Red Goddess: Inner World Reviews

Do not buy this game. Having now played both the Playstation 4 and Steam versions of this game, I can confirm that it is impossible to play thirty minutes of this game on either platform without encountering multiple game crashing bugs. During my time with the Playstation 4 version I was able to soft lock the game two different ways before reaching the fourth area. The first was when I picked up the collectible Gem right after leaving the room where you got your first memory before the babysitter began her dialogue, the gate read it as a sequence break and caused my character to freeze in place. I could pause the game, but that was it. After that I reloaded the game and found various progression essential NPC’s began disappearing from the world before I could interact with them. There were also numerous other smaller graphical and collision glitches, as well as a several spelling and grammatical errors, that showed the complete lack of polish and quality control found all throughout this game. The Steam version is, if anything, worse. The frame rate stuttered its way to an average 15-20 frames a second on the opening cut scene, and the game would freeze and stutter dangerously ever time it tried to load assets for the next area. While I was able to get further in the game then I did on the PS4, this time instead of soft locking the game just crashed to my desktop while I was riding an elevator in the Crystal Caves shortly after getting the Rage mask about 25 minutes in this time. Again, there were numerous smaller glitches and problems found all throughout the game. I wanted to like this game, I really did. But it is far to flawed to recommend, and the fact that the creators wish to call this a “finished” version makes me unsure if I want to laugh or cry. This game should not be released in this unpolished and unplayable condition. Several changes and fixes have been implemented from the Playstation 4 version, but if you must play this game I would recommend waiting until October when the Xbox One version of the game is due to be released. Perhaps third time will be the charm, though giving this game’s current track record, I doubt it.

I have to say, this is a neat little game. Animation is superb, music is atmospheric, and the controls are tight. Unfortunatly, it has crashed for me at the 44 minute mark both times I've run it. I'm going to reccomend it based on the notion that I think it has a lot to offer, and I don't expect much from a game under 10 bucks, but I'm also going to keep my fingers crossed that my crashing has been some sort of freak coincidence, and that I won't have to spend my future sessions with a timer running in the background.

I had been waiting a long time for the release of this and was hoping it would be a great game but when it did finally get my hands on it my hopes were shattered. The games looks nice and colourfull and for the first 10 minuts or so things seemed to play nice and smooth but then it happened the game started to stutter and big frame rate drops soon began to show. On certain parts when going up to a higher point instead of it being nice and smooth the whole screen seems to flip to the next screen this also happens on when you try to drop down also. The other thing is I found myself getting bored with the going backwards and forwards meeting the same old but few but far between bad guys who don't really do anything other than move towards you. Boss fights are another drawn out borefest and seem to take an age and by the time you have finished them off you start to think what was the point and when you get to the next one it is more of the same thing. There is also a problem with collision detection I found myself falling through many a ledge when I should of been able to land perfect. The game just feels unfinished and needs a lot of work doing to make this run nice and smooth but even then there just isn't enough to keep you interested in finishing the game. For me I can't see myself going back to try and complete this unless something really changes.

Beautiful game. But it is all style with no substance, I think that's the saying at least. The combat is shit. You punch. That's it. I guess you can uppercut if you want but it doesn't really change much so... The platforming is fine but no where near as crisp as a metroidvainia platformer usually is. It's just so slow and, quiet honestly, boring. The controls are bad on controller apparently. I can activate rage mode with the keyboard but not on the controller, even though the controller can cancel the rage mode (which i assume is the same way to equip it, but I wouldn't know since it doesn't tell me and the controls for controllers are not listed in the control settings). That's where I just stopped playing. Not worth all that shit after it being so slow. Lastly, the fucking narrator. Holy shit the narrator. His voice isn't bed but he feels like he was just reading off a piece of paper and they didn't tell him what emotion to have in his voice so he went with nothingness. Sure. You can't skip the voice stuff and you can't really advance without it compelting so every few feet you just kind of have to wait for him to shut up. NO SHIT I HAVE TO PUSH THE BIG RED BUTTON MAN. WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO?? Just. So unnecessary and it annoys you unlike in a game like Bastion where the dude kind of makes you giggle every now and then or explains something that isn't 100% overly obvious. All in all, I feel like this game got rushed and they wanted it to be for like little kids or something. I wouldn't recommend this even if it was on sale.

NOTE: As with all my reviews im not saying dont buy the game, im just giving my opinion of the game in its current state and how i feel about it after playing it as it is now. Cant recommend this game due to constant crashing. Also and this is not a reason not to buy the game but it is rediculously hard in some spots there are lots of things in the game that can one shot kill you at which the narrator constantly drones on when you die the same three or four phrasese over and over then a loading screen.Then you may have to play through a large area again with no checkpoint. After about the 900th time dieing this becomes a little maddening. There is at least three different areas that the game crashes constantly ive came across so far that need to be patched. Which is why i cant recommend the game at present. If this gets fixed even though its insanely hard id still recommend it because im sure some people enjoy that sort of challenge. Apparently as ive gotten older i am NOT one of them lol. The game itself is not that bad and the artstyle looks really great the game is actually fun but theres some frustrating portions in it. One is where if you die in this area where the ceiling is falling down on you, you have to watch a cutscene over each time until you get through the area. Theres also quite a few other areas that its like the game is not that hard but it becomes hard when youre having to play through a whole area again because theres not a checkpoint there. The story is pretty interesting, the controls are decent, still not exactly "spot on" but theyre tight enough that you can do most of the jumps with no problems. The main thing im talking about is when you go to jump in the air and trying to guide yourself back down to get coins etc it feels a little wonky. Hard to explain like theyre almost too tight if that makes sense. I feel like there should be a little bit more of a dead zone when in the air. I was playing this with a controller btw. Also theres skins in the game you pick up i had no idea how to even apply or what they were for, i found no information on this.

