Hey everyone, I'm Josh, the producer behind Bolt of Whalington, a Metroidvania where you play as Bolt, a Siamese cat mechanic exploring the mysterious world of Whalington. We're proud to announce that after 3 years of handcrafting our dream metroidvania, we will finally release our demo on November 5, 3am UTC (November 4, 7pm PT).

You may have heard "Curiosity killed the cat", but in this game, curiosity is what keeps driving Bolt throughout the mysterious moving castle of Whalington. I personally love games that give players freedom in how they solve puzzles and challenges, and this philosophy is at the heart of Bolt of Whalington. Rather than designing every challenge around one specific solution, we want to encourage experimentation and see what players can achieve. Even the core gameplay mechanic encourages that, with Bolt and his mech both being playable "characters". Both offer different playstyles, abilities and weapons, giving players more options to solve challenges.

Each area also has its own unique mechanics and challenges. You can shrink Bolt to half his size and explore the rat's nest, or make your way through the poisonous Kitchen and face the insane Head Chef. There are also some pretty unusual weapons, like the Shadowless Gauntlets, which punch at supersonic speeds, and a water machine gun with a silly rubber ducky attached. We've had fun coming up with some of these ideas, and hopefully players will have just as much fun experimenting with them.

Our playable demo launch includes:

• 4 areas to explore: one fully unlocked, one half explorable, and a sneak peek at two more areas, each with unique mechanics and secrets.
• 4 boss fights, with their own personalities and fighting styles, including 1 optional boss.
• Around 60–150 minutes of gameplay, depending on how thoroughly you explore.
• An extra challenge stage if you'd like to to test your skills further.

The team and I are all big Metroidvania fans, and we're excited to say we've made the kind of game we'd love to play ourselves. If you have any feedback, we'd really appreciate it.

The demo will be up on November 5 at 3am UTC (November 4 at 7pm PT). If you're interested, please wishlist and Steam should hopefully notify you when the demo is available. Thank you for all your support!

Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3535270/Bolt_of_Whalington/

I certainly hope so, because while I do really like the game I feel like it's kinda lacking in replay value at the moment, especially since you can get all the Endings in a single playthrough. I guess the only reason to go back is to fight some of the bosses in a different order, but that's about it.

For me this is one of my favorite games I've played yet. It's got an awesome setting, somber story, great platforming challenge and awesome exploration. This game did everything for me personally

If you're looking for a short Metroidvania with fun combat and a straightforward story, Divinum is for you. It took me about 5 hours to beat the game, and I only explored around 70% of the world.

Hi, I am interested in developing a metroidvania game with zero enemies and zero combat. The focus is on exploration based on deciphering a constructed language of glyphs.

The player sees glyphs on the background and learns the meaning.

The inscriptions offer clues on how to unlock doors and solve puzzles.

I am thinking of a compounding logographic script with about maybe 50 radicals or primes and about 200 words in total.

An example of the puzzle is "Offer Red Flower to Right Hand and offer Cyan Flower to Left hand to open the gates"

We will have another area which has a picture of a red flower and two glyphs underneath. Player can guess the meaning from that. Once done, player can explore to collect the two types of flowers and offer the correct one to the correct hand of the statue.

A door will have two symbols next to it that toggle. When the door is open it will show two glyphs: "Door" and "open" and one of the glyphs will toggle to "close" once the door is closed etc.

In this way, the player understands the environment better and is able to open up more of the map and explore.

I see this game as something like a mix between Animal Well, La Mulana, and Chants of Sennaar.

Is this a game that would appeal to metroidvania fans?

Looks interesting. Hard to tell if it's full on 3D Metroidvania based on just one trailer but definitely a lot of similar mechanics. Got the combat, exploration restricted by discovery of abilities, got a charm customization system like HK and others. Could be cool, will have to try the demo later

Worked to make this no spoilers I think.

I hadn't seem any reviews of this and I had been looking forward to this one for a while, given the Celeste influence in both graphics and theoretically gameplay. Given it might take me a little while to finish, I thought I'd give a somewhat early review. The steam achievements clearly tell you how many bosses there are, and I have beaten half of these.

Overall this has been pretty frustrating experience and I thought about dropping it a couple of times. On the positive, the graphics are beautiful, and when you get to platforming or actual exploration sections it's pretty good!

On the downside:

• The MV elements are pretty minimal, at least early on (there are secret walls, etc. but it's a pretty linear experience for the most part, unless I'm missing something). There are some "keys" but no movement upgrades for quite a while
• The dialogue is maybe the worst in terms of low quality and insane length I've ever experienced. In a few parts you have to button mash to get through in 3-4 min, otherwise it's 10-15 minutes of talking (this is not an exaggeration - you can measure it on a youtube walkthrough clip)
• MY WORST CATEGORY: There are multiple trigger points where to move the plot (e.g., get an item that allows you to progress) have to go back and talk to people early on but have been given no realy clue this needs to happen. So at one point I spent an hour just revisiting the same 5 spots trying to figure out the way forward. This part was maybe the most frustrating and poorly designed aspect of the game
• IMO the bosses (and even all creatrues) are way too sponge-y. I'd rather them just kill you faster but with less health
• I'm on a Steam deck and not an expert on how to adjust stuff but on one boss a certain late phase move would cause the whole screen to basically freeze up - I didn't know how to fix and basically just had to get to that section with extra health knowing I was going to get hit every time
• The map and QOL features are just really bad and clunky. I could go on about this for a while. I also think when you die on spikes or whatever, the location where it respawns your character sometimes doesn't make sense at all.

