TEVI Reviews

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It's not very good. Feels like Rabi Ribi, moment-to-moment feels tighter than Rabi Ribi in most cases... but the game drags, the writing is cringe-weeb shut (well, so was Rabi Ribi's if we're being honest), exploration feels punitive at times. It might be fine if it weren't for the rather steep price tag, but here it's nearly double the price of the older (and better) game for a worse experience. Might be worth it if it was around $15, but for sure not at $40 (in my region)

It's a very stupid game. If you looked at the page and thought "oh, this is weeb shit". Yes.... yes it is. Does it play well? Yeah, mostly. It's got tons of little combat details you need to figure out, but it becomes really easy. Tons of tiny collectibles all over the map. It's a metroidvania type game with all sorts of genre bending aspects.

Sigh. I never like to leave negative reviews, especially for indie devs. I've beaten Tevi, I've also beaten their previous game Rabi-Ribi and if you only have time to play one, choose the latter. Tevi has a lot of great ideas and energy in the first five hours...but as others have noted, the map is not set up to ever become friendly to travel. Some shortcuts can only be temporarily opened and reset upon leaving the area. Finally, the story...it feels so scattered. Certain moments could have so much more weight if they built things up. Other moments have you beating a boss only for a cutscene to clarify you lost the fight and the boss just shows mercy on you. I eagerly look forward to the next game CreSpirit puts out but Tevi felt like a very, very 7 kind of game to me and I'm perplexed why things turned out this way or haven't been patched to improve them.

The game is great and it plays well on the Steam Deck.

Just literally beat Tevi today, I've beaten Rabi-ribi on BEX and been trying to get more achievements. Aside from that, this is a 7.5/10 kind of peak. Most of the gripe I have with this game is that the exploration is 80% linear and gatekeep you from access to items until way later chapters, which result in you finding TOO MANY unaccessible items scattered around every area. It makes me frustrated a lot because in Rabi-ribi it's very fun to gather potions and upgrade your stats, exploration rewards you for using hidden tricks or just finding out if your newly mobility item can get you anywhere. In Tevi you goes through the loop of "See items > Easily get/Can't reach > Get more mobility > Still can't reach > Loops" quite a lot, ON EVERY AREA. The art is splendid I have no complains. Music is fine for the most part but the quality and peakness picks up in later chapters. I love rabi-ribi references in this game, Erina's voice made me realize how down bad Irisu (also Erina fans including ME) actually is when she also has that kind of body. a lot of metroidvania tropes also exist and I think it fits enough Very corny story but the one I have a lot of emotions going through during the last few chapters. Connecting the story it make sense but not enough build up or resolve to make the reveal rewarding tho, BUT I appreciate their attempt at doing the story here. I would recommend playing first time on at least normal to hard. (I played on Expert mode because I wanted a challenge and some bosses really beat me up) that's all I have to say. Everything is not perfect, but I do hope anyone picking Tevi to have fun and appreciate the corniness, the drama, the fun of this game. LONG LIVE UPRPRC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TEVI is supposed to be a Metroidvania. I usually love Metroidvanias. [b]Exploration[/b] There are indeed blocked paths that you can unlock later using some newly acquired power and you can back-track to get access to previously missed entries but ... it doesn't feel like a Metroidvania. Usually exploration is the part I love the most in these games and here I'm feeling utterly bored. It took me a while to understand but it's actually very simple: the exploration is almost exclusively linear. The backtrack you do only gives you some minor power-up that you may not even care to use: a block here, a block there. That's it. On the plus side the map is huge. I was concerned about the fact you can't drop down EVER like in every other game in the genre. This means if you are unlucky enough to try to explore up and find yourself on top of a platform, you'll sometimes have to go the long way to go back to where you were. This is another factor in killing the joys of exploration but it doesn't happen that often. [b]Movement[/b] I've got mixed feelings about movement, and this one you can decide to chalk it up to user error. There are many ways to move around: walk and jump then, later, slide then, after a long while ,double-jump, some dash then, later, hover, ... I thought it was decent enough, with some frustration happening from time to time. To reach some places, you'll often do jump jump dash hover. Classic. However if you don't release the direction while doing the dash, instead of moving forward TEVI will do a down attack and you'll sometimes have to climb up your way several screen to try again. Given the tension one is expected to feel while playing, I believe that choosing that particular combination (or lack of) isn't the most ergonomic one. It has annoyed me several times. Another example is that the wall jump requires you to be close enough to the wall and select the direction opposite to the wall (and the opposite of the one you were pressing) and press A (jump). This feels very clunky and has pissed me of several times. [b]Art[/b] Graphically it's OK. Just look at the screenshots, that's basically all there is to see. Musics go from your run-of-the-mill elevator background to a few good ones. [b]Story[/b] The story of the game is utterly awful. I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a joke but I'm not amused. Thankfully you can completely skip dialogues and leave these idiots to their ramblings and inane discussions. Without this, I would have dropped the game way before the two hours mark. [b]Fighting[/b] There are many fighting moves. Maybe too many because they don't feel all that different with regard to damage output and maybe removing a couple of attacks would have made movement less annoying. You can select a great combination of perks to equip and change little details about fighting. It's an interesting idea but in practice I could have gone without it. It's part of the things to collect though. Fighting monsters is mostly OK. I feel there is enough variation and some are even enjoyable to kill. (e.g. the beam-shooting golems) Fighting bosses however is not. During the first five chapters, maybe, they are mostly an annoyance you have to fight while avoiding bullets and lasers. I'm not a fan of bullet hell but I didn't find it difficult. But at some point bosses become damage sponges and you'll spend several minutes doing mostly 1HP damage hits, with some spikes in the 50HP range, while avoiding crazier and crazier attack patterns. This is just boring and ridiculous. [b]Duration[/b] I'm at chapter 7 over 8. The game is said to last from 23 to 52 hours. I expect it'll take maybe 7 more hours to finish it. Because I'm close to the end, I'll finish it but it feels like a chore at this point. I'll be glad when it'll be over. [b]TL/DR[/b] [list] [*]Exploration is mostly linear which isn't worthy of a Metroidvania, [*]controls can be frustrating and [*]bosses fights end-up being boring health-erosion marathons. [/list]