Undivine Steam Charts & Stats

EDIT: The below review of the game is based "Expert Mode", which, while my review still stands, I will add that the degree to which these things matter is drastically increased on expert mode. I think that expert mode is unplayable presently and is not balanced given the weaknesses listed below. It's almost impossible to not get hit in this game and the damage scaling and lack of resources make expert mode feel very bad to play. As mentioned elsewhere, it doesn't feel good to get hit a ton yet there is little to do (at least early game) to ensure that you don't. I started a new playthrough on standard mode and haven't broken a sweat on any of the things that were giving me trouble in expert mode. ------------------------------------------------ I wanted to love this game since it has so many elements that I typically enjoy. I have to say, though.I find the platforming controls to be very frustrating. First of all the knock back inflicted is not enough to compensate for almost all enemy advancement. meaning you have to slash and move often. The down side with this is that when you attack you are locked into place rendered unable to move. Another thing I found frustrating is that you can only hit one enemy at a time. meaning if there are multiple enemies advancing on you simultaneously and you attack to create room, what little knockback you do have only goes to one enemy - AND i have found that it's not necessarily the closest enemy to you. Your consumables are non-replenishing on death, meaning if you use your potions during a boss fight and die, you won't have them on your second attempt. Also, if you get stuck on a boss and you're out of resources, well, tough luck. I am usually fine with difficult situations in games "git gud or you can't advance", but the execution of this one lands too far into frustrating territory for me. I want to git gud at mechanics that feel fluid and fun the better I get at them, i don't see the fun in mastering mechanics that don't feel good. Also a minor point, but the dynamic jump physics don't feel natural. it's a real shame - I was very excited to play this. I hope that some of the things I list above get addressed in future patches, because I absolutely would pick this game back up if it had controls that felt good like axiom verge or 9 sols or environment alpha or dead cells or hollow knight, etc etc etc

*Edit: I'm keeping my original review below preserved exactly as I wrote it. I just want to mention that the dev acted on my feedback and player knockback versus enemies has been improved a lot. Also, there are now multiple ways to heal without needing to strictly rely on potions, and potion drop rates appear to have improved a lot* My playtime is approximately 2 hour at the time of this review, and if I have significant additions later I'll add that in to my review. The dev wrote on reddit that a playthrough is 6-10 hours, so by all measures I'm pretty early in the game. [h2] The Good [/h2] This is a polished game and I think with a few minor changes it will be a staple of the Metroidvania genre. Exploring the map is fun and I enjoy the oldschool artstyle. There's nice enemy diversity and platforming challenges. Different regions are distinct and interesting. I like the talent system, questing system, inventory system, and stats. There is a map accessible to the player within minutes of beginning, and can be opened quickly. The ability to add markers to the map can be unlocked with talents with only 10 minutes of mob fighting via a talent. [h2] The Bad [/h2] I have two critiques so far that may be addressed later in the game, but are rough design choices for now. I'll try to describe these in a constructive way. Other people may disagree with these, but this is my two cents: 1) You don't regenerate health over time, and potions are single use items found in chests that don't restore on death. This means if you fight a boss and use all your supplies on one attempt you'll have zero supplies for the next attempt. Thus far I've only found potions rarely, maybe in 20% of the chests I've opened. This design choice needs to be reexamined by the developer in my opinion. The player should always respawn with a few potions, otherwise beating bosses becomes really hard after the first attempt. I also see one vendor selling potions for what amount for roughly 10 minutes of mob grinding's worth of currency for 1 potion, and she only has a total of 5. 2) My other critique is my weapon has very little knockback unlike in Hollow Knight where precise strikes keep an enemy from reaching you. This means I'm taking some damage every time I fight an enemy since there's a small distance where I can hit them, and once I'm in melee range they walk to me with no noticeable knockback from my strikes. The combination of minimal potions + taking damage from every enemy feels bad as a player, which is unfortunate since I think this game does a lot of things right.

