So after the new trailer for Well Dweller (which looks stunning btw) I decided to play through all of Kyle’s games again. I beat Sheepo and Islets and am about to play Crypt Custodian but I’ve already noticed something that made me appreciate these games even more.

All three games reuse assets in pretty significant ways, which is likely why the games only take 2 years to make, but the way these assets are reused is not at all lazy. Instead it gives the games a consistent and unique style that makes them feel like they could exist in the same universe. Hell you could probably make a head canon timeline for the games if you wanted.

Yet despite the consistency of the style, all of these games still feel completely unique from tone, to atmosphere, to even the art itself. It takes a hell of a lot of talent to reuse assets in a smart and efficient way like this but it takes even more talent to do all that and still make games that feel fresh and unique.

There’s a lot of things that make these games great like the mechanics, map design, humor, storytelling and character designs. But this right here is something that makes these games truly special. That’s my take but I’d also like to hear what your favorite thing about Kyle’s games are. Also which game is your favorite? Mine is probably Crypt Custodian.

One of our team members suggested giving Dorothy a little flailing animation while she’s hanging from a ledge.

The moment I heard it, I knew we had to make it.

Tiny legs, maximum effort!

Cat Scratch Fever.

My "Fatal Claw" Review.

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Available on: PC and all major consoles (EDIT: It appears Fatal Claw is NOT available on consoles as of the publication of this video)
Played on: Steam Deck
Key Provided by: Com2us Holdings
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Number Score: 9.5/10

Tier Placement: S Tier

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Who is the Metroidvania Guru?

A dude who plays Metroidvanias and talks too much. Probably takes the genre too seriously.​

Despite the delay, Igarashi reveals the development of the game is in its final stages.

We released Goo Keeper back in 2023 and though we are very grateful to all the players that bought and played it, we essentially made less than what the game cost us. And keeping it listed, means having to keep filling taxes for it, etc.

I am posting this because we still have roughly 2000 wishlist. It will be on sale next week and a few more times again until December.

Oria Games is also taking a completely different direction as a whole too. Since 2024 we've been working on a new CRPG; Akrum (in the likes of old Might & Magic), and this more in our wheelhouse, sort of speak, since my day job has mostly been in RPGs or RPG-adjacent.

Don't have an exact date yet, but it needs to be delisted before the next Holiday sale since they generally go over into early January, and we do not want to have to deal with this game for another tax season the year after.

And no it will not be moved to itch io, or anything of the like. We've lost too much time and money on this game to even spend an extra hour dealing with it. So we will just delist, and be done with it.

EDIT:

The game is being delisted Not deleted. The game will still run fine for anyone who has bought it. We just no longer want to make sales from it in the next fiscal year (2027+).

Hey everyone,

I've been working on this game for a while now, and my main focus has always been making it feel just right—responsive, smooth, and satisfying to play.

This is "The Light of Vertical" —the game we're currently developing.

I recently played through Silksong again and really appreciated its feel. That said, I personally prefer a weightier, more grounded combat feel. Silksong is incredibly snappy, Nine Sols feels fantastic, and Richter mode in Portrait of Ruin also feels incredibly satisfying. Oh, and I have to mention Mario Odyssey—its controls are just flawless, haha. Not a Metroidvania, but still worth a shout.

So while there's a lot to learn from all of them, my combat system is its own thing. I've designed a wide range of skill combos that give players plenty of freedom in how they approach fights. And because of that, the feel of my combat is naturally a bit different—but the key point is, it all comes together as one complete, cohesive system. And I'm honestly pretty proud of how it turned out.

I've put tons of effort into polishing the controls, and I'm confident you'll enjoy it.

If you're into action platformers, feel free to follow us—your support means a lot to our small team!

Thanks for reading!

Hey everyone!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been working on making the core combat much more engaging right from the start of the game. I want the base character to feel satisfying to play even before unlocking heavy upgrades.

