Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus Steam Charts & Stats

The bosses in this game keep getting better and better. Incredibly creative fights, coupled with gorgeous art and a mesmerising soundtrack. Highly recommended if you're a fan of metroidvanias in general.

I have no idea why there are so many bad reviews of this game. People complain about its similarity to Hollow Knight. No! The platforming focus, complex movement, and bat (basically the bash mechanic from Ori) make this game significantly closer to Ori and the Will-o-the-wisps (or however that's spelled). The only real connection to Hollow Knight seems to be that both games are metroidvanias and use metroidvania tropes. It's about as close to Hollow Knight as Hollow Knight is to Metroid. This is a smokescreen criticism to distract from their other complaints (which may be reasonable). The controls can be a little bit floaty, which is annoying (yet another difference in feel from HK). I can understand the gripes with that. I think both Ori games suffer from a similar floatiness. However, when I played, it did not matter much to me. After an hour, I barely noticed the idiosyncratic movement. There are a couple other minor things that can be annoying (e.g. having to bat items precisely, which is often frustrating and imprecise) but they didn't cost me more than a few minutes. If the devs want my number so I can tell them some stuff to fix, I wouldn't say no, however. My main issue with the game is honestly that there is a certain (spoiler-free) enemy that has a weakness that I could not figure out, which I had to look up a guide for. In fairness to the game, I feel stupid for not visually identifying it and I'm surprised that I didn't happen to hit that spot through my attempts, but it is still a reasonable criticism. However, I probably like this game more than most other metroidvanias I've played. It isn't better than Hollow Knight (what is?) but it isn't trying to be. The world and characters are incredibly charming, as is the unique art style. The bosses are inventive and interesting (I haven't yet been able to beat the final boss, but that will happen eventually). I normally find plot twists annoying and unnecessary, but this game has a twist that recontextualizes many of the previous plot points that I didn't see coming. The game asks interesting questions about its world and its characters, better questions than many other video games do. The platforming is challenging and rewarding, with each area having shockingly inventive mechanics. I found myself wanting to find random extras that I didn't need just so I could see all of the little nooks in the world. The game is very nonlinear, much more like HK than Ori, which is ideal for the metroidvania genre. All in all, this game is the ultimate heir to the Ori throne. It takes the things that made Ori 2 good and adds all sorts of new mechanics and story elements to them, creating a vibrant, engaging game that any fan of metroidvanias can enjoy (so long as their computer can run it).

Extremely fun metroidvania. I had a blast with it. If you are a fan of the genre be sure to check this game out!

I didn't like the long platforming sequences in boss fights. The boss fights, in general, all felt too long, especially fights where one mistake would restart an entire sequence. I was annoyed throughout most of the game play.

A beautiful, haunting game and a very well done metroidvania. Absolutely loved it

Fun game with great art. It is super satisfying to fight bosses and keep yourself in the air and combo-ing for as long as possible.

If you like platformers and hollow like games you will enjoy this. if you dont like platform mechanics though i would avoid. great game otherwise

An extremely good if short Metroidvania that's more focused on exploration and movement than combat (until the final boss). Highest marks. A++

