Bat to the Heavens Steam Charts & Stats

Hard to get the controls, but once you do, it's really friggin fun. *Creach*

I personally really enjoyed this game because of its cute artstyle and puzzle platforming but I just don't personally have it in me to complete it fully. The best comparison I could make to this game is Getting Over It, although I haven't actually played that game. Its a game with a really high skill ceiling that you sink your teeth into if you really want to, but you can just ignore it and beat it once if you want to. I'd recommend but with some caution cuz it hurts my brain.

Very cute art coupled with genuinely unique movement mechanics. Makes me wish I could take the bat to my own head with how difficult the levels are but I don't want to bop my poor sweetheart.

lobotomized my sense of personal capabilities. very hard, very satisfying gameplay.

FIRST OFF: I have been waiting to review this game for SO LONG. But I had to wait until I finished it, because reviewing something and giving a verdict before actually beating the game is dumb. I bought this game back in December when it came out, probably two days after the release. Alas, life got in the way and I sadly had other things to do. [b]Also, I'm leaving the comments open on this. If you have questions about the game, ask away and I can get back to you.[/b] oh, and TL;DR: It's very fun, creative and satisfying to do well in, but the brutal platforming difficulty and frequent roadblocks you might encounter can alienate some people. I went in for a few reasons, with the novel concept, the nice music, and the cute artstyle all being big draws. What I was NOT expecting were things like 1 - The really solid core game design 2 - How many interesting mechanics would be in it 3 - Just [b]how[/b] difficult it would end up being 4 - Just how much dumber I am than the average human It's rare for a game to leave me wanting to come back to it even after repeatedly kicking me in the teeth so many times, but the sense of discovery in this game is great. Even after getting stuck at a difficult part, wanting to know what came next kept me determined to push through. The checkpoint system is great, as well. There are some parts early on where you can fall down and lose a considerable amount of progress, but you can just respawn back at your latest checkpoint and continue from there. The game is one seamless world, and discovering new areas is particularly fun because of this. Instead of loading into a new area with an intermission screen, a massive jump that's the final challenge of the previous area will send you flying directly into a new floating island or something similar. I'll also note the difficulty. The difficulty in this game comes in two forms, with those being physical difficulty and mental difficulty. At its core, BttH is more of a puzzle game than a platformer, or that's what I felt at least. Physical difficulty is being able to schmoove your way around all the obstacles and complete a given challenge, and mental difficulty is looking at a maze of bounce pads and angles and being able to figure out what you're supposed to do in the first place. [b]These can kind of go against each other at times.[/b] There are a lot of times where you might not understand what to do for a puzzle and may keep just jumping in not knowing what do do. There are other times when you figure out exactly what to do, but spend 20 minutes trying to pull it off because of the difficulty timing things. There are other times where these two things work in harmony. Where you'll make it to a certain point unaware of what to do, only to figure it out in real time. Each attempt will get you a little bit further and it's very satisfying. For the most part, the areas are comprised of various bits of the level separated by checkpoints. Usually, there are three or so obstacles or bits to get past. If you've played Celeste, this could be comparable to a screen in that game. These are mostly self-contained, but in some areas you can fall from the third section of a checkpoint back to the second or even the first. When on the final obstacle of a checkpoint, it usually works like this: You can mess up and retry as long as you don't fail in a specific way. If you fail in a specific way, you can hit blocks that kill you and you're sent all the way back to your last activated checkpoint. It's kind of like Getting Over It in the sense that there are certain methods of failure that send you further back than others. One thing that I REALLY don't like are the areas that have what feel like filler segments before the harder sections, where you'll need to keep beating one relatively easy or frustrating section to get to the harder bit. This just feels like it's stretching out playtime, and it's annoying to repeat one part a bunch to get to the section you're actually going to fail or succeed at. If you've played Dark Souls, it's kind of akin to the boss runbacks in that series, just a bit shorter. As a whole, it's great. Even on an individual, deconstructed level, it's great. But it's certainly not for everyone. I'm not even sure how many of the other positive reviews actually beat the whole game, because it really goes from a relatively simple puzzle platformer to trying to steer a pinball through a machine at the later parts to the point where it's honestly hard to compare the beginning and end of the game. So be aware that there's a steep difficulty curve, but there's a bunch of satisfaction in making it through as well as lots of fun things to discover in the game's vibrant and interesting world.