So yeah, just a really disappointing experience on many different metrics, with some nice highs when I'm actually given a chance to explore or work through some tough platforming. I'm going to keep going, in part as I got a movement upgrade that helps, though I've heard anecdotally that some of the future sections are even more frustrating. We shall see!

Feeling a bit emotionally frayed from an unrelated non-MV game at the moment. Won't be playing anything too complex for a while. And while I could stick to VNs for a bit, figured I'd ask if people here have any recs for some less complex palate-cleansers.

The two games I came up with to replay on my own was Shantae 7 sires & Alwa's Legacy. Any other ideas?

Hey everyone! The Hayaku! Island of Darkness playtest is live.

Hayaku! is a fast-paced metroidvania with retro pixel art, a limited color palette and an 8-bit-inspired look.

We want it to be a modern retro game. We love the hard platforming of that era, its secrets, and having to figure things out yourself, and we're keeping all of that. We're also adding smoother controls, fast travel and other quality-of-life changes where the game needs them.

Most of our work went into movement and combat. You jump a lot, bounce off enemies and fight on the move, so we spent a long time tuning how that plays.

The playtest has the whole first area, a lab with about an hour of content. It's open until November 5.

If it sounds like your thing, go to our Steam page and click "Request Access". We let new players in every day!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2402500/Hayaku_Island_of_Darkness/

We'd love to hear what you think. Thanks for checking it out!

I just wrapped up Castlevania: Belmont's Curse and had a blast with it. What do you think I should pick up next?

Hey guys!

We're a small indie team working on Ghost Yantra, a stylish Hack-n-Slash action game set in an Indian Cyberpunk world, featuring fast-paced combat and fluid parkour mechanics.

Every animation in Ghost Yantra is hand-animated, and we're working hard to bring this world and its action to life. For Ghost Yantra, we're inspired from Nine Sols, Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry & Prince of Persia, Akira, Ghost in the Shell.

I would like to share the latest trailer we made for Ghost Yantra. Please note that many things in the game are still work-in-progress or just placeholders.

Wishlist Ghost Yantra on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2872630/Ghost_Yantra/

Thank you for taking time to check out Ghost Yantra.

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Aeterna Noctis. It tries so many things and while most are great some are just terrible (Dream Kingdom). A few months ago I got to the Cosmos and walked away from the game because everyone said the "new" controls would click in a few hours. I went to go play other games until I felt like struggling for a few hours before I got back to fun.

I just finished Belmont's Curse and I don't want to start a new game before OoT so I figured I'd bang my head against AN. Anyway, after about an hour of slowly working my way around the controls clicked and I could move smoothly again. It's actually quite freaky. I can't think of another game that pulls something like that off.

Here's my personal review of the game Castlevania: Belmont's Curse

The Good

•    A little more difficulty in this genre is a good thing.

•    More platforming, and mistakes aren’t punished with as much damage as in other games.

•    The use of 3D cell shading gives the graphics a unique look.

•    The default parry deals a little damage to enemies, whereas in other games it’s a separate skill.

•    The whip animation is really good.

•    Dying in the game simply teleports you back to your last save point with all your stats intact; in other games, you lose resources and have to go back to the previous checkpoint to recover them.

The Downsides

•    Rose, enemies, and the background blend together visually, making it difficult to distinguish them in many situations, I had to use the alternate outfits to make Rose stand out more

•    The panoramic view in many levels makes it even harder to spot enemies and fight them, compounding the previous issue.

•             The soundtrack is completely forgettable; I even went so far as to mute the music and play videos in the background.

•    Too many instant-death traps in the platforming sections. While I mentioned earlier that it’s good that mistakes aren’t punished, it’s also true that constant restarts will frustrate many players.

•    Too many gauntlet stages—I find this normal for later stages in the game, but not right from the start.

•    The in-game graphics are sometimes very good and detailed, and other times too simplistic.

•    The terrible warp system—having to go through two loading screens just to get to another save room—is annoying, and on top of that, players don’t get full access to this feature until well into the game.

•    Retconning of the story and characters.

•    No New Game Plus?

I finished the game in 19 hours—it could have been less, but having a job takes up time xd. I have to say that I mostly enjoyed the game; as a Metroidvania, it delivers on all the necessary aspects, and I think that’s my biggest issue with the title: it’s a modern Metroidvania, not a Castlevania—neither the IGA ones nor the classics—as many seem to suggest. I’m a real purist when it comes to changes in established franchises, but I try to be as objective as possible when reviewing divisive titles like this.