[h1]Teal Lotus arrives[/h1] Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus is another game in rapidly gaining popularity genre of metroidvania, which means it has a lot of competition, does this flower manage to bloom along it's kin, and earn a place among the best? [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Since comparison is easiest way to get general vibe of something AND since this game is a metroidvania let's get the question out of the way first; Bō is NOT a hollow knight lookalike with a Japanese coat of paint on it, however I don't blame you if you draw comparisons between them. Easiest way to describe the gameplay of Bō is to call it mix between simple fighting system which you have to use to it's fullest potential (like hollow knight) and elaborate platforming with emphesis of chaining moves together (Ori and the Blind Forest), with platforming part being in spotlight. Platforming and movement start out slow, like in every metroidvania you access new movement abilities as you go, and slowly but surely turn into a speedster, zooping through rooms and platforming challenges, it's clearly visible this game is platformer first, and metroidvania second; movement feels good, chaining abilities together is satisfying and level design is well though out, so you usually know where you should jump next, even if it's your first time in the area. Fighting meanwhile is mostly about aerial combat, standing on ground makes you slow in both movement and attack speed, which definitely doesn't help with the fact most of bosses have their hitbox in the stratosphere. That's where chaining moves come together; while you're in air every hit scored on anything; be it enemy, projectile, breakable part of environment etc.; refreshes your movement abilities, which gives you access to infinite jumping and dashing; as long as you can hit something in between them. This turns every fight into less of pattern reading and reactionary combat to a reaction test mixed with improvisation skills, because yeah, basic enemies are easy to dispatch, but if they pile in on you dodging all of the attack patterns overlapping may not be that easy, even if every enemy only has one attack. However this is different for bosses, which I must say, are sadly a mixed bag. As ealier mentioned this game is more platforming focused than combat focused, and nowhere does it show more than when you have to fight a boss. Most of bosses in game are giants, towering over you, which makes you have to earn your way to their hitbox through platforming, and that's where the problems start. Since your movement requires hitting something to refresh, most of boss attacks are projectile of some kind, which wouldn't be so bad, if not for the fact there's never one projectile, and if you don't break/deflect them in time, you may end up with cluster of hitboxes rapidly approaching your face, and due to sheer size of your enemy and zoomed out camera, on top of projectiles in this game shining like a blue beacons it's genuinely not that hard to lose your character in all of that visual noise, which will most likely lead to you taking unnecessary damage, since you're not only trying to not get hit, you have to also attack the boss, which unfortunately causes fights to feel like a contest of who can out-DPS other one faster. And yes, the complaints about final boss are in fact true, they have not 1, not 2, not 4, but 8 phases and no checkpoints :) [h1]Graphics[/h1] Bō rocks a beautiful, hand drawn aesthetic, very clearly kept in Japanese setting, the backgrounds are beautiful, NPC's are charming and well designed. Enemies are on simpler side, that however makes boss designs shine more. In short words, when it comes to looks alone, there is no part of this game that doesn't deliver. [h1]Soundtrack[/h1] Soundtrack of Bō is genuinely great, it's beautiful, calming, and fits the setting perfectly, OST of Midori Forest is particularly great in my opinion [h1]Achievements[/h1] If you are an achievement hunter you better prepare, while story related achievements are not that hard, the game also has it's fair share of hard challenges (Beat the game without healing, Beat the game without dying), which can either frustrate you to hell, or boost the replayability, all depending on you ;3 [h1]Sun sets over the lotus[/h1] Closing words: Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus is a good and well polished game, but it's not flawless. Is it worth playing despite that? Absolutely! It's one unappreciated rough gem, but just because it's not as flashy and popular as it's brothers does not mean it's not worthy of your attention, despite what flaws I mentioned there was a lot of fun zooping around, meeting new friends, and exploring the world, if you enjoy platforming challenges there's a high chance you'll like this game, and if you are just someone looking for a new metroidvania to satiate never ending hunger, you should give it a chance still, I assure you it's worth a shot!

This is a good, albeit short, action platformer. Though similar to Hollow Knight and Nine Sols, it is much, much easier than those games, with a slight twist in that it has extremely heavy emphasis on aerial combat. The gameplay is good, though it definitely feels a bit more loose than its competitors. It didn't make me struggle at all, but there's something a little unsatisfying about the way that the hits connect that is exacerbated by my hours in Hollow Knight. The art is definitely the best part of the whole thing and the soundtrack is good but not amazing. However, objectively the story is very, very predictable and ham-fisted in some parts. For the small team that developed this, I think its very impressive and worth getting for that alone. If I were trying to introduce someone to this style of game, I would start here rather than Hollow Knight or Nine Sols because its more accessible, shorter, but is still quality. I could see myself as a teenager being absolutely enamored with it, but since I'm more seasoned I have higher expectations. Still, I'm happy with my purchase and liked the experience overall, which is really what matters in the end.