Medusa Reviews

Feels like a long-lost NES game. Great 1st effort from the dev. and a good game to play with your kids.

smooth, responsive gameplay and good level design. really nice NES inspired game with a lot of content for the money

Positives -Fun -Combat is decent -Some good puzzles -Creative upgrades, one in particular is really fun -Big world map to explore -Good variety of biomes -Fair price for what's on offer, even better when on sale -Runs great, no crashes -Medusa is thicc Negatives -Traversal can be a pain -Annoying to have to use the menu so much to switch between abilities -Too many abilities, a lot are useless -Level design is not great

Medusa is one of the few metroidvanias released after oct 2022 that has fair pricing for norwegians. unfortunately this is already an extremely cheap game so this only means a difference of around 10 kroners. Still, its the thought that counts, this dev listens... As for the game itself, its better and longer than you expect and longer. I bought it back in christmas 2022 and its the most indie of all the games I bought at the time, the closest 3 were all refunded for being of very poor quality, but not this game! This is good! It has modern QoL features, an intuitive and well made map. Having said that, it does have a number of faults: - The midgame is a slog - the purple biome has a number of frustrating bugs, especially the largest room - the chariot item is prone to causing serious glitches and softlocks - aesthetically, the biomes have no logical consistency between each other - many of the enemies in each biome don't aesthetically fit there edit: correct playtime is 12 hours, not 18, i was afk for 6 hours.

I came across this game called Medusa. I'm not a fan of 2D Platformer but this NES style game looks fun. It's on 70% off sale so why not. The game runs smooth, easy to control and the difficulty is fair. Special skills include petrifying enemies, Medusa can change to a snake shape to pass narrow places and climb walls, rather than attack. Everything was great until a giant CARROT as big as a human blocking the way. This carrot is invulnerable and has hair the same color as Medusa. I hesitated, thinking what's happening. A carrot. This game is based on Medusa, highly related to Greek mythology but why a carrot? I don't remember a carrot in it. I mean, why not an apple, a banana or a peach? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916379152 I went to sleep with doubts. Even in the dream I was thinking about the relationship between Medusa and a carrot. I also googled but the closest result is the Medusa Pepper, which has fruits that look like colorful baby carrots but it's still a pepper. The second time I opened the game, I got a chariot halfway. It kills enemies instantly and can jump. There's a trident at the front and I thought maybe this one works against the evil carrot! So I returned to the carrot and dashed - No it's not the trident that crashes the carrot. The horse eats it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2916380402 LOL! Alright enough about my silly experience. Great game. I played 3.5 hours and explored most of the map, won all the 3 fights I could unlock in the area. I couldn't find the blue key and was not sure how to pass the stone with a fist mark, so I decided to stop. Still, overall a joyful play, I would love to have trading cards of this carrot and the chariot! :) [u] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/WelcomeWhyNotGames] My curator page[/url][/u]

[i]---see where this game landed on my Metroidvania tier list beneath this review!---[/i] Can't recommend this one to very many. Its very basic, but has some QOL features like a map and things that a bunch of other low budget MVs lack. It's perfectly playable, and if other videogames didn't exist, I would happily play through this whole thing. ..But they do, and It's difficult to find a reason to be spending the seconds we have on this earth on this one. I didn't play for too long, the environment didn't really hook me in for whatever reason. I think a bit more cohesiveness with the environment/improved production.. [i]something[/i] to heighten the immersion may have been all i needed to get invested in a world, rather than feel like I'm playing someone's school project. It really is otherwise fine. ===================== [b]My Metroidvania Tier List[/b] [i] (excluding Metroid & Castlevania titles)[/i] ===================== [b]S Tier:[/b] Aeterna Noctis | Astalon: Tears of the Earth | Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom | Hollow Knight | Cathedral | [b]A Tier:[/b] Doomblade | Afterimage | Elderand | Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Environmental Station Alpha | Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights | Depths of Sanity | [b]B Tier:[/b] Blast Brigade | Alwa’s Legacy | Steamworld Dig 2 | Islets | Blasphemous | After Death | Haak | Outbuddies DX | Mortal Manor | Escape From Tethys | Treasure Adventure Game | Chasm | Haiku, the Robot | Monster Sanctuary | Rabi-Ribi | Elliot Quest | [b]C Tier[i] (enjoyed playing)[/i]:[/b] Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight | Lone Fungus | Aggelos | Iconoclasts | Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night | Death’s Gambit: Afterlife | Catmaze | Omega Strike | Plague of Yamorn | Infernax | Wuppo | Sheepo | Ato | [b]D Tier[i] (liked some things, but had issues)[/i]:[/b] Moonscars | Rusted Moss | Carrion | The Messenger | Castle In The Darkness | Alwa’s Awakening | Pharaoh Rebirth | Yoku’s Island Express | Guacamelee! 2 | Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse | Shantae: Half-Genie Hero | Axiom Verge | Strider | Minoria | Souldiers | Bone Appetit | The Witch & the 66 Mushrooms | Transiruby | Destroy Space Aliens | La-Mulana | Guacamelee! | 8Doors | Gato Roboto | Super Panda Adventures | [b]E Tier[i] (Didn’t like)[/i]:[/b] Rain World | Dandara | Vernal Edge | Blaster Master Zero | [b]Medusa[/b] | Sundered | Salt & Sanctuary | Valdis Story | Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet | Chronicles of Teddy | B.I.O.T.A. | Shadow Complex | Grime | Timespinner | Rex Rocket | Phoenotopia: Awakening | Aquaria | Nyaruru Fishy Fight | Apotheon | Bad Pad | Lootbox Lyfe | Angel’s Gear | Fearmonium | Dust: An Elysian Tale | ====================