I can't recommend this to anyone unfortunately, i was excited about it, but it just feels a bit too bland. It doesn't do anything terribly wrong, but there's not enough that it does to make itself worthy of a recommendation. The story: Its a bit convoluted as its all apparently taking place inside of your soul or your inner being, the world is actually you? Something metaphysical and quite honestly maybe some people will appreciate the uniqueness of it, it comes across to me as bland and uninteresting. I don't usually mind stories that are a bit out there, I loved transistor, but that story worked well because of all the great personalities within it, this game doesnt have that. Its a lot of restore your memories and remember the past events, and the enemies are manifestations of your anger and fear but they're also golems which are being sent by the king to kill you so... which is it game? I always thought trying to be a bit out there doesn't work for this style of mainly combat and platformer focused gameplay. But again, this is more personal, some people may enjoy where i just kinda feel eh about it. Visuals: The background art is pretty good, but the actual character models, enemies, and townfolk are all pretty bland or lifeless as far as animation ect is concerned. It looks pretty good in screen shots, but as for certain story sequences, the lack of appealing visually interesting story characters makes it seem very generic. Although this is party due to the writing helping it feel so very cliche, villagers say "i am very busy i don't have time to talk to you" but literally stand there lifeless without any animation at all. I have to give them credit though, for a team of 6 people that made this, it is an amazing amount of work, but its just such a shame that it feels incomplete, like they just didn't have the time to finish giving the game that final polish it needs to come to life. Music and sound: Music is decent, nothing amazing so far but not terrible, suits the backgrounds pretty well but nothing memorable so far. Unfortunately, the narrator doesn't exactly make the story interesting. The narrator is ok, a bit monotone mostly, and everyonce in a while seems to be evil and against you, its very odd. But since its basically the only voice in the game there's not much too it, I suppose I'm not overly enthused about him tho partly due to my disinterest in the storyline. Gameplay: While it does have the metroidvania's nonlinear worlds, everything is very linear as far as exploration. Area's are locked off until you collect x amount of crystals, they're not hard to find, and really doesn't leave any optional exploration beyond this. There hasn't been any side power ups to find on the side (minus skins which are hidden), no destructible walls, and while there are upgrades, so far they are mostly unlocking basic mechanics for the game. There are a few interesting movement mechanics like levitation that come in much later, but a case of too little too late. The game moves smoothly and controls are responsive and feel good for platforming. However the action is very basic. There are red and blue enemies, so once you have the red and blue forms unlocked, you simply turn the color of the enemy and punch them to kill. You have a regular punch, an uppercut, and a special punch which uses mana. There is a roll to dodge while in your rage or fear forms, and in your regular form you get a few extra platforming abilities. Again, its not bad and it works at a basic level, but it fails to be interesting enough to really get excited over. In your regular form you get a special to posess enemies, but it doesn't really amount to anything interesting since the only thing you can make them do is self destruct. I thought the concept would have been cool to possess enemies and use specific mobs to solve puzzles but it never gets that complex Final thoughts: For a game made by an small indie studio I can recognize the huge amount of work that went into this, but I think a stronger focus on unique interesting mechanics would have made the game better overall. If you're really urging for a metroidvania this one might rub the itch, but definately will leave you wanting something with a bit more to it. 6/10

Hmmm... I really want to like this game. But I can't recommend it to you. The game is very buggy. It's crashed twice in the >1H I've played it. The story of all things is a little distracting? So, there is a character that pops up frequently and you have to stop everything and aknowledge them while they're talking. This wouldn't be so bad, except they pop up frequently and without really conributing anything meaningful to your understanding of what is going on. On top of that, there is also a narrator at times as well, but the game doesn't seem to have paced out the narrator's dialogue enough so that he doesn't cut himself off when you reach the next point of narration? Also the platforming is kind of basic and the enemies are very bland looking. I dunno. Maybe this is nitpicky stuff. But I guess Im not a fan of the pacing of the early game and that's probably going to keep me from continuing. This game isn't bad per say, it just has some issues is all.

The game opens with an extremely long unskippable cutscene, followed by literally 2 seconds of gameplay, followed by an ungodly long elevator sequence where you are not in control of the character. Then control is yet again taken from you every time the game decides it is time for me to talk to a character. Game devs, don't do this.

Another game I really *wanted* to like. The art is very nice, the controls were mostly good, the levels were alright... but the gameplay simply wasn't there. The exploration is minimal for a metroidvania, the game is very linear. The fighting is simply boring, and sometimes completely bugged. For example 9 out of 10 hits I landed on golems didn't register, I found myself passing through certain objects, a boss kept summoning enemies on a loop at one time. The game is also somewhat heavy on surprise deaths. Many times beams trigger alaarm, then once it's actually 1hit kill spikes, and another it's literally lethal by itself. Or spikes suddenly popping through walls. Or laval at the bottom of a pit. Then it's loading... and try again. Not really fun at any point, just feels like the devs wanted to "outsmart" the players in a "Haha, got you didn't I?" sort of way. All in all I didn't enjoy most of the game simply because it was linear and boring, but at the same time it felt so close to being something actually good. But because the gameplay itself is generally dull and boring, I can't recommend this title.

Review from a crappy gamer: Pros: +Neat narration +Smooth graphics +Intense intro sequence +Pretty colors +Simple story. Cons: -Combat Bugs (3-4) -Sudden Difficulty spike near end -Sudden end to story -Not much character development -No reason to replay Overall: *2-4 hours of platforming with a few powers *Steam sale for a couple bucks might be worth it *Can't recommend full price