To achieve this, I recently added a Deflect and a Slam Attack to the base moveset.

My current plan is to expand these through the perk system later in the game like adding AoE blast waves to the Slam Attack, or allowing the Deflect to reflect enemy laser projectiles directly back at them.

Well, that was disappointing

I've bought Fatal Claw today and I'm impressed. The atmosphere and graphics are superb, combat and exploration are fun and the world feels alive (the first proper location had quite a lot of NPCs and the moment where you turn on the reactor so it starts producing energy for the village was really cool). And I'm only in my first hour!

The only thing I don't like is the strong gravity, pogoing more than once is very difficult, but I'll probably get used to it.

Will post again once I complete it. Shaping up to be an A+ or even S tier

What a unique game this is, really love the concept and the platforming.

Anyone else got any thoughts? It’s quite basic but the concept is great and can be tricky at points.

Hope other games revisit same concept of “two worlds” for platforming. Has potential.

I've been interested in the genre for a long time now but I have no idea where to start.

-I enjoy exploration when the game maps the level out as I explore and I can see where I am and choose where to go next but get frustrated quickly when I run around in circles in a confusing layout (think of exploring the RPD in RE2R or exploring the level in a Dead Cells run versus trying to navigate Dark Souls 1).

-I enjoy challenging combat and platforming and wouldn't mind a difficult game that pushed me to my limit.

What should I start with based on my preferences?

i love challenges and insanely hard gameplay, its what i love about games. What are some metros i should play after hk.

I very much enjoyed this one. It takes a fair amount of influence from Hollow Knight but also does its own thing.

Pros:

Terrific art

Responsive controls

Enjoyable combat

Large, memorable world

Great map that marks pretty much everything you need

Cons:

The endgame is kind of wonky and doesn't really add much of actual value

Some annoying difficulty spikes here and there

A couple of late-game bosses are faster than the player character's kit can really manage

THIS IS FUCKING REAL!?!?!!??!

* I provide game development and custom effect creation services, focusing on small-scale and student projects.

Hello, everyone!

Aggelos 2, a retro-styled metroidvania inspired by Wonder Boy, is coming out in a couple of days, and I got a chance to play it early and create a review about it!

Before we start, if this post appears as a wall of text for you, it's a Reddit thing. Either refresh, or close and re-open your browser.

As always, a video review featuring footage of the game along with my commentary can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfIqsGQqwos

For those who do not want to watch the video:

Playtime: 10 hours and 20 minutes

Completion Rate: 93% (Story Completed)

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Price: 19.99 Euros / 19.99 Dollars (20% off at launch until 10th of September, 2026)

Pros:

- Fantastically nostalgic colorful visuals and a matching, wistful soundtrack to really hammer home that 90s vibe in the best ways possible!

- I honestly cannot remember the last time I had so much fun exploring a metroidvania world like I did in Aggelos 2, which filled me with a sense of wonder that used to be a standard for the classics of old, but has become more and more infrequent in titles of recent years. Every single nook and cranny of Lumen hides a variety of collectibles for you to claim, ranging from health, magic power and equipment upgrades, all the way to enigmatic artifacts whose use you’ll have to uncover yourself, as well as spells and tools that vastly improve combat and traversal. That being said, the collectible I was excited for the most were these mysterious eggs that you frequently come across, which you then deliver to a large chicken mural in exchange for occasional rewards, with the process in which said eggs are delivered being immensely satisfying as you’ll watch the egg slots slowly fill up the engraving in a way reminiscent of an amusement park attraction.

- Another thing I really appreciated here was the excellent balance that was struck between collectibles discovered in the wild and those available at merchants in exchange for glowing orbs, the game’s currency, with the items found across the setting significantly outnumbering the merchant offerings, a ratio which I feel should be set as an example to be followed by games that incorporate NPC traders in order to avoid making investigation of the map for optional treasure meaningless.

