Devoul- Curse of the Soulless Reviews

solid lil game def recomend better then it looks

Nice game. And Lani is the best!

Good story

Nice game! If you like Castelvania try this one! Great on Steam Deck!

This game is quite ambitious and generally enjoyable. It's kind of like if Momodora or Bloodstained was reimagined as a complete Newgrounds Flash game. But you might have trouble actually [i]completing[/i] the game due to the requirement of having to collect journal pages hidden through this large game that's plagued with a very weak mapping system [h1]First Impressions[/h1] I played this game with a controller. The first thing I noticed was how many different attacks there were. At first, I thought it was going to be overwhelming, but I got used to the variety of attacks pretty quickly. From there, I started noticing the variety of enemies, the obstacles, the number of treasures that I couldn't yet grab, and so on. The graphics are amateurish but charming and work well, eg: all of the enemies are clearly distinct which is helpful during play The Metroidvania abilities are nicely spaced out. Each major section of the game ends with a boss fight which, once won, will grant you a new ability. Early on, you get the ability to dash (which can disintegrate slabs of rocks). Later, you get things like double jumping, sliding, more block-breaking abilities, etc. It's standard, but satisfying The major sections have a handful of enemy types that are unique to them. They have their own unique attack patterns and abilities which make each new encounter a bit of a surprise The music has basic instrumentation, but the tunes are being catchy and nice. Sections have their own themes which help to give those places character Similarly, the sound effects work well. You can hear when your hits are landing on an enemy and get a nice little thunder rumble when an enemy dies. I've killed a ton of enemies off-screen and knew it was safe to pass in a number of instances all based off of the sound The story is pretty straightforward, albeit a bit wordy at times. It does a good job at explaining your character and his relationship to the world. I wish the ghost girl had a function in the game [spoiler]beyond just getting kidnapped[/spoiler] There is also a shadowy apparition that will sometimes appear after bell sounds to intimidate (and sometimes even to fight!) you, which is pretty unsettling when it first happens. It's pretty cool [h1]The Mapping System: Bane of My Playthrough[/h1] The first and biggest problem I hit with the game is one that would stick with me for my entire playthrough: the mapping system simply sucks The map is split into sections of major locations which you have to find, which is pretty normal. However, the map never automatically updates with the location that you're currently in. If you move to a new major section and open the map, you have to manually navigate to the main map, then select the section that you're currently in, every time When looking at the map, it will indicate the room that you're in with an icon of your player right in the middle. You can't tell if you're next to one exit or another, or really see where you are in relation to the entire room. Finally, there are no indicators of places that you've actually visited, or locked doors, or things like that. There are just indicators for which rooms are stores, save points, warp rooms, or minigame rooms. Most other Metroidvania games will show you each individual room you've visited and may outline rooms that are mapped, but haven't been visited. Many of these also point out which ones still have key or important items, which I have been missing in Devoul When I first started playing, it took me hours of exploration before I realized that I needed to go to the top left corner of the castle map before I could meaningfully progress. There was simply no indication that I needed to go that way, let alone that I hadn't made it all the way to that section of the map yet Worst of all, I have reached the final boss of the game, but I cannot [i]beat[/i] the final boss because I haven't found three of the journal pages that are apparently required to beat him. I have no idea where these journal pages are since there are no indications anywhere in the game as to where they might be, or which rooms (if any) I haven't yet visited. Somehow I managed to find all (or I think all) of the secret Master Skill Points that are hidden around the game, but not all of the items that are required to just beat the main game. I don't know if I have the patience to comb through the whole entire game multiple times to try to find them [h1]Balancing[/h1] The game has balancing issues that it compensates for in a number of different ways. Instead of a steady slope in progression, there are notable steps in difficulty or advancement that the game usually dangles in front of you early on that you might expect to be a part of a slope, not a step. It's not a problem per-se, but is unexpected at first. I'm not talking about the normal Metroidvania mechanics where you find a spot you can't reach, then later get an ability to overcome that obstacle. The game is actually pretty good about setting those up and giving those out For example, early in the game, you'll notice that you can collect money and even visit a merchant to buy new gear and supplies. However, you will be lucky if you can find even 10 coins in your first couple of hours of play since money is rarely dropped. You only start to get money around halfway through the game where you discover the casino where you can play a simple minigame where you can easily get 1000+ coins at once (and there's a save room just a few screens away, so if you don't get the chance to score over 1000 coins, just quit, reload, and try again) Another example is a blacksmith that you run into in the first 1/3rd of the game. He can upgrade your gear, but only if you have special "essence" items that you can only reliably find in the very last section of the game. Similarly, the items that you can upgrade are mostly found in a bonus coliseum that you unlock at the end of the game. I think I only had him upgrade two items once each before I got to the end of the game Yet another example is roughly 3/4th through the game, before you fight a shadowy boss, the game changes the enemies that appear in all previous rooms to be stronger enemies so you have a bigger challenge when you backtrack [h1]Minigames[/h1] There are a lot of minigames in Devoul. They are unique, but incredibly basic. I kept wishing for just a little bit more to them. Some examples include: [list] [*]The fight club where you guess at which attack you should throw (high, medium, or low) at an enemy with ambiguous timing [*]Meal cooking where you have to hit a direction on the D-pad within 1 second of it flashing on the screen [*]An arcade game where you have 100 bullets to hit 100 of the same ghosts that show up in different patterns in groups of five [*]The aforementioned casino game where you basically hit a button when a sliding arrow is over a coin to try to catch it. You get two attempts per round [/list] These feel something like a chore and aren't terribly engaging. They also have a cooldown time where you have to leave for some undisclosed amount of time before you can play them again [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] Overall, it's clear that Sweeping Avalanche poured a lot of heart into this game. The mapping is an unfortunate blight, but if you are at all curious, give this game a shot. There is a lot here for a $5 game

A game to congratulate. The main character pulls you into the game either by the playability or with the story. The scenarios are diverse and wake up your attention - the music also. You can "play" with the time of the game and stay by the small games and quests inside of it. It's fun. I love it. I miss the times when games were made to leave something to the player. I miss games like this.