity frames. I found that while the rest of the world bosses and dungeons were pretty difficult, you could at least always get an upgrade to help lessen the challenge, but when there is no further progression besides the final boss, you'll be stuck fighting it for hours, barely able to alleviate the pain (There is a mage build that deals WAY too much damage and that can really help). I wish the challenge was satisfying and fair, but it isn't enough, so the only reason I put up with the final boss was because I wanted to 100% my first game, which isn't very hard to do in this game. I know I really only talked about the last hurtle in the game, but it's just a really glaring issue that, if tweaked to be better balanced on the hard difficulty, would allow me to undoubtedly recommend this game with instead a minor warning about the hard difficulty.

I searched for the equivalent of Realm of the Mad God but for singleplayer and found this. It gives a similar vibe and is just really fun. Was hoping for a summoner class and unfortunately this game doesn't have it, but the Magic is still really fun. The level of difficulty is just perfect for me: enough to fail a few times but succeed all the boss fights after a few tries. I saw one reviewer complaining about the trials, dashing puzzles and enemies being impossible to dodge. 100% didn't have this issue, but my reaction time is up there. If you know you have a slow reaction time it could be an issue - I never felt like I got stuck and was always able to pass any challenge with a bit of focus and a couple of tries. You can skip any trials you can't complete though so shouldn't be an issue, they don't give anything great either so not missing out. I wish you could sell loot though, even though its not really needed since the 2nd half of the game you're stuffed full of money. Hate to just throw stuff out. There also desperately needs to be a difficulty change button after the game starts. I've been perfectly fine on the casual/normal mode, but I saw other reviewers banging their heads after choosing hard mode.

it is a really fun bullet hell game. but i still can't beat the final boss on hard mode.

Alot like Zelda, and some Core Keeper thrown in. lots of weapons and things to choose from. it'll definitely scratch an itch!

I absolutely recommend this game to anybody curious-it scratches a very particular itch that I didn't even know I had! An easy comparison would be that this game is a lot like Enter The Gungeon, but scrap the rogulike elements in exchange for an exploration/kind of metroidvania style gameplay, It's hard to find experiences in the bullet-hell genre that deviate from the standard, but this game is quite fun if you're looking for a more story-based, action exploration experience. Combat is simple but very well done. It's a twinstick bullet-hell with a pretty good difficulty balance (my playthrough of the game was done on normal, so take that with a grain of salt). The weapons felt decently unique, and it was always fun to uncover a new item in the overworld. Boss fights were decently challenging but very fun, and it felt good to weave in and out of the projectile mass constantly being thrown my way. That being said, I do have a few complaints. Exploration got pretty repetitive in the mid to late game. I felt as though I wasn't quite being rewarded enough for exploring every room. Some routes led to dead ends with no upgrades or items, and it was a bit disappointing when this did occur. There are a decent spread of collectables to find, but I overall feel that there could have been some cooler, more unique upgrades that could be found in the overworld. I also feel that the weapon upgrade system could have been a bit more fleshed out to allow players to use their personal favorite weapons. Many weapons were variations of a general archetype, but I found that I preferred the style of certain weapons to others, which was unfortunate because many of my less preferred weapons were strictly better than my favorites. Likewise, I feel that a greater effort could have been made to diversify the individual weapons. For example, giving flails vastly different swing speed, bows different projectile travel speed, beam attacks a much more variable size, etc. I also felt as though melee weapons were generally underpowered. It is integral that you're able to react to enemy projectiles because of the bullet-hell format of the game, and melee weapons eliminate this pretty much entirely. They also don't generally offer enough of a damage bonus to warrant the vastly increased risk of using them. My final gripe is that the badge system could've used some more work. Most of the buffs offered through the badges felt pretty underpowered (save for a few that, in my opinion, are generally the only ones in which the reward feels substantial). They also did not synergise spectacularly with each other, making each badge feel more independent. It never felt like I was creating a powerful build that was specialized in a certain category, which could've fleshed out my run and offered additional replayability. While I sound quite negative, I want to emphasize that I GREATLY enjoyed my experience with this game. It was created by a very small team of people, but the passion and love poured into it really shows! It's a great game that I would highly recommend to anybody curious. While my review might seem harsh, it's only because I really loved the game and would like to see it be even better. Greatly recommended!