Valfaris Review (NSW)

Written by Patrick Orquia

Title: Valfaris
Developer: Steel Mantis
Publisher: Merge Games
Genre: platformer, action adventure, hack 'n slash
Number of Players: 1
Release Date: 10 October 2019
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Price: $24.99
Also Available On: PS4, Steam, XB1

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Developer Steel Mantis has yet again delivered an unholy marriage of retro-styled video game and heavy metal with their latest offering, Valfaris. A follow-up (but not a sequel) to Slain, this game features a warrior hero slashing and gunning enemies with much ferocity and fury, backed with a pounding heavy metal soundtrack. Whereas Slain is set in a gothic, Casltevania-esque world, Valfaris is science fiction-themed, with the aforementioned here out to rid his home planet of Valfaris of alien creatures.

The game is presented in a retro-inspired 16-bit graphics, but not too pixelated. The art style is reminiscent of the illustrations used on metal albums from the 80s and 90s. Yes, this game is like sci-fi meets hair metal, and it's awesome. Everything is animated rather rigidly to somehow look like a game from the 80s, but the game runs at a sold 60FPS. That kinda doesn't make sense, but you have to see and play the game to get what I mean. And of course, the music is also metal AF. Like in Slain, most of the soundtrack comprise of heavy metal tunes, with all of their double pedal and fast guitar-riffing glory. This makes killing enemies more exciting and tense.

In this game, you play as Therion, long-haired warrior aboard a spaceship on his way to his home planet, Valfaris, after it re-appeared in orbit of a dying star. This planet is now invaded by monstrous alien life forms and his arrival is not welcome at all. Right on the get go, the mission is to kill or be killed. Armed with your trusty pistol, sword, and another heavy gun, your aim is to reach the end of a level, where a big boss fight awaits you. Along the way, altar-like structures that act as save points are situated, but you cannot save your progress if you don't have a green resurrection medal, which is one of the collectibles in this game. If you die, and you will die many times, you will spawn back at the last save point where you saved. They could be far in between and this could be very frustrating as you fight the same enemies and tackle the same traps or platforms over and over again, but each time you do, you learn bit by bit.

Memorization of enemy position and attacks and platform movements is the key to beating them. The enemies telegraph their moves quite clearly, so you need to react accordingly when they are about to strike. But of course, that is easier said than done, as oftentimes, you will be battling against multiple enemies at once, and each one of them attack individually, making it hard to focus on just one enemy while evading the others. Therion can defend by putting up a shield, which consumes stamina when the shield is hit. If done right before a projectile is about to hit Therion, you can shoot it back to the enemy. Aside from this, Therion cannot do dodge rolls or dashes, which makes it a real challenge to defend yourself from incoming damage.

Speaking of stamina, aside from it being used for the shield, it is also used for special attacks. The heavy gun unleash such special attack which is much more powerful than other attacks, but again, it consumes stamina, and consumes it fast. To regain stamina, you have to hit enemies using your sword. Shooting enemies with the pistol doesn't gain you stamina, so in order to do more special attacks and defend, you have to hit enemies up close with your sword. This balances out the gameplay, as you cannot just shoot your way to victory. Well, you sort of can, but it takes more time to do it, and in this game, you cannot just stay stationary from a distance while shooting at enemies, because they will promptly shoot at you back or murder you right where you are standing so you will have to move around and put up a shield or you will find yourself dying again and again.

The game is divided into levels and, as mentioned earlier, end up with a boss battle. A mini-boss or two can also be encountered along the way, along with a wide variety of enemies and other challenges. The levels get harder and harder as you progress into the game, as expected, and you and have you to level up in order to survive. You don't earn experience points in the game, but you can acquire new weapons which may or may not be better than your last, especially the guns. You can, however upgrade them to make them hit harder. To upgrade them, you have to use Blood Metal, another collectible found scattered across the planet, usually underneath for a pile of bones. The further you upgrade, the more Blood Metal you need to consume. You can stick the weapons that best suit your play style, because as far as I know, there are no specific scenarios to use specific weapons for.

The game is not very long, as you can finish it in about 10-15 hours. It could have been shorter if not for some length-padding employed in the game, in the guise of ridiculous enemy and trap placements as you get cheap deaths after another. When a game has some portions that are more tedious to play than what it is supposed to have, enjoyment becomes frustration. But for the most part, the game is more enjoyable that frustrating, and you can just turn off the game and try it again at a latter time as the numerous save points in the game are usually placed before tricky challenges and boss fights. Maybe take a breather if you have to than rage quit.

Overall, Valfaris is looks colorful and sounds heavy, and it's fun to play. Most of the time, that is, as some portions of the game are almost insanely hard to get through and would require complete memorization of enemy placements attacks aside from the tricky platforms, traps, and other challenges. They could be very tedious and frustrating, but can be won over if you spend the time to get good. Yeah, I said it, it's that hard at times, but again, for the most part, the game is amazing and really enjoyable to play. So go headbang your way to victory while slaying waves of enemies all trying to kill you. It's kill or be killed, that's the business, and business is GOOD.

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REPLAY VALUE: High

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PROS:

• Retro-inspired art style that is reminiscent of the illustrations on metal albums from the 80s and 90s
• Heavy metal soundtrack that makes killing enemies more exciting
• Wide variety of enemies
• The weapons offer a good variety that suit different kinds of play styles
• Very good use of HD rumble
• Runs at a solid 60FPS
• Runs well in handheld mode

CONS:

• No dodge roll or dash skills to evade enemies with
• Some portions of the game have ridiculous enemy and trap placements that are almost impossible to avoid and require pinpoint accuracy to overcome which could be very frustrating to get through; at one point, there an area is enclosed and then get filled with toxic air that is impossible to avoid and will effectively halve your life bar before you can proceed further
• Some enemies and traps are hard to distinguish against the background, especially on the Switch screen in handheld more
• The controls can be floaty at times

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RATING: 4/5 Raining blood and creeping death

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