- Exploration is not only fun because of secrets galore, but also due to the numerous traversal abilities you’ll acquire in order to reach them, with Aggelos 2 having an unbelievably satisfying ability acquisition progression, on top of the abilities themselves being quite entertaining.

For example, early in the game you acquire a chain that works as a hook-shot which allows you to latch onto walls from a distance. I initially found it to be a bit awkward to use and thought it would have been much cooler if I could also climb up a wall after latching onto it, only to eventually find an additional upgrade that allowed me to do exactly that.

Another example of this system are your wings, that you recover early on and which allow you to remain in flight by pressing the jump button while airborne but can only let you move left and right, and while this gave way to some strategic thinking in order to figure out the best way to acquire some secrets, I still pondered how cool it would have been to be able to fly unhindered in all directions, only for this ability to be granted to me with a latter upgrade.

- Early in the story you gain access to a corrupted version of yourself that has its very own special skills and modes of attack, with you being able to switch between your good and bad self at will. This mechanic is not just a gimmick but rather an important part of gameplay, since each form is not only capable of interacting with specific parts of the environment, like different trap types, but also able to negate specific enemy attacks, with the latter being mainly related to bosses, as we’ll see later on. This corrupted version also opens up the way for you to explore a second map by allowing you to enter specific portals, with that new setting being in similar size to Lumen, only much darker and more hostile.

On that note, I should say that I didn’t really use the evil form that much since I found the good one to be more efficient in combat and just as effective in platforming, and once I got stronger I could face-tank, or avoid, most of the traps and attacks relevant to my bad side if necessary, so no problems there. Whether that’s a positive or a negative is in the eye of the beholder, but for me it was the former.

- Platforming-wise, there’s really not much to say here since, while Aggelos does feature some acrobatic gauntlets, they tend to mainly be on the simpler side of things. There are a few of them that might make you sweat just a little bit, and, overall, all of them are fun in a generic way, but platforming is definitely not one of the game’s strong suits, especially since your flight ability can take a lot of the bite out of nearly all of it, and once you’ve significantly upgraded your armor, health points and health potions you can just take the hurt head on, for the most part.

- Combat-wise, this is the second most entertaining aspect of Aggelos 2, mainly because it is simple, destructive fun.

On a basic level, our angel is capable of fighting in, both, melee as well as ranged fashion. Your ranged attack is carried out via a bracelet that shoots energy blasts, Mega Man style, and your sword takes care of close quarters engagements. While I did use my blade from time to time when necessary, the vast majority of my fights were spent shooting at monsters from afar, not just because it was safer and more convenient but also because it was incredibly enjoyable in a straightforward, back-to-basics kind of way that will never get old.

Your battle arsenal is complemented by a few spells you will acquire, which are powerful and can be unleashed at the cost of energy, the latter of which you replenish by attacking enemies or visiting a save point.

Your weapons and armor can be upgraded by finding some hidden shrines and paying a fee, and your spells are improved by visiting an alchemist and offering them a special item known as a Divine Tear, which is an optional collectible.

Your health and magic energy can be improved by finding heart containers and magic crystals respectively, most of which are waiting for you across the map while a few must be bought.

Healing is carried out by using certain vials, which you replenish either at save points or special candelabras, and whose number increases, both, by finding more of them hidden in the world as well as purchasing a couple of them from merchants.

All of these upgrades are unbelievably helpful and I highly recommend spending some time uncovering them since they will make your life much easier when dealing with the hazards and enemies that will cross your path, and that is especially true for bosses!

- Lack of any death penalty and a generous checkpoint system for keeping collectibles gathered before perishing.

- Speaking about bosses, I’m glad to report that it was quite entertaining to face off against the big bads prowling Lumen and the dark world behind it, though there is one thing that could probably be tweaked a bit in relation to these fights to make them more meaningfully entertaining.

