izigame.me

Ebenezer and the invisible world is a unique concept for a metroidvania that is flawed in so many ways that the charm it does have melts away like snow before the sun. It falls into all the metroidvania pitfalls that make the game feel clunky to play. The biggest offender here is the movement with tons of issues regarding input lag. I don't think there's input buffering at all, so many times ebenezer won't do what you ask of him. Paired with a lack of coyote jumping, which is an absolute must for any self-respecting platformer, the movement feels irresponsive. You can't even look down, requiring blind jumps and you can also sometimes get stuck on ledges when running up inclines, forcing you to jump to move forward.
This clunkiness also comes into play with the game's combat. Changing direction mid swing is often not possible and ebenezer will just keep swatting that way until you stop attacking, change directions and then press attack again. This also makes combat annoying, although this is made much worse by the contact damage on EVERYTHING. Every single enemy in the game will do damage if you bump into them. This pairs with the stiff movement, as dashing through enemies will stop you in your tracks as you collide, taking damage in the process. Some enemies have rather large models that are assymetrical so if they switch directions their hitbox is all of a sudden on top of you and you get hurt.
This wouldn't be such a problem if the damage this deals wasn't so high. In fact everything in this game hits like a truck, killing you in a matter of 3 or 4 hits most of the time. The final insult in this regard is the fact that the healing system is based on consumables, which don't drop and are very rare/expensive. You'll need to hold onto these consumables for the handfull of bosses the game has, so using them during levels feels horrible. You will have to use them here though, as dying will send you back to your last save state, losing all progress in the process. Everything you defeated, looted, collected or explored is gone and you have to do it all over again. This archaic save system really shouldn't be present in modern day gaming anymore, but it does, and it sucks.
There's also just an all around lack of save points across the map, especially in the later zones. Exploring a bit and then having to go back to a save point so you can secure at least some modicum of progress, feels tedious. Going back and forth on the map also feels tedious as there's very few fast travel points, which are poorly destributed. They also come with a very lenghty animation and screen fade, so just the traveling animation itself can take upwards of 20 seconds every time. And if you die before reaching your next save point you'll have to sith through it again. In fact this also applies to boss or story cutscenes. Dying will make you sit through them, again and again.
You'll have to do this a few times at least, since bosses have poorly telegraphed attacks so you will most likely die the first attempt. Even later attempts are hard because it's unclear which attack the bosses will do, as they all have similar windup animations that are so short that they can be impossible to dodge sometimes. The lack of visual clarity, reliance on consumables and overal clunkiness makes the otherwise cool boss fights unenjoyable. This goes for regular combat too, there's some fun enemies but most are plain frustrating. The worst ones are teleporting screaming witches that can appear anywhere (annoying contact damage), attack very fast, deal a butload of damage and are even tanky to boot!
Combat for bosses and regular enemies is thus a chore and also feels unrewarding on top of that. Enemies have a chance to drop materials but they can also drop nothing. Even then there's such a large variety of materials they can give that you'll almost never get what you want. You see, buying things or upgrading your stats doesn't just cost money, it also requires materials and you'll often miss one or the other. I went back to the store countless times and most of the time i couldn't get anything because of this. You barely feel like you're getting stronger and if you do finally get that one ingrediënt you were missing you'd better not die as that makes you lose it again. The drop rates are horrible which makes you not want to engage with the combat, as you risk losing too much health and the payoff isn't guaranteed.
The one thing you can find that makes you stronger are charms. Some of these are required to make the game tollerable, such as the movement speed upgrade, while others are useless. You also start out with 4 slots but can't ever raise that cap. So again, the game feels like it's getting harder and harder but you are left behind in terms of scaling. Exploring the map rewards you with consumables, materials or charms but the aforementioned issues across all of these make exploring unrewarding. What also doesn't help is the fact that the map in this game is atrocious. There's no markers that you can place for missed collectibles to backtrack to, or any other indication for room completion.
There aren't even any markers for the games' handfull of quests which are fun in terms of writing, but not in terms of gameplay as you're left wandering aimlessly searching for NPC's to talk with. Many of which are spread far apart. If you wanna read up on your quests in your quest log you have to pray that the menu doesn't bug out. As half of the time my quest log scrolled all over the place on its own, making it impossible to read. This is just one of the many bugs the game has. I've had times i couldn't attack, dash or interact in other ways for a while. These issues often fixed themselves after a while but having this happen after a long section or during a boss just sucks.
Luckily the game didn't crash or lag but that's all that can be said in terms of polish/optimization. Everything from the controls to the gameplay design feels unfinished. You can't even rebind your keys, it all feels off. This is true for the sound effects as well. Many of the attacks or sounds lack impact and the game feels very empty because of it. There's hardly any ambient sounds and there's no voice acting either so the world feels very lifeless. The little music that tries to alleviate this quickly becomes monotenous and annoying. It's just chimes and whistless that sound christmassy but don't offer much in terms of a remarkable soundtrack.
As you can see there's many negatives, enough to make me not recommend the game. But there is some good to be found as well. For one the visuals are breathtaking across the board. There's a large variety of backgrounds and the art is very well done. The asylum and necropolis especially look great but the characters themselves are also wonderfully illustrated. The ghosts not only look unique but also play uniquely. Your movement upgrades and damage spells are tied to these ghosts, which is a very creative use of them and fits with the setting. The combat spells are satisfying to use, and feel like the only way to level out the playing field.
These ghosts also serve the narrative as these are who you'll be talking with most of the time. Even though there's a lack of voice acting, the writing itself is very good. The characters feel like they belong in the timeframe the game is set in. The overarching narrative, while a bit predictable, is still enjoyable and combined with the visuals offer the main bulk of enjoyment you can squeeze out of this game. And squeeze you'll have to because there's just too many annoying things that hamper the experience to make it enjoyable in the end. Ebenezer isn't a metroidvania that's worth delving into, as the combat, movement, exploration and level design falls short of the visuals and story. 5/10