Description
Ahhh... I needed a little break after being waste-deep in Japan-only imports.
So, we finally get a new game from the "folks" (led and primarily developed by one guy, Daniel Fernandez Chavez) at Diabolical Mind Games and it's... not quite what I was expecting, but it's a fun game nonetheless. "LarsGadiel" is the latest release from DMG (who often collabs with COWCAT Games on console ports of their games, they are best known for "Riddled Corpses" "Xenon Valkyrie" and "Demon's Tier") that serves as a prequel to 2017's "Xenon Valkyrie". I enjoyed their previous games for their "modern retro" vibes and LarsGadiel has been a long time coming since their last major release in 2020. LG was originally in development for the NES but eventually shifted to PC (Steam) with quality of life improvements. Whereas XV was more of a Rogue-Lite Action Platformer, LG veers more in the "Metroidvania" direction with teleporters, a sprawling map, a town hub and myriad secrets blocked off by switches, varying weapons bosses, and more.
The story takes place on Lemure, an isolated moon in the solar system where a gang of space pirates have found and stolen an ancient weapon that could threaten the entire solar system. Renna, a moon agent, is eavesdropping on the enemy's plan and sends an SOS to the her agency where soldiers get in contact with a reluctant valkyrie, Eloen, to save Renna and the people who inhabit the moon. She is transported to the closest coordinates of Renna's transmission, the outskirts of Gadiel Castle, and their reasoning is that Eloen is the only one alive who knows the terrain well enough to stand a chance... there are a few minor issues with the game right from the outset. Eloen not only does NOT know the terrain very well (the map is blank and you have to fill it in), but she's asked to save the moon and isn't even given a starting weapon... who does that!? I'm glad we get to revisit characters from XV and expand on the lore a bit, but the plot has never been a particular highlight of the games.
Anyway, I digress as it wouldn't be much fun to start with a full map and you can find a weapon within the first 5 minutes of gameplay. The game tasks you with exploring Lemure where traps are plentiful and instant-death pits are constant. Eloen can utilize different weapons with pros and cons that grow in proficiency as you use them and level them up, but the most important weapon in your arsenal is a gun that can destroy certain obstacles (it has ammunition which can be refilled at teleporters along with health and healing items, but all enemies will also respawn). There are signposts and cryptic hints scattered throughout and items that will increase your overall health pool (usually guarded by significant traps or bosses) and relics that upgrade your abilities as well, such as granting a double jump and statue to remove your death counter (mainly tied to achievements).
As I bought the game at launch and upgraded to 1.0.2 during recording, some of the glaring issues have been alleviated such as improved play control (centered around iffy collision, improved double jump characteristics and climbing ladders which led to unintentional damage and/or deaths), improved qualities of items such as the Thermal Suit protecting from Acid/Lava and an item to destroy spikes (how the game functioned without these prior is kinda funny, but doable), increased weapon damage and other QoL improvements. While the game has a "Map Completion" statistic, it follows in the footsteps of games like "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" and exceeds 100% to truly finish everything in the game. Visually, the game is designed, through and through, to be an 8-bit NES/FC game with some anime influences. While there are some who state the game is not possible in its current state to run on an NES, the Steam version added minor flourishes after the fact when development shifted. The game looks fine in this regard and the chiptune soundtrack (using the original NES 8-bit sound chip), while not evocative of the era's best, still gets the job done.
I'm not really sure why the game had such scathing criticism at launch, especially centered around its difficulty (I'm not sure how many of those people played games from the 80s and 90s, but LG is pretty tame by comparison... some Japanese players even considered it a kusoge), but what I can say is that the game is relatively short if you're of a moderate skill level, about 3-4hrs. At $10, there's better offerings for the money on Steam, but it's not a bad way to kill a few hours... there will most likely be a "+" version in the coming years. This is a video of the game in action. You can get it at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4341810/LarsGadiel/
Enjoy.
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