Maya Star Reviews

purple

Really liked this one - if you like retro metroid games, you'll like this one - not too hard, not too easy...

It's great for the price, but the roughness around the edges can be very frustrating. Not enough checkpoints.

overall very good. the game has pleasing aesthetic, visuals and sound design. i am not all the way through the game as of writing this however from what i see so far, the game is very nice. the game is a frantic scramble from checkpoint to checkpoint. if you are not good an 2-D platformers, (aka hollow knight, super Mario bros, big tower tiny square) this game will be very challenging. game play: that is not to say that the game is bad because of its difficulty, rather how rewarding it is when the area is finally conquered. the game mechanics are very easy to use, although i found the initial key bind to be not particularly comfortable. most enemies are unique, and have very nice pixel art*. visuals: i found the pixelated- purple aesthetic to be extremely pleasing to the eye, and all the sprite work to be very life like. it was very clear what was what. although i will have to add that some of the backgrounds are a bit lacking (area 1 as an example) a simple gradient will suffice sure, but i would expect a little bit more randomness in it. perhaps some waterfalls or rocks (again i am using area 1 as an example). same thing aplies to some block design. story: i am not fully the person to be telling if the story is good or not, as i am not all the way through the game yet, however from what i saw (areas 1,2 and 3) it is bland and cliche, the typical "chosen one has to save the world from an evil because of an ancient prophecy" story. however since it is so cliche that it has made me think that it has way more to it and is intentionally being so naive and bland (bad end theater style); overall 8.5/10 maybe 9/10 very good very pleasing to the eye the ear and the hands, aesthetics are welcoming and the whole game is somehow both stressful, relaxing and rage game-y all at the same time. definitely recommend! :)

A metroidvania that is really rough around the edges. The two biggest problems are that the first world is really poor compared to the others and 3D physics are used for all the 2D sprites. Basically the devs have no idea how to program the mechanics of a platformer and decided to just wing it with Unity's 3D engine. It's the same problem that red goblin cursed forest has. The low price made all of this acceptable but then came the third problem... The save points are spread too far apart while death involves the loss of all progress. The result is that each time you die you're going to have to traverse large areas over and over and over again and unlocking the same secrets over and over as well on the way until you finally manage to reach a savepoint somewhere before dying. After having had to do this one too many times I decided to call it quits with this game. There is better stuff out there.

not a good metroidvania. but not too bad for the ones who make their first games. still get LOTS of improvements to do. + nice music - terrible controls such as fixed jump heights - stupid money system - not good terrain design, and there's only few types of enemy, and their attack patterns are dull - skills are basically designed to open(break) certain walls - bad boss fights, gives too little time for players to deal with certain attacks, and some attacks are even not avoidable because the jumping and dashing system.

I have to give this game a thumbs up because it's fine. It works at intended. But ( and maybe it's because I'm spoiled on other indie platformers ) I find my interest waning. Everything is feeling rather "samey". NOTE: I've only beaten the mushroom boss.

Why do I feel like this metroidvania doubled in charm after the first area, it really does not do it justice. It's like you put a lot of love and character into every zone, except the first one, I mean it's typical for a game in this genre to get better with the power-ups, but something about the level design, it was just not good for the first hour, both in terms of visuals and navigation. I would say every area after the town is a lot more fun to navigate, the backgrounds are better, and the enemy patterns are more enjoyable (on a side note, can you link me the soundtrack for the Castle, I really like it). I would say game has between 6 to 8 hours of content with a couple of endings, one of them has an entire hidden zone so you may want to find it. I thought the game was put together very well, many friendly features once you know how to utilize your tools and attacks, such as teleporting between waypoints, or the map that saves the areas of interest, making it easier to get the collectibles. Aside from collecting cats and chests for achievements, you can also grind some currency for a few upgrades in the town. I would say the difficulty is balanced very well, it's not hard but you will definitely get a little bit of challenge, especially from some of the bosses - I think that Fish killed me more times than any boss in the Souls. For me the platforming timing was on point, I like that you can bounce on enemies by spamming the attack, and keeping them in the air as well. I noticed some small but very nice design features, even just the attack range which makes it very easy to hit 2 enemies and not get clipped by the hitboxes - just feels very friendly when fighting regular enemies. The game probably deserves a bit of criticism just for being too slow when introducing mobility tools, the double jump is one of the last power-ups, you could potentially delay the dash by an hour if you don't get lucky with cats, and by the time you unlock the smash, it won't be that useful. I think the idea is to unlock better platforming early on, so you could create more enjoyable levels. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) The game might feel very repetitive at first, but I think everything past the first zone is much better, and it only improves toward the end. The level design and the exploration were decent, once you get into the meat of the game. (+) I actually really enjoyed the boss fights, all of them except the first one. I will admit they kind of frustrated me just because I didn't expect a difficulty spike, but I was soooo happy when that stupid fish went down. I earned that kill. (+) I think you did some really smart quality of life features, like unlocking teleports, showing where you missed the collectibles, and even some combat features like generous range, bouncing, and balancing with the damage. (+) Good achievement support, multiple endings, and some things to collect. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] [u] General [/u] - you should have TAB close the map as well, it's TAB>ESC by default. Maybe drop the health meter cost from 200 to 100, or make it 200+ some bonus. [u] First zone [/u] - I think it's just poorly made when compared to other areas, visuals are boring, navigation is not fun, and the enemies are repetitive. Not sure if you want to maybe add more assets and substance to it, maybe some of those moving backgroudns as well. [b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] Sadly, it's a metroidvania that feels very repetitive at first, but I think it gets much better after the first zone, if you give it a chance. I would say never underestimate putting that personality into the world design, you have it in most areas, but not all of them, and especially not the first area. [code]For more niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]