Alpha Sorcerer Reviews

This game was sold to me as "smash bros esque metroidvania". I'm sorry to say, it isn't that. What Alpha Sorcerer is however is a tight action platformer. If you like Hollow Knight's combat then I highly recommend this game. You need to be aggressive and cautious as it's incredibly easy to get overwhelmed and you don't have many tools to get out of combat. This game is clearly the work of passion and I'm looking forward to anything else that the dev makes. For the feeling of that lightning fast 2d combat with some genuinely fun and challenging platforming segments. For anyone who finds the beginning hard - don't worry it gets easier once you get a hang of things. Protip 1- Invest in the magic skills first. There's a fight early on that's nearly impossible to beat without maxed out magic. (At least for me). Protip 2 - Enemies don't respawn. If you need to you can very easily just run back to the save point after every check point to make your life a little easier if much more monotonous.

Any movement aside from walking is jerky and unsatisfying, both your character and enemies zip around from attacks in a way that's almost instantaneous. Combat is instantly a cluster of nonsense if more than two enemies are involved, and in the very first screen you deal with four. Over pits with arrows pointing to those pits, which aren't a guide, they're just pointing at what turned out to be spike pits that instantly kill you. In about the third room or so there's a sequence where you have to drop down where there are spike pits out of view. I had only encountered three types of enemies before the first boss, but all three of them could take a quarter of your health in one hit. The boss can kill you in three hits. There's no tutorial, no in-game explanation, and no visual indicators in-game through level design and enemies that show what the character is capable of doing. Even worse, enemies aren't even worth engaging with. Enemies do not drop money, heals for character resources, items, or equipment. Nor do they provide experience points. They're just there to be in the way. You're better off using the air dash you're given (jump, then press jump again) to avoid combat. If a game is about action, the action shouldn't be rendered pointless. The boss was the worst part. Not having a pattern is fine if there are animation cues that give the player time to react, even if that time is as short as one-fifth of a second. This one immediately just zips toward you and hits you multiple times, and again, I need to remind you that he can kill your character in three hits. So we have a game that doesn't tell your character what they can do, level design that can be misleading and needlessly obfuscates hazards, and combat that's not worth the risk to any degree. This game needs a LOT of polish.

I will start with Pros and Cons because noone wants to read a wall of text first: Pros +Fantastic fast-paced, gory, bloody, satisfying combat system +good controls, fun movement and traversal options +A fair challenge, the game is not easy, but it didn't feel unfair to me +doesn't overstay its welcome too much, it ends the story at a nice point, and it has a fun final level with hard platforming +a good amount of options in combat +excellent level design +enemy AI is very fair, though they can be a bit cheesable +surprisingly engaging and well-written story. I was a bit taken back by this +great graphics for what they are. There is some nice parallax scrolling, and the combat hit-effects are great. +I really enjoyed the music, it's very SNES-like +Sound effects are crunchy, punchy, and meaty. Really helps the combat feel good, +good feeling of progression Cons -the start of the game is quite slow. I died for 10 minutes in only the first few rooms probably. The combat really comes into its own when you find some relics and build out the skilltree a bit -As good as the combat is, it does get a bit repetitive after awhile -I would have liked to see some more enemy types, there are some reskins too -there is a dominant strategy of slide kick, 3-hit combo that combos into itself and is really cheesable (as an upgrade) -unskippable cutscenes between some deaths, that contain a lot of walking, dialogue, or slow dramatic camera panning -rebinding controller buttons seems either broken or buggy. Couldn't get it to work consistently. Keyboard works perfect to rebind. I played with KB. Genuinely excellent game. To start with, if you like straight-forward action games, buy this. It's about 3.5 hours and for the price that is good to me. It's an action-platformer first and foremost, almost no backtracking here. There are collectibles off the beaten path, but you often don't need to go too far to find them. You will want to find them, some of them are very powerful. This is a 2D platforming hack 'n slash mixed with a Character Action game. The combat is incredibly smooth, especially once you've built out the skill tree a bit (yes there is a skill tree, and there are some pretty powerful upgrades) I would give this a very warm recommendation, with the biggest caveats in my Cons list being unskippable cutscenes (though you can skip dialogue) and seemingly broken controller rebinding. The rest is a tad nitpicky perhaps. Buy it if it sounds like you will enjoy it. Support small projects like this, I really hope to see more from this developer.

I can see the game bein' fun for me if the controls were solid. That's the main issue imo. Otherwise I thought the pixel art and the enemy design is nice. The writing is solid as well from what I gathered intro wise. The game could do with voice actin' as well. The price tag may keep some at bay tho. Gameplay here: https://youtu.be/sEgKf6WqOig

Alpha Sorcerer is great! This was a game I waited on for about a year on this game, but I didn’t expect anything specific from it and I came out with a better experience than I thought. The combat is easy to jump into even without a tutorial. The overarching story was ok, but I was more into the world the characters were in. The main rival to the main character is the most petty man and I love him. The soundtrack was pretty good to. The theme you hear in the first boss fight is my favorite. 14.99 might seem like a lot, but this is definitely replayable. I recommend this game! More people need to play it! Full Review: https://youtu.be/zlbpDPS3VXs

What an amazing game. This dev's previous effort, Way of the Red, was already a fantastic 2D action in its own right, but this is on another level. The controls may be a bit odd at first, and the game starts off really hard, but once you level up and gain more skills, the combat is one of the more satisfying systems I've ever played. The minimalistic design is great, the story is interesting and I have to give special props to the outstanding soundtrack. All this for a more than fair asking price even outside sales. Don't miss out on Alpha Sorcerer.

I found the game to be fairly solid, the combat feels quite good and is very fun; The plot does not take itself too seriously and is good and simple. The skill system allows you to improve attacks and skills that you like the most, and adapt the playstyle to yourself, so whether you want to play as a flame slinging mage or an agile spellblade that sets the enemy on fire with his sword is up to you. The enemies, while limited in variety, force you to use the skills you have to the fullest and reward you for switching up your approach depending on the room composition. If I had anything to complain about, that would be the platforming. While the platforming sections are fun and well designed, falling in the stages near the end of the game leads to either having to redo the majority of the section if you fail near the end, or instant death which makes you re-do 1.5 rooms full of endgame enemies. Overall I found Alpha Sorcerer to be a fun experience that doesn't overstay its welcome.

Slashing enemies and jumping around was very fun and I liked the level system Some of the platforming towards the end got me feeling frustrated but most of the game is great Hope the dev makes a sequel or something I want more

The game ran really well and game play was satisfying. The difficulty was there as well. The skill points were sick too. You really feel how much stronger you get towards the end. Was definitely worth the buy.

This is a sleeper title with solid combat and movement. It has satisfying hit feedback on attacks and nice skill upgrades on level up where I can immediately tell I have become more powerful. There's also relics that are easily found that improve your stats as well. The main selling point here is the pixel art and combat. The movement is pretty fluid and attacks are immediate and impactful. Timing an uppercut slash to knock an airborne ninja into spike pits and decorating the stage with blood never gets old. Story so far seems interesting as well. Get this and play it. I highly recommend. Lastly, no crashes and runs perfect on steam deck. 10/10