Magenta Horizon Reviews

It is fun

A nice break from all the parry-focused combat systems that every single game seems to be doing nowadays.

Absolutely amazing game. The combat system is extremely well done and the more you play the more you enjoy it. Boss fights and gauntlet are challenging and super fun to overcome. The lore and visuals are very original, it's one of the rare game where I read all the dialogues. I loved this game, and congrats to the solo developer, you're the best. Now we need a sequel :D

when people told me this was like ninja gaiden I didnt realize they meant so many of the bosses were going to be dogshit

It's very very very good. I think this is like the most genuine sequel to Ninja Gaiden II in terms of mechanical spirit. There's so much you're always balancing within the heat of the fight that often comes down to a ebb-and-flow of survival within all the hordes that will take you between air and ground, which largely matches that sort of Itagaki experience, but it comes into its own largely on that 'air' part, with many ways to check your movement and positioning in ways Ninja Gaiden doesn't focus on. As a pure 2d action game it's genuinely hard for me to think of much better, and while I've only really finished a great majority of Act 1 (I think I have only a couple levels left in it), I haven't run into any issues with it. Go get it :3 can't recommend this enough to all my friends

The game can be frustrating at times, but I would still consider it a worthwhile character action game. Note that if you're struggling with the game, you may be able to learn more about the mechanics by watching videos of others playing or reading the combat guides on the Guides section of the community hub. Also, the game contains a fair amount of trypophobic (fear of holes) imagery. You may want to avoid it if that's something you struggle with.

This game kicks ass. Mine specifically. Playing through this on the normal difficulty lead to many frustrating moments, really "gamer rage" inducing even, but I managed to overcome everything the game threw at me. The difficulty curve feels steep but once it clicks and you figure out enemy patterns it just kinda works. If you get easily frustrated at difficult games you should probably stay away, but if you want a solid challenging character action game you should give this one a chance.

Magenta Horizon is a true hardcore action game. It has: - platforming around spikey pits - complex level design with key hunting - complex player moveset from the start (even double jump) - many ranged weapons to find in the levels - insanely large monster roster with different weight classes - very challenging fights with high amounts of enemies on screen - agressive enemy behaviour - large enemy moveset - huge and challenging bosses - complex scoring system to earn SSS-Ranks - 5 difficulties that change gameplay in meaningful ways The game is a joy to play and figure out, but mastering the harder modes will put even the most hardcore players to their limit. The developer had a clear vision for his action game and deserves a lot of respect. Even aside from its great gameplay, Magenta Horizon looks beautiful and has a touching story. The game gets bonus points from me, because the main character is german. Vielen Dank für dieses wundervolle Spiel!

Magenta Horizon boasts the strongest encounter design of any 2D action game of the modern era. You have a roster of dozens of enemies and they're inserted into combat rooms in such a manner that you are forced to grapple with the patterns of multiple enemy types all at once, all overlapping each other. Enemies do not 'take turns' to attack, they get in range and they launch their attack. This leads to decisions of prioritization, decisions of how to create a safe spot, decisions of how to best get away from the soon-to-occur attacks of the enemies, exhiliration when the most pernicious threat is down, and of course, a fulfilling sense of improvement as you learn to navigate the cavalcade of hitboxes more adeptly. Of all of Magenta Horizon's traits, encounter design and enemy design is by far the best one. This is of course coupled with a pretty excellent player movelist that's reasonably deep and well equipped for the problem solving at hand, with a particular focus on movement-influencing attacks visible throughout the movelist because of the aforementioned torrent of hitboxes you must respect. It absolutely [i]will[/i] take your average player around half the playthrough to start using the movelist reasonably competently, and then the second half of the game tests you hard on if you did so. Even after clearing the game I know I neglected certain elements of the movelist and that any followup playthrough should incorporate those elements more for greater efficiency, so there's a great mastery curve here for players who like mastering complex systems. [i]Feel[/i] your dexterity improvement, [i]feel[/i] your increasing ability to play with intentionality, [i]crush[/i] your enemies decisively... that's the good shit. And this game has that in spades. Outside of the gameplay the game has a pretty excellent soundtrack, an art style that is pretty unique and colorful, and a pretty serviceable storyline. Pretty good voice acting too! Aside from the voice acting [i]every[/i] element of the game was done by one guy? Another one man show that's phenomenally outstanding for its price. Not only this, the demo of the game is pretty generous and will [i]definitely[/i] confirm whether this is your type of game or not. If you like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta or the other older school action titles, you can certainly bet on enjoying Magenta Horizon, but if you have even the slightest bit of trepidation, the demo will set you right.

