Ebenezer and the Invisible World Review (GamesInTweed)
Ebenezer and the Invisible World is a promising yule-theme metroidvania that falls frustratingly short in so many areas. It is clear that the developer wanted to harken back to the day's of classic metroid/castlevania games, but doesn't quite deliver on the qualities that made those games-- and the games that followed-- great.
In more detail:
Pros-
Art style:- there is no argument that this game does not look beautiful. Each area looks like a moving christmas card, and the character portraits and comic-style cut-scenes are well drawn.
Gameplay:- Overall, gameplay is good and typical of a metroidvania. You explore, find hidden areas, and upgrade your movements. Towards the end, I was feeling an almost Hollow-Knight level of gameplay.
Story:- the story, although pretty basic, is serviceable and a fun homage to the original book. This game also boasts a good depth of Dickensian Lore via bestiaries, side quests and general world-building.
Cons-
Music:- there is pretty much zero music in this game, just a continual quiet jingle of sleigh bells. I understand the dev wanted to go atmospheric, but after a couple of hours this became very tedious. Even boss fights are presented with similar sombre tunes. A good soundtrack could have elevated this game greatly, focusing on Christmas or even Victorian tones, so it is a shame to find it lacking. I ended up playing the soundtracks of other games while playing this.
Map:- The map is waaaay too basic for this game. I get that it is a callback to older games, but this is 2023, not 1843 (see what I did there?), and a usable map is expected, nay, demanded. The map in this game is a simple network of boxes, no landmarks and no ability for the player to place markers. This made backtracking and side questing extremely tedious.
Frequent bugs:- In both cutscenes and gameplay, this game holds far too many bugs. Often a scene would make no sense as the character would repeat dialogue in the same discussion, or have no text at all. Enemy hitboxes sometimes seemed undefined, or the sprite become invisible (but still harmful). There was even a bug at the end of the game that I was able to use to skip some of the final section. It felt more testing was required to pre-empt these bugs.
Overall, a 6/10 game. Play it for the christmas vibes or if you're a fan of metroidvanias, but be prepared to suffer through the limitations.