Berserk Boy Review (jSilvuh)
Berserk Boy was a pretty good time with fun level design and an amazing soundtrack by Tee Lopes, though I do have a couple reservations with the game.
The mini bosses and main bosses were decent fights, but I had issues with a couple of them. There’s this turtle mini boss in... I think the Sky Fort acts? It retreats into its shell to throw bombs and shoot lasers, and that phase lasted longer than I would have liked. I had a similar problem with Mine Buster. He curls into a ball and slams the ground a few times and is invincible while doing so, and he also disappears from the screen to send pillars your way. Again, a bit too much waiting around for my tastes...
There are multiple forms you unlock as the game progresses, reminiscent of Mega Man ZX. They were all quite fun to use! Lightning Justice was a great all-around form with a useful dash for both platforming and combat. Flame Drill was fantastic in those rooms where you’re locked into a gauntlet of enemies, with the uppercut move in particular shredding through flying enemies. Ice Kunai’s kunai throw was a decent ranged option, but my favourite move was the dash that lets you move back and forth to continuously damage the enemy. Not the most efficient, but it was cool :)
Soaring Wind was really good for platforming! Perhaps too good? There were times when the levels would call for Ice Kunai’s air dash chains or its ability to hang on to moving ledges but I was like ‘nah, imma fly over it’. I think some tweaks to the level design would ensure that Soaring Wind doesn’t completely steal the show in that regard. I didn’t find it the most useful in combat though, so maybe it’s fine the way it is? Mine Buster was my go-to form for combat once I unlocked it because its bombs were quite powerful, and very spammable when upgraded! Poor Genos didn’t stand a chance...
Speaking of upgrades, I did notice that they can be a bit expensive. This can be a shame for people who want to go deeper into the game’s combat and what each form has to offer, but understandably can’t be arsed to grind. I was eventually able to unlock everything through my level revisits when backtracking for collectables, but it did take a while. Reducing the prices would do wonders here.
On the topic of collectables, there was one design choice that struck me as odd. Saving each resistance member counts towards your completion total immediately, but this does not apply to the medals. You have to reach a checkpoint to cash in any that you collect. In other words, if you die with medals before reaching a checkpoint, you lose them and have to go back for them. This can be especially annoying in the later levels such as the Sky Fort acts.
The incentive to saving the resistance members is unlocking the EX stages, which are fun tests of skill and speed. As for the medals, well, things used to be very muddy. Collecting a certain number of medals is required to actually beat the game, but before a patch earlier this month, I believe you needed 50 of these things... out of 75! There’s no indication beforehand that the medals served a purpose, so this unfortunately soured people’s experiences with the game...
Now the required amount’s been reduced by a lot! That was great to learn because it shows that the devs do listen to player feedback. With that in mind, I’d be very excited for a sequel that irons out the flaws I mentioned in this review. But there’s still a good time to be had in Berserk Boy, enough for me to give the game a recommendation!