logo

izigame.me

It may take some time when the page for viewing is loaded for the first time...

izigame.me

cover-Chronicles of 2 Heroes: Amaterasu's Wrath

Saturday, November 18, 2023 9:37:32 PM

Chronicles of 2 Heroes: Amaterasu's Wrath Review (DSCota)


TL;DR:

Get this game is you like a well-designed, somewhat challenging experience that passes the "vibe check" of a good indie game. Fun movement but with a learning curve. If the "character swap" mechanic looks like it appeals to you, you'll love that this game is built entirely around it.

Full review

Chronicles of 2 Heroes: Amaterasu's Wrath is a tribute to the 16bit-era action platformer.
Pros:
The gimmick is good
The gimmick of having one character that can't jump and one that can't dash feels more fluid than it has any right to be because you can freely switch between them. Each character has a movement option mapped to the same button (dash vs jump) and the game quickly teaches you that you'll want to be freely swapping between them for their comparative advantages (dash is faster and gives i-frames through projectiles/attacks, jump is slower but the only way to gain height).
The level design is good
The game teaches you the details of the mechanics and when you'd want to use each character through thoughtful level design and moderates progressive difficulty well. Almost every subsequent room feels like it builds on top of things you practiced in previous rooms, similar to the platformer greats like Celeste or Mario. Additional powerups/abilities have been unlocked for me at about twice an hour and the rooms immediately following the powerup always introduce basic systems that ability will interact with so I always knew how to use them.
The optional content is rewarding (in the form of additional currency to facilitate map completion or sidegrade powers that expand the movement options).
Mids:
The art style is serviceable
The art style is standard 16 bit. Some of the environments are more detailed/vibrant than others but the color palettes for each of the regions are diverse enough to not be repetitive.
The story is whatever...
You should buy this game for the gameplay, ludonarrative consonance (outside of the initial character designs) is nowhere to be seen as of review time (2 hours) and that's perfectly fine
The enemy design is whatever
The enemies serve very specific platforming functions and not much else. They have predictable attack patterns that are easy to read at-a-glance once you've seen them before to facilitate the player fantasy of being the destined ninja-twins.
It works for this game.
The music is serviceable
None of the tracks stood out to me as "memorable" but I was enjoying them when they were there. Each region has it's own little melodic idea and it's thematically appropriate. It's fine.
Cons:
Game wasn't designed with accssibility in mind
It has controller support but that's about it.
No Button remapping, no colorblind mode, and no other accessibility options whatsoever
I haven't noticed any screenshake (I'm not sensitive to it) but if it's there you can't turn it off.
If you're a gamer with any kinds of special needs, this game doesn't want you to play it...
Whether or not games need to be enjoyed by a wide audience is one thing, but basic accessibility options like the above make the game playable so that at least everyone can form their own opinions.
Game's got a learning curve
If you've only played traditional platformers, not always having access to jump/dash is going to take some getting used to, but this game knows what it's trying to be and it wants to challenge your assumptions. If you're not willing to meet this game on it's terms, just skip it.


Overall

Game's fun and I'm definitley going to keep playing, but I've seen the core loop and love that the devs made this game. I love seeing innovation in the platformer genre outside of the usual evolutions of mario-likes and wario-likes.
Get it if you want to get good at it.
Else skip and don't look back. This game won't care either way ;)
Don't sleep on these devs, if they keep at it, they'll make it.