Koboo: The Tree Spirit Steam Charts & Stats

This game is essentially a mini Dead Cells, in multiple senses of the word. To start, you are literally...well, mini. You're a forest spirit, and many of the enemies you fight are humans, golems, or machines, making most enemies double or triple your size. This is easily compensated for, however, by your character's versatile vertical movement. You can jump high, and you can jump three times before having to touch the ground. A glider you can find later in the game can increase your airtime further, and certain weapon upgrades recharge a jump charge when you hit an enemy, letting you stay in the air even larger and making for a very fun game of the floor is lava. Second, the game is short. Some people may dislike short games, but personally, I see that as a good thing. Sometimes it's nice to not have to dedicate hours at a time to one game. A full run can be completed in just about 12 minutes, if your weapons are good and you're good at dodging the bosses' attacks. The game has a total of eight biomes, each with their own unique boss and enemies, but you'll only be visiting three biomes total in any given run, branching paths determining what enemies and bosses you face, with their being two tier one, three tier two, and three tier three bosses to face. Similarly to Dead Cells, you can purchase new weapons, abilities, and upgrades from a sort of shop, though instead of cells, you use favor, and instead of being dropped by enemies you kill, favor is gained by doing acts of nature conservation, such as removing trash from the rivers, planting a beautiful garden, and....killing giant death machines. There are a couple systems in place that I personally enjoy more in this game than the way they're done in other games. First, rather than critical damage being a % chance, enemies have weak spots that can be attacked for critical damage, and the weak spot moves when hit, somewhere either higher or lower than it previously was, further incentivizing vertical movement. Second, the game is a little more forgiving than other roguelikes when it comes to health and taking damage. You can have three health points, but your health is fully restored at the beginning of each room, rather than having to rely on healing that is usually few and far between. Additionally, on taking your third and final hit, you enter what is essentially "fight for your life" mode, in which you have a limited amount of time to get a kill, and if you successfully defeat an enemy within this window, your last health point is restored. Finally, rather than relying on RNG to hope that a weapon you like drops, or being forced to stick with your level 1 starter because none of the high level weapons are something you want to use, you'll periodically get to upgrade your equipped weapons, choosing from a selection of three possible upgrades, each with three tiers. New on-level weapons will drop as well if you want to change things up, but the ability to keep and upgrade weapons rather than being forced to change up styles mid-run is a welcome change. The same goes for abilites, upgrades coming periodically as you progress, though no new abilities will drop, the 2 you take will be set in stone. Overall, good game, good weapons, good combat, good upgrade systems. Worth the money, and worth a try if you like roguelikes and action platformers.