Game started off so snappy and addicting after a quick rebind to D-pad thru steam. Upgrades don't hold your hand in explanation, and there's multiple optional ones for us players who like to explore. Bosses are fun to mash against once you learn their patterns and find the window. Short n' sweet game with great music! (non100% save file with "bad" ending was like 6 hours for me) 7 / 10 Sooo those 3 missed points tho- I understand there's a level of slight jank that comes with a small indie project. The very active and cool dev even offered to help me fix my save file after a bug I had where an item duplicated. The game also lets you pick the kind of jump you prefer, not sure I've ever seen that, but I wish the dev would have just designed the game around one of them instead. This so far I can all deal with. The map however is unacceptable in 2025. It's non-gridded and shows the entire room when you enter it, this makes it really hard to remember where I haven't fully explored. 2nd, the death system isn't clear or enough of a mechanic at all. 3rd, and maybe controversial for the SotN lovers, but the quests and endings are far to obtuse for me to really get any satisfaction out of them. I just went with the "bad" obvious ending because I quickly get sick of needle in the haystack type content, nor do I enjoy following a guide. Maybe there was another upgrade I didn't find that would have helped with 100%ing, but the mask I did find didn't do much. Once the map looked like I had gone in every room it was time to fight what's maybe an intentionally easy boss and move on. Looking forward to more games from ya, thanks Wendoo!

Feels very old school. I like the simple pixel look. I recommend the static jump over the dynamic jump. Static feels like a castlevania while dynamic lacks any height momentum. You drop the second you let go of the jump button in dynamic jump mode.

Solid metroidvania that scratched the itch. There were several interesting mechanics I hadn't seen before in the MANY games I've played in this genre. There were several bugs I ran into but developer had a VERY QUICK turnaround on resolving them. The game should take about 5-7 hours for seasoned veterans, so it was rather short. Even on expert level, the combat difficult was rather easy as I killed most enemies in 1-3 hits by the middle to end of it and the true end game boss only hit me about 2 times. The mapping wasn't bad but I can see some people complaining about some of the TP and save locations including the limited options for marking map. However, I actually found the mapping rather enjoyable, especially when I received the extended dash ability as it felt like I was speedrunning the map. Finally, for me, I believe the music was the strongest point. It definitely got me in the mood and set the atmosphere. It meshed very well in the game. Overall, a very solid metroidvania and by a solo developer nonetheless. I felt if developer had an actual team to help further expand the ideas and mechanics behind this game, something truly special would've happened. Great work!

I think I'm done. First of all, this has all the hallmarks of a good microvania. The levels and abilities are well designed. However, what I can't get is just how atrocious the combat is. There might as well be no combat at all. Enemies do not have any sensible attack animations. There's no windup, no telegraph, they're just there and then boom, you get damaged. So all you're doing is running around, keeping your distance, and attacking. There's stagger at least, but not by much. All in all, this is a decent amateur venture into the world of metroidvanias, with sweet writing and good music, but ultimately falls short due to gameplay. Good luck with the next one!

There are many unknown indie metroidvanias that are kinda crap but this one turned out decent. Reminds me a bit of other ones that turned out alright, like [b]Plague of Yamorn[/b], [b]Kalinur[/b], [b]Far Star[/b], [b]Realm of I[/b] or the much bigger [b]Mortal Manor[/b]. You might think this game is a soulslike, but it doesn't have a lot of the soulslike elements you'd expect from one. There are no corpse runs and I didn't notice a punishment for dying. In fact I killed myself a number of times deliberately so I can respawn elsewhere to move around the map quicker. The map could be better, requiring you to use map markers to get by for any place you might need to revisit. There's quite a lot of backtracking and it can get a bit arduous at times, particularly when you are trying to complete sidequests that involve revisiting rooms you had previously explored. I played through and got the bad ending. I may play some more later and go for the good ending, but because I need to re-check every room multiple times due to the aforementioned map problems, I'm unlikely to go back and finish the game properly. I did enjoy my time with this one though. ..just enough that it gets the thumbs up from me |b

Great 10 hour MV for under $10. A couple small hiccups, but easy patches and the core design was impressively competent especially for the price point. I hope this game doesn't fly under the radar, would love to see more from the dev

This game definitely deserves a lot more attention. It's a gem for Metroidvania nerds who enjoy the rewards of exploration and just the right amount of difficulty for someone new to the genre. I absolutely love the minimal pixel style combined with the snappy combat. Looking forward to diving further into the map to see what else is hiding.

Awesome Dev who's active with the community and fixes bugs as they are being announced and a great little metroidvania I highly recommend this