The game also revels in its gore while some death animations are the equivalent of a goofy old Mortal Kombat fatality, others are real stomach-churners - for example, the Hideous Disciplinarian, whose stomach bursts into piles of viscera every time you defeat one. There’s also the game's seven areas which look very nice, albeit appropriately oppressive, further emphasising the state of the world. The bosses are gorgeous too, thanks to their size, the spritework really showing off these intimidating enemies. It’s through enemies like that you can feel the Lovecraft influences. The highlight has to be the Hungry Abyss a big disgusting venus flytrap of a creature, who unsettled us the first time we laid eyes on it. The customisable main character - and most humanoids - are admittedly a bit underwhelming, but the game makes up for it in droves with its strong enemy design. The first thing that stands out is the in-depth spritework. However, the worldbuilding impressed us, each of the game's areas feels cohesive, and you can really see the effects of events prior to the game beginning.Ĭaptured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Truth be told, the story didn’t do much for us, with a lot of it being omnipresent text flaring onto the screen. While the story is a lot easier to follow than its FromSoftware inspirations, Elderand also tells a lot of its story through the use of item descriptions, letters found across the world, and environmental storytelling. This place is filled with a litany of monsters and threats, and throughout your journey, you unravel a tense plot involving a cult, a serpent society, and a village under threat. You take on the role of a nameless hunter who has washed up in a mysterious land with his crew dead and no bearings to work from. Debuting developers Mantra and Sinergia Games have thrown their own hat into the ring in the form of Elderand, which further shows why this mix works, even if this particular concoction could do with being more potent. Games like Salt and Sanctuary, Blasphemous, and - of course - Hollow Knight have successfully taken what makes the genres and mashed them into a mini-genre of their own (although some would argue that Dark Souls itself is essentially a Metroidvania already). And it makes sense two styles of game with a deep focus on exploration and strict difficulty were bound to cross paths. The genre blend of Metroidvania and Soulslike is a tried and true combination.

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