izigame.me

I'm probably not the first one to tell you this but Afterimage is quite literally the single biggest metroidvania in existence and it's not even close. The map is utterly gigantic and feels like it never ends. You could consider this a bad thing but if you're a metroidvania addict like me then you will be hooked on this game from start to finish despite some of its flaws. You see, a big map is only worth so much if the gameplay isn't fun. Here afterimage knocks it out of the park with silky smooth controls and addictive combat. The game is also an absolute treat on the eyes and ears. About the only negatives i can mention are some inbalance in regards to difficulty, the story which is nigh impossible to keep track off as well as the occasional fps drops. Other than that the game is pretty much flawless and therefore a MUST play for any metroidvania fan. If you're not as big of a fan of the genre though this game can be very overwhelming due to the enormous map and lack of guidance.
So about the map, as said it's absolutely gigantic but is it a good metroidvania map? I'm very happy to say that it absolutely is! There's TONS of side routes, one way doors, secrets, challenges and collectibles. If you love the exploration part of a metroidvania afterimage has you covered. While it starts moderately linear for the opening act, which is already several hours long and bigger than many metroidvania's, it really opens up around midgame. You have options a plenty where to go next, and while some areas may be too high level for you and thus woop your ass, you still have a few choices at any time! The zones are plentiful and varied and almost all of them are connected to at least two other zones. The whole map is brilliantly interconnected on a macro scale but even within a zone the level design is full of winding and twisting paths that loop back on themselves. I really cannot stress how good the level design is.
Exploring all of it is, as usual with metroidvania's, not possible from the getgo. You'll need some movement upgrades that are scattered around the map. There's no real guidance towards these so you can easily miss them and explore new zones without it. Most zones don't make too much use of them as they are more for collectibles that are out of reach. Although there's ofcourse zones that are ability gated. Keeping track of what you need where is fully up to you as the game only marks NPC's and save points. You get the option of placing down up to 500 (!) markers on the map to keep collectibles that you couldn't reach yet tracked. I actually don't mind this system, as long as you're consistent and keep up with marking everything you won't get lost. A good memory will ofcourse also serve you well to remember exactly what you marked down but MV veterans are quite good at this generally.
Other than the lack of guidance this game is pretty casual for the most part. The platforming isn't hard but still really fun. The controls are tight and responsive and the whole game feels snappy. This is also true for combat as you can animation cancel pretty much every attack so you'll never be locked into an animation. There's 6 different weapon classes each with their own skilltree which unlocks new attacks that you can seamlessly weave together. You can equip two different weapons at once to further open up your arsenal of combo's. This makes combat diverse, engaging and addicting which is needed though because there's lots of things to kill or avoid spread acros the map. You won't go two screens without something to fight which is also a big plus as it makes the big map feel lived in.
Regular enemies are a blast to fight, with a mindblowing variety & amount of critters to fight. All of these have well telegraphed attacks and are both fair and fun to fight. The bosses in my opinion however not so much. They are fun and there's dozens of them but their attacks have very short windups so you will often get hit. The bosses are very understatted though and many of the earlier ones you can brute force. Later ones on the other hand get VERY hard and i had to lower my difficulty for the final ones. It's a shame that i couldn't finish the whole game on advanced difficulty because of this. Had the windups been a bit more clear and telegraphed the bosses could've been statted more fairly and been more fun as a result. Their designs and mechanics are super cool though, no two bosses feel alike and they are a visual spectacle.
In fact the whole game is a visual spectacle, the visuals in this one are probably the closest you can get to the perfection that is Ori. It's not quite that perfect but it still blows everything else out of the water. The colours are vibrant, the areas are diverse and the setpieces memorable. In fact this game is so pretty that i took over 1000 screenshots... Woops! Anyways the aesthetic of this game is simple wonderful, there's not a single area that i didn't like and many of them are screensaver worthy! What's also beautiful is the game's orchestral score. There's so many standout tracks and great pieces. I'll gladly listen to this OST for years to come so i suggest you pick it up alongside the game. If you look at the amount of content and the quality on offer, the deluxe edition of this game may gave you more money's worth than most other MV's.
So level design, combat, movement, visuals and sound are all great. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the story. Now don't get me wrong, the setting and the backstory is very cool. I picked up some of it and am busy watching a 2 & a half hour lore video as i write this review. There's so many things going on and much of it is intrigueing to say the least. But the way it's told, spread acros this HUGE map with crytpic writing makes it nigh impossible to fully understand what's going on. And the games' 10 different endings all lacked impact because of this. In fact the difficulty spikes, busywork for quests and backtracking as well as unrewarding story payoff made the ending a bit weaker than the rest of the game. It's still really good overal though, and fun enough to fully 100% complete the game.
Just beware that this will take you a long time. I explored the whole map without any guide and once i had al areas (almost) fully explored i looked up what to do for the endings. Even with the help at the end i took 46 hours to fully do everything the game has to offer. (Well not really, there's an extra boss rush mode but i'm moving onto other games for now.) What's even more impressive is that during these 46 hours, i had 0 crashes or major bugs. In fact the only rough parts of the game are the slighly longer initial load time (only about one minute total so no biggy) and the occasional FPS drops. Oddly enough pausing my game often fixed this lag. It never lasted for more than a few seconds and barely hampered my enjoyment. The game as it stands now is impressively well made and a MUST play for any metroidvania fan that has some experience with the genre. For first timers maybe give Ori, islets or haiku the robot a try first and then come play this one!