simple on the surface, but a masterpiece of a platforming puzzle game, with a uber-cute aesthetic (which i love!) i love how the game naturally teaches you things by presenting puzzles with abstract imagery instead of tutorial popups! if you like celeste definitely give this one a try too, you can go SO fast

I am only a couple hours into the game so far so i guess you can take this review with a grain of salt, but so far here is what i think~ TL;DR: Cute platformer (pretty much...) with a unique control scheme which lends itself well to a bit of puzzleyness and challenge get it if you like challenging games It's not your typical puzzle platformer for a few reasons: 1) problems tend to have several solutions- especially with all the interesting tech you pick up along the way 2) figuring out what you need to do and how you can do it has not been too difficult- execution is where the challenge truly lies. 3) you don't have a proper jump and movement in general is unorthodox i think its important to mention that the game feels and sounds great which i think is important for challenging games- controls are responsive and the music is pretty nice. checkpoints are well spaced imo- they are far enough to create tension but close enough to keep you from having too many bennet foddy moments speaking of bennet foddy, i saw another review call this getting over it x celeste with a cute aesthetic i think thats a great way to get across the gist of it- but to be clear, you're not usually in any danger of losing much progress completely different game, but shout out to leap year (avoid spoilers at all costs pls!) its similar in that it doesn't fit the typical platformer mold and you learn things as you go... but thats about it definitely a shorter and easier game than bath heaven but its pretty great! kind of reminds me of HackyZack- again, not super similar, but its a challenging platformer just like bethany. (also recommend it) ok so ngl i got this game for the hamster emoticon. yeah im kinda joking but also kinda not i feel i must mention my opinion on controller vs keyboard here since i have not seen anybody really talking about it in discussions. i think you can really go either way and be fine BUT BUT... but... IDEAALLYY ideally you have both and you switch to kb when your thumbs get sore then back to controller when your three middle fingers get sore recommend

Very zen music, very cute art and relaxing backgrounds, and the bat mechanics are HIGHLY tuned. Plenty of checkpoints, and it doesn't berate you for failing. I love all of that...but I also have to admit, its far too precise & difficult of a platformer for me T.T 100% recommended for shmovement gamers, and 100% still love the dev's art.

