Overview: In this action platformer, players take control of Therion who lands on his home planet of Valfaris to gun and slash his way through enemies in hopes of finding and killing his dad. Layered throughout the game is elements of heavy metal.
20240423:
I acquired this game as part of the Killer Bundle 23 on Fanatical. I decided to play it today, and I was surprised by how fun it was. In part, this was in comparison to an average gameplay experience I had with the shoot 'em up Astebreed. In fact, I had mentioned that Astebreed was missing a transparent component of skill or challenge (especially when compared to a shoot 'em up like Ikaruga. Valfaris, in contrast to Astebreed, presents players with difficult but defeatable bosses and areas such that success feels rewarding, and failure doesn't result in simply giving up.
Setup: Steam Deck.
Steam Game Time: 62 minutes
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ reasonable checkpoint / save system; gives the game a reasonable amount of challenge
+ thematically awesome (heavy metal theme, but not in-your-face)
+ decent variety of platforming mechanics; some involving the planet inhabitants
Neutral:
~ multiple weapons to collect and upgrade throughout the game, but while often weapons have an obvious utility in some games when they're first acquired, in Valfaris, it simply seems to be a preference
~ the game offers two CRT modes, which I was tempted to turn on, but ultimately I opted to play the game on the default setting.
Cons:
- the developers chose to have certain enemies respawn which results in pressuring the player to keep moving; while understandably this is an action game, I would sometimes still like to stand and enjoy the view after defeating the enemies in an area
Rating: 4.6/5
Summary:
None at this time
Valfaris (PC) (2019)
Relevant Links:
Valfaris (Wikipedia.org)
Valfaris (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Valfaris (steamdb.info)
Valfaris (Steam Store Page)
20240423:
I acquired this game as part of the Killer Bundle 23 on Fanatical. I decided to play it today, and I was surprised by how fun it was. In part, this was in comparison to an average gameplay experience I had with the shoot 'em up Astebreed. In fact, I had mentioned that Astebreed was missing a transparent component of skill or challenge (especially when compared to a shoot 'em up like Ikaruga. Valfaris, in contrast to Astebreed, presents players with difficult but defeatable bosses and areas such that success feels rewarding, and failure doesn't result in simply giving up.
Setup: Steam Deck.
Steam Game Time: 62 minutes
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ reasonable checkpoint / save system; gives the game a reasonable amount of challenge
+ thematically awesome (heavy metal theme, but not in-your-face)
+ decent variety of platforming mechanics; some involving the planet inhabitants
Neutral:
~ multiple weapons to collect and upgrade throughout the game, but while often weapons have an obvious utility in some games when they're first acquired, in Valfaris, it simply seems to be a preference
~ the game offers two CRT modes, which I was tempted to turn on, but ultimately I opted to play the game on the default setting.
Cons:
- the developers chose to have certain enemies respawn which results in pressuring the player to keep moving; while understandably this is an action game, I would sometimes still like to stand and enjoy the view after defeating the enemies in an area
Rating: 4.6/5
Summary:
None at this time
Valfaris (PC) (2019)
Relevant Links:
Valfaris (Wikipedia.org)
Valfaris (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Valfaris (steamdb.info)
Valfaris (Steam Store Page)
Date/Time
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
@
21:00
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