 I usually rate each entry in a series based on what it offers individually and separately as part of the series to which it belongs. In this case, as a standalone game, I give it an 8/10 due to all the negative aspects I listed earlier; perhaps a future update will fix some of them—especially the absence of a New Game Plus, which is an expected feature of an IGAvania.

But as a Castlevania game—and given the retcons, inconsistencies, and a story that, to me, has no relevance to the series—I give it a 6/10.

Many have said that the series needed to evolve, and there’s a tendency to believe that this is synonymous with improvement, but to me, what was done in this game is more of an adaptation to what a modern Metroidvania should be—and in my opinion, that does it more harm than good, and I say this because if the series now takes this approach, it puts it on par with so many current and contemporary games, and in the end, this title feels like just another one in that sea of games.

Finally, I must say that all of this is my personal opinion, and I don’t mean to attack anyone who likes the game, but I also don’t think it’s fair to downplay the game’s strengths just because it doesn’t meet the expectations of a Castlevania.

> Steam page link <

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the support these past few weeks. This will be my last post here for a while, so I don’t spam the sub. Here’s the key info:

• Price: $8.99, with a 10% launch discount (so a bit less at launch)
• Length: about 4–6 hours, more if you chase secrets, harder challenges, and the multiple endings
• Options: HDR, VSync, full rebinding, screen shake toggle, bloom reduction, widescreen, subtitle size and color, and more.
• Languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. Ardeshir is voiced in English only.
• Story: You don’t need to have played the first game to enjoy this one.
• Platforms: Switch 1 and 2 will come in 2027, with more platforms (and physical editions) if the game does well.
• Release date: Tuesday, November 10, at 7 PM CET

Our approach

We made a game you can finish over a few evenings, one that puts our own spin on the classic MV mechanics we love without overstaying its welcome. Gato Roboto was a big inspiration for that. Expect a flexible, dynamic character, an atmospheric world full of secrets, and fire as a central mechanic connecting combat, exploration, and story.

In the end, you’ll be the judge of whether we hit or missed the mark, but we hope you’ll feel it was made with care.

See you at launch! (Feel free to ask any questions.)

Ever since I played La-Mulana 1 & 2, I've been itching for more games that have the same level of challenging, open-ended puzzles. I've gone looking, but every time, I find people only suggest things like Environmental Station Alpha and Animal Well. These are good games, and I've played them, but they're not at all the same experience. La-Mulana is a series that never holds your hand, and expects you to be able to solve everything yourself. ESA and Animal Well are both designed for you to get outside help, and only figure it out with the internet. One puzzle in Animal Well actually requires you to get 50 copies of the game together. Not exactly a solo experience. For anyone playing now, that means never getting the satisfaction of solving a puzzle yourself, because it was never meant to be solved alone. I don't want something mindbendingly crazy that makes me do things outside the game and use the internet, I just want a hard game.

I've also checked out r/metroidbrainia, and found some good games there. But it's a very specific subset of what I'm looking for. I don't need almost entirely knowledge-based gating, just a difficult set of puzzles.

What do you recommend that's hard, but still made to be solved alone?

I really love the new Castlevania game by the fine folks at Evil Empire, but not shipping the game with a boss rush I think was a serious misstep.

One of the most fun things in metroidvania games is to go back to old areas where the enemies used to bully you and declare yourself the God of Death, armed with a max-upgraded character and the Flaming Sword of Pettiness, and a boss rush mode is basically that times a hundred because you can flex on all the early bosses that gave you trouble.

And some of the early bosses in BC can really be a pisser, which would only make going back to them all the more satisfying. It's also a good way to test out different spells, weapons and charms to see which of them most effectively turn you into a living plague that only affects people with their own theme songs.

I can only guess that development time ran a bit late and they had to focus on polishing the core experience first, which is fair enough, but no excuse not to add this as an update later on.

Very enjoyable Metroid like exploring search action game. I very much so enjoyed the ambiance, vibe, level design, traversal, movement. I ended up using some assist options in the last two hours or so of the game because I got tired of the last few boss fights and such but I don't regret it. Really cool that it includes a randomizer mode.

Would recommend

As much as I like the game the only real complaint I have is the music. Don't get me wrong I liked a few tunes but didn't give a Castlevania atmosphere tone. Just my opinion.

So I made my own soundtrack from other Castlevania games. ( for fun )
You may agree you may not 🤷‍♂️

( work in progress )

10 years old now with no fanfare. amazing artwork and great mechanics using your head as a seperate traversal mechanic w body swap playing a big part. 10/10 and still in my top 3 MVs. Any other fans on here?

Taking a closer look at the opening of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, I examine its storytelling, Metroidvania design, and the legacy of the Prince of Persia series, while reflecting on the game's themes and the ideas they convey.