As I'm writting this, I finally achieved 108% on my savefile, and am 1 achievement away from having the entire game done 100%. The last achievement being to basically speedrun the whole game under an hour, which I intend to do in the future. This game is genuinely increadible and it's a crime that not more people know about it. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱: -The movement system of the game feels clunky at the start, so it may come to a surprise to some people when I say I absolutely love it. The more you play and get used to said movement, the more satisfying it becomes to travel and do anything. The game also counts a couple of unlocks that makes afore-mentioned movements even more fun and enjoyable. Partically nothing is locked to you from the start, and slowly figuring out the mechanics and mastering them is the quirk of this game. -The universe that Ceroro crafted is one of the cutest I've seen in a while, and this game contains a lot more lore than what is shown on the surface. Be it many hidden secrets with characters or infered lore, changes in dialogue, or straight up world building through game design, Ceroro did an amazing job at immersing the player in this universe and leave enough nuggets of information to make the player want more. On that topic, the character design is really fun, and each character has a personality linked to them that will make it hard for most players to not get attached to said characters. -The music is good. Nothing that beats other games to the ground or revolutionary, but the music is chill and honestly a good listen. They also make each zones of the game so unique and calmed my nerves more than a few times while playing. -To finalize the good parts, Ceroro was kind enough to bestow upon us checkpoints. The game gets increadibly hard in certain parts, and the fact that the game provides checkpoints to you every puzzle or so makes the experience a lot less frustrating and a lot more enjoyable. There's also more to these checkpoints, but saying more would be a major spoiler. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗱: -A game's never perfect, and this one also has it's flaws, starting with what I think is the only real downside to the game: It's tutorials. The mechanics are... Pretty poorly explained for the most part. When you start the game, after acquiring the bat which becomes your only way of travel, you're just left there to explore. now this is not really an issue as it's pretty intuitive, and the game at least gives you the buttons to swing. The problem with tutorials comes after, with the introduction of 2 mechanics in particular. One is the ball, which is explained in a room through symbols on the wall. Once entering the room, you are 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸, with your respawn button disabled and greyed out until you make it out with the intended new mechanic. On the wall is a LOT of things going on, with all of them pretty much meaning the same thing: Tiles that shows you the trajectory you're supposed to take, but fade way too much into the background, Circles that are supposed to represent the character in a ball form after said tiles, that up until you have seen the mechanic with your own eyes, is more a confusing shape than anything, The buttons you're supposed to press on the top right, having both controller and keyboard inputs shown, but also being different. The controller needing 2 different buttons while the keyboard needing to double press *another* button, accompagnied by an up arrow signifying to jump, but in a completely different color than the rest of the buttons and also not the direction you should swing your bat if doing said trick, resulting in a weird jumble of symbols that only really makes sense if you know the mechanic before hand, And finally 3 arrows trying to show you the same inputs as explained before: one going up signifying to jump first, then 2 arrows going down signifying to double tap down. I am most likely nitpicking with this tutorial, but the issue with it is the fact that the game locks you in here expecting you to figure out what this current of information means without actually really telling you anything. But the biggest problem with the tutorials is the second mechanic: The slide. Turns out in this game you can slide by pressing down then any direction in a fast succession. This is a really important mechanic that is used in a lot of puzzles going forward, as you'll need the momentum from the slide to clear certain gaps. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝘀 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂. When I mean NEVER, I genuinely mean 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥. No symbols on the wall to show you the inputs, no text, no eluding to it at any point in the story or progression... Even guides when mentioning the mechanics tell you that the game never explains it. You're just supposed to know it. On top of being integral for momentum, when the game expects you to know said mechanic, it will actively block you with a small hole that you can only enter with sliding, yet no symbols or anything is given to the player to help you, only a text saying "there's always a way forward", which is on top of everything extremely confusing, making the player believe they're not on the right track or going the right way, which is not the case. -This part is unfortunately not the issue of the game, Ceroro, or anything else like that. This game not being much known suffers from a critical lack of information. I am extremely thankful to 2 people that have made 2 different guides, one being a max completion, and the other giving hints for achievements. These two guides are pretty much the only pieces of information towards completing the game 100%. Other than that, the game is barren. Playthroughs to find solutions to certain puzzles are just completely non-existant, with IronicLegacy's walkthrough currently being almost the only one, and currently on-going as I'm writting this. The speedrun side is also unfortunately barren of explanations. A couple of runners run the game, with their runs being the only piece of information on how to speedrun BTTH. No guides, tutorials on glitches, or stuff like that really exists, leaving you to study on your own. All of the above isn't necessarily a bad thing for a game depending on your religion, This game thrives from the player discovering things on their own, and trying out everything to unlock secrets, so it's not as much of an issue. But depending on what you want to do ingame, certain players will find the informations lacking. ---------------------------------------- As a conclusion, This game became really quickly one of my favorites I've played in years, even dethroning games I was sure to never remove from top 3 in my life, and all of it was made by just one silly creacher. I strongly recommend people to try the game out and play it. In 2025, it's hard to find a game worth their price and that comes complete, without any additional stuff coming out 24/7 and a full story to tell. Come play Bat To The Heavens, and become addicted like the rest of us!

Bat to the Heavens is one of, if not THE best game I've played in years. I cannot recommend it enough. Incredible controls, very well designed levels, beautiful and super cute art and characters and great music. 10/10, what I can I say! Worth noting that it is in fact difficult as well, but difficult in the way that games like Celeste are difficult, not like, rage game difficult. Difficult but fair, I think they say. Try it out anyways! I believe in you!!! No matter how far you get, as long as you are having fun then that's all that matters. ^v^