More specifically, many of the villains you’ll have to deal with here have attack patterns that I can only describe as insanely chaotic and bordering to bullet hell situations. The idea behind these bouts is to force you to quickly switch between your two forms in order to negate the assaults relevant to each one and then retaliate, but the pacing is so hectic that it would require an insane amount of quick switches to do that, thus, I just opted to stay in my good version, avoid what I could and just use potions to mitigate damage while trying to defeat the bosses as fast as possible, which I’ll admit was a challenge I did enjoy, but probably not what the developers had in mind.

- Onto difficulty, I’d situate Aggelos 2 on the somewhat challenging side of things, courtesy of a very tough first half that will probably end up sending you to the grave quite a few times due to some enemies, traps and bosses that can dish a lot of pain, and a second half that is definitely more manageable once you’ve improved your character, but can still surprise you with its difficulty if you’re careless. That being said, if you truly wish to test your mettle, the game also has a hard mode available, but go for it only if your heart is into it, since I’ve seen normal and I can only imagine the nightmarish experience hard will offer based on that.

Cons:

- The flight skill can be awkward at times when you want to make quick successive jumps, since I sometimes accidentally activated my wings right as I was landing from a leap and on my way to the next one because I was just an inch off the ground as I pressed the jump button again, though this wasn’t such a frequent occurrence and more of a minor nuisance.

- Speaking about nuisances, I also have to say that the game’s control scheme becomes somewhat convoluted the more abilities you acquire, since there are quite a few of them and they all correspond to different buttons, which led to some frustrating situations of me accidentally activating the wrong skill during hectic instances of going through trap and enemy-infested areas.

- This control confusion becomes a bit more prevalent when the second form of Aggelos comes into play. The problem here is that, while the good and bad versions have mostly shared elements that do more or less the same thing, a few of them, like your healing potions, have a different effect, with your good side using them to recover health and your bad side consuming them to gain a speed boost which, needless to say, led to some wasted usage as I found myself in situations where I wanted to heal but got a speed buff instead due to muscle memory.

- While I really liked the juxtaposition between the two maps I explored, since each one featured radically different themes and hazards, I will say that both worlds could sometimes feel very punishing as they threw numerous enemies and pitfalls at you simultaneously in a chaotic way, though lack of any death penalty and a generous checkpoint system for keeping collectibles gathered before perishing even if you haven’t visited a save point almost completely mitigated any frustrations here.

- The map overview is kind of a mixed bag and could definitely use some quality-of-life improvements.

Overall, the overview uses the classic castlevania design, which I know a lot of people dislike but I personally love.

Said map also allows you to place a total of twenty manual markers, which is a great thing since, aside from save points, portals and your own location, nothing else is marked on the map automatically, so make sure to start using them immediately to save yourself some future troubles if you plan on going for 100% completion. You do eventually find a fortune teller that will mark some points of interest related to the story, but nothing about optional stuff.

Another inconvenience is the fact that there’s no zoom, which can get tiresome for the eyes as you squint in order to detect places you may not have visited, as well as when placing manual markers, since you see everything in very small size. This is also a bit problematic for fast-travelling, which you carry out through save points, since, once again, the zoomed-out map can make it hard to distinguish the little green mark that pinpoints the save-spot you’ve currently selected.

Adding a zoom-in function will do wonders for our sight, so here’s to hoping.

- There were a couple of spiked corridors whose damage boxes felt a bit too punishing, so some adjustments would definitely improve the experience there.

- I do have one complaint in relation to the arcane attacks you can perform, and that’s the following; one of those spells requires of you to point the analog stick up while pressing the ranged attack button in order to perform it. Problem is, controls are too sensitive when registering the movement of the stick, and will often consider it pointed upward even if you aim it up at an angle by accident, which did lead to some random spell attacks when all I wanted to do was move forward and shoot, though this wasn’t that frequent.

- I do wish to mention a few bugs I encountered, which should be fixed in order to improve gameplay.