This is a game I found when the dev advertised it on the /r/metroidvania sub, and the best thing I can say about is that it was only $3. But this might be the worst Metroidvania I've ever played to completion. It feels a lot like it was taken straight off of the NES, and not in a particularly good way. Highlights include an actually fairly good chiptune soundtrack and decent level design with a labyrinthine layout of branching passages. The first few upgrades are also fairly promising, with unique and fairly thematic things like transforming into a snake, summoning a chariot (that can... eat carrot doors??? among other uses), and a gaze that turns enemies to stone. But the fifth upgrade being just... a jetpack, with no explanation, is fairly weak (we couldn't get Hermes' flying sandals or Icarus's Wings instead?). Still, there's some clever usages of abilities to solve problems, like one reward that requires you to summon several enemies, turn them to stone, stack them on top of one another in a totem pole, and then scale them as a snake to get into a crevice near the ceiling. And the bad is almost everything else. In contrast to the good music, the sound effects are jarring bleeps and squawks, some of which outright ignore the sound slider in the options menu. The control layout is bad, with only two abilities being able to be equipped at a time, and the inventory/map keys being bound to shoulder buttons (with triggers going completely unused). This means for some puzzles having to swap abilities around multiple times within the same room, which is charming on a Gameboy Zelda and decidedly not so on an ostensibly modern Metroidvania. The graphics are a low-fi/early-8-bit-style pixel art that falls just on the wrong side of charming, made worse by exceptionally limited animation. The story is effectively nonexistent, with a single blurb about a MacGuffin at the start and a similarly short "you found it" line at the end. Combat is frustrating in a poorly-balanced-NES game kind of way. Your attack only hits the center tile of your three-tile-high character, or the bottom tile while crouching, or directly under your while attacking downward in midair. Many enemies will leap at you in a way where they cannot be hit by your attack without moving around awkwardly. Ranged enemies fire slow-moving projectiles that zone control large swaths of the screen at a time, and fire off with enough regularity that there's little window to approach safely. Flying enemies hover just outside your range of attack, forcing you to back them into a corner to be able to hit them. There are no bosses at all, which is honestly kind of a blessing given the annoyances of combat. At a medium-short 10 hours to 100%, the game definitely overstayed its welcome, and I can't particularly recommend it.

A lovely piece of work. Edit: Completed the game with no technical issues whatsoever. Game is at the perfect price point to buy and gift all-year long. I have no complaints on the game itself but suggestions for the product 1. As a metroidvania, the game would be more popular if it supported Steam Achievements. 2. The game launches fine on Steam Deck and could benefit from Steam Cloud.

At first blush this one might call to mind the cynical, fly-by-night detritus that bored teenagers "ironically" gift to each other in this neck of the digital woods, but those willing to give it a chance will find that, despite some issues, the developer has put some earnest effort into Medusa. It's the sort of curiosity you might have encountered back in the XBLA Indie days, put together with limited resources and experience but seasoned with potential and heart; not a classic, let alone a "gateway" game for the genre-skeptical, but metroidvania aficionados willing to put up with some annoyances along the way likely won't regret having tossed the creator a buck or three. In hopes of offering a general overview without spoiling too much, the story is as spartan as the presentation, enemy behaviors are very basic (albeit sometimes annoying to deal with, though as your toolkit expands this abates to a degree. Also note that there are no boss fights to speak of), and while movement and jumping feel solid with a little practice, you character's unusually tall sprite can make dodging attacks and platforming near ceilings feel awkward (again, though, you do eventually find ways to mitigate this). That being said, the map is pretty sizeable, well-marked, and [i]usually[/i] not too much of a pain to traverse, several of the upgrades you find are rather fun to mess around with (though others will unfortunately mostly gather dust, especially since you can only actively equip two at a time), and your relatively limited life meter ensures, without feeling unnecessarily punishing, that you do always need to be at least somewhat careful when wandering around. I did encounter the occasional bug, but nothing game-killing. For the forgivingly curious I consider the asking price to be fair for what you get, moreso if you can catch it on sale (as I did); here's hoping that enough adventurous passers-by are in the mood to give Medusa a shot and allow the creator to take another whack at the formula, as I'd certainly be interested in seeing a more refined sophomore effort.

Started this just after it released and just beat / 100%ed it on Steam Deck in just over 10 hours. Overall, really enjoyed it. Some rough elements and definitely a couple annoying enemy types, but that's par for the course. Definitely some fun challenges. Laughed a bunch of times during the playthrough. Recommend to others to try! Can't wait to see what else this dev comes up with, they clearly have a strong and unique grasp of the MV genre.