This is one of the best action games I've played in a long time and genuinely put it above the greats of the action game genre and it is heartbreaking that it has such a small audience when it should be getting way more attention especially in a niche like action games; especially with how game development is with the style of game right now. I really appreciate this game acknowledging that every enemy has its own purpose; this game reminds me of how Doom 2 expansions and mods later realize that every enemy is a danger by understanding WHAT they can do and how they can make the player Fear them. The enemies in this game aren't Combo MAD fodder they WILL hurt you and there's 40+ enemies in this game alone with varying degrees of interaction and AI. They even try to anti air you if you try to do an long air combo; That's such a rare thing in the big budgeted action games. Enemies are aggressive and want you dead and there's ALOT of them in huge swarms. The idea of that feels so foreign in modern action games now especially with how strong and prevalent defensive options like parry or perfect dodges are. To top off the enemies being huge threats, Magenta Horizon has actual arenas that want you to consider your positioning and options; Levels will have VERY cramped levels where you're basically in a box dealing with some of the most obnoxious enemies; maybe its uneven terrain with flying enemies, a thin hallway with small ceiling full of small hordes. There's so much to the game and I'm shocked how varied the encounters and areas. Its also not to say your player character is lacking to deal with threats; while your default weapon moveset is pretty small when you compare it to some action games old/new; Your attacks have actual purpose and not feeling like redundant excessive moves for the sake of it. You can use your scythe to bounce off enemies like Hollow Knight to reposition yourself with an air dash/jump, the scythe can latch on enemies to pass through smaller hitbox enemies,can reflect projectiles away and many other interactions just from your default weapon alone creates so many opportunities and decision making. Your sub weapons are also super interactive where they have alot of varied functions and even COMBINE with other sub weapons for various crowd control/high damage options. There's even an equipment system o like add onto everything I mentioned. Its so layered and well throughout,even when i found a loadout that could be cheesy it still felt rewarding to understand all of the nuances of the combat I adore this game; it is a masterpiece. That said I do wanna mention some possible roadblocks that could happen for some people when try this game. This is HARD game, I played all stages on default difficulty (Reaper which is the 3rd one) and I've never felt so humbled in my life playing a game. There has been times where I've gotten frustrated and felt lost during some stages or specific encounters, lost sight of my characters cause sometimes the visibility can be too much with the amount of sprites of enemies on screen; the game can feel unfair at times to a point where you're ready to blame the game. This is a game that isn't gonna appeal to everyone especially if this genre is demanding to you even on lower settings. These are all roadblocks that you might run into....but that is fine. This game doesn't require perfection, it does not shame you for taking damage or making mistakes cause that's normal with games like this. Its refreshing to play an action game that is designed like this. Also the game lets you select a difficulty after any death so you can adjust it to your liking (it does a small joke in the loading screen about lower the difficulty but it not really malicious by any means. I've played my fair share of action games; going from good old beat n ups, stuff like Devil May Cry/Bayonetta, and various Action RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and Tales of. I have many favorites among many of those franchises/genres and considered some entries some of the best in their respective game-play. There's been plenty of good action games released in modern times but I definitely feel like their vision has been compromised a lot for the sake of wide appeal and this isn't necessarily bad; just sometimes the voice that used to be there is much more quiet now. Magenta Horizon is not one of those games; This is a game where someone was passionate about making their OWN vision and didn't make unnecessary concessions to appeal to everyone. I feel like something like that even in indie spaces; that mentality is very rare cause of the need to appeal to everyone so the game overall feels foreign to its original ideals. I feel like if you don't love or even LIKE the game that's fine no game is for everyone. I think if you love action games; pick this one up. Even if you don't love/like it or hell maybe hate it at the end of it all; at least you gave it a honest chance to see this creator vision come to life for everyone to acknowledge and perhaps even love.