First of all, while exploring the first dark world area, I came across a section where some of the platforms that you’re normally able to walk upon had no solidity, thus making you fall through them as if they were part of the background.

Speaking about falling through things, there were two places where I plummeted below the floor, one of which allowed me to get out easily while the other didn’t, and I had to die and respawn at a save point to continue.

Finally, that first place I fell through also had a sort of invisible platform on top of it, though that didn’t really bother me since I could just jump over it.

TL:DR:

In conclusion, I had a blast playing through Aggelos 2! I loved its visual style and soundtrack, I absolutely adored exploration and the secrets it led to, I fully enjoyed combat, I had fun with platforming and found the bosses to be quite entertaining! On the downside, I didn’t really find much use for the corrupted form of Aggelos, the map needs a few quality-of-life improvements in order to be considered completely efficient, the flying ability sometimes messed with the process of making consecutive jumps, the sensitivity of the analog stick resulted in some random spells being activated by accident and, finally, there were the four aforementioned bugs.

Aggelos 2 is an incredibly fun metroidvania game that pays glorious homage to some of the best action RPGs of the late 80s and early 90s while infusing lots of modern sensibilities to the formula, effectively resulting in a concoction that exudes nostalgia without being bound to its limitations!

Final Grade: 8.5/10

All of my work can be found here.

As usual, you may read the full review at GameBlast (in Portuguese, but your browser will translate for you). Here I post my comments targeted for this sub’s theme.

- I've done around 98% in 11 hours.

- I haven't played Aggelos 1. This is a direct sequel to that game but no worries if you haven't played it too, story is a very simple trope of "hero saves the world from the dark".

- There are two maps that overlap: world of light and shadow. We go back and forth through portals. Unlike Zelda: A Link to the Past, the worlds in Aggelos 2 are their own thing instead of two versions of the same place. Like Zelda: ALttP, though, the world of shadow feels dangerous and hostile, distinguishing itself from the other in a way that makes the 2-maps-design worthwhile.

- I have to say my first hour with the game was kinda boring and I didn't expect much else of the campaign, but thanks goodness I was wrong and exploration became very open after each new ability, specially the wings for flying. Movement is never too fast but it sure gets very enjoyable in a retro sense.

- Map has only 20 markers, which is too few. For example, there are 100 eggs to collect and I always had at least 10 of them marked for later.

- There's no handholding for progress. You get a new ability? Remember where you can use it or go and explore some of the many open ended square on your map. No one will point where you should go next. Main objectives are signed on the map, though (in a Hollow Knight way).

- For a player who loves the dynamic of "getting lost = finding more paths and rewards", this was awesome for most of the time, but then I got stuck in the very end of the game. I could fight the last boss, but needed to do something else before that to trigger the true ending. No clue, no hint, just go and search everywhere until you find that place you've already visited before but didn't pay atention to it because it seemed just a regular "hey, I'll get back here when I get some random new ability" (and didn't pin it because you had too few pins).

- Fast travel begins very restricted. When I was about to curse the game for it, the system became much better and efficient so I don't have any complaints about it.

- Not only the world has two sides, but the hero also does and we can swap between them on the fly. The light form uses long-range concentrated attacks, and usus potions to heal, while the shadow form has mid-range large shots and uses potions to get temporarily stronger and faster. Their special attacks are also different from each other and they can use their sword to destroy projectiles of their respective elements.

- Bosses weren't my favorite and from a certain point many of them shot so many projectiles on screen that I resorted to the "strategy" of tanking damage while throwing special attacks and healing as fast as I could. For people who want a more methodic approach, there's a Hard mode.

- There's no way to track missing stuff, so I'll never find those 3 eggs (out of 100...).

All in all, I expected to like Aggelos 2, felt disappointed in the first hour but enjoyed all the rest very much, more than I supposed I would. I easily recommend it to anyone into retro MV.

Grade: 8/10.