Intro:Ah, the Metroidvania. My relationship with you is long and complex - some games feel like they should grab me, but fall short (Teslagrad). Some seem to capture a moment in time when the average gamer absolutely devours them and they become staples of the genre (Ori and the Blind Forest). Others seem to grab me and only me, and I don't know anyone else that's even touched them (Ghost 1.0).
Afterimage falls into the latter camp, and it's a huge shame that more Metroidvania fans aren't clamouring for this title, especially during an occasional marketplace sale.
Afterimage is largely excellent, and deserves to be on any serious fan's list.
Review:Renee is a girl with no memory, who finds herself in a strange land populated by monsters, traps and the occasional pocket of civilisation. As she sets out to explore the classically designed Metroidvania world of platforming and 2D combat, she's joined by Ifree, a small sprite that hovers around you and allows you to cast spells. As you explore the many differently themed zones in the huge interconnected map, you'll find NPCs who have their own esoteric quests to follow as well as uncovering a main plot thread about an ancient war, a destroyed world and your place in it.
In many ways, Afterimage is a Chinese game through and through. It's hugely derivative, has a nonsensical plot that's all over the place, and the English dub is Saturday morning cartoon over the top. But it does have very tight gameplay, great art, good music and compelling exploration, despite much of it falling into the "seen this somewhere before" camp. Finally, it has a lot of systems in play at once - upgrades, gear, leveling, a skill tree, abilities, cooking, outfits, limited bonuses selected from a pool, weapon types, magic attacks - and takes influences from many other games, from Dark Souls to Ori and the Blind Forest. It's also full of minor annoyances.
So why do I like it so much?
It all comes down to the gameplay loop, and the sheer scale of the map and volume of content on offer providing compelling exploration that sees you hunting for quest items, secret bosses, hidden keys and abilities, and a leveling system that keeps you playing. You'll always be after the next boss, the next upgrade, the next treasure chest, the next map area. There's just so much to see and do, and I found it hard to put down even after getting six (mildly) different endings and unlocking New Game Plus, which bizarrely is a series of ten stand alone chapters that feature a whole new character, separate from the main game, but fill in gaps that the main story doesn't explore.
In classic genre style, you'll unlock abilities (the titular Afterimages) which allow you progress through new areas. Double jumps, triple jumps, super jumps, smashing through crumbling floors, keys to ancient doorways and the ability to phase through barriers are all present and correct here, opening up the map in every direction to new, themed areas with their own aesthetic, music, enemies, bosses, secrets, NPCs and quests, and you'll be doing this for a long time - dozens of hours - because the map is enormous. I don't just mean big; it's gargantuan. Each area you unlock is thick with secret paths, hidden chests, areas blocked off where you'll need a specific ability to progress... It's just a huge game. And believe me, you'll need to actively keep track of that map.
You see, although some things are automatically noted on it as you progress, such as teleport points, important NPCs and shops, much of it isn't. Instead you're provided with around twenty different map markers that you drop onto the map yourself, and you can have hundreds of these active at any one time. So every time you see a barrier you can't pass, a one way breakable wall you can't get to the other side of or a chest that's out of reach, you'll have to open the map and drop a marker there yourself to remind you of where to backtrack to later. If you don't do this, right from the moment you start playing, you'll end up hopelessly lost in the enormous world and it's many, many zones and have no idea where to progress to when you do get that new ability you need.
As long as you actively keep your map updated though, you'll be fine. Just remember to do it!
The music is orchestrated and features plenty of real instruments which really adds to the atmosphere and overall production value of the game, and the graphics are crisp and colourful, with plenty of detail and some lovely animations. Zones range from typical deserts (complete with Arabian inspired music) to mechanical towers full of moving platforms and grinding gears, and it's all such a pleasure to explore! I found myself always going for the next chest, the next boss, the next checkpoint or teleport unlock.
There's a lot of combat as you double jump and wall climb your way through the twenty or so interconnected zones, and for the most part it feels good and solid. You have the ability to equip Renee with two weapons at a time, one on X and one on Y, and a magic tome or staff on B that casts spells depending upon what's equipped. Sometimes you'll launch a fireball with the Fire Tome equipped, and sometimes you'll heal yourself with a certain wand instead. Weapons come in several different types, each with their own style of play. Whips have decent range but only average attack speed, but have the bonus that an aerial attack hits multiple times. Great swords are very slow and their attacks have to largely be timed, but they hit hard and knock enemies back. There are also scythes, regular swords and twin daggers - short range but brutally fast - and it's worth keeping a different type of weapon equipped in each slot to cover various circumstances for the zone you're in.
As you explore, you'll find balms in various chests around the world. These balms can be applied to a weapon by equipping a weapon, then pressing X while you have it highlighted. Up to three can be applied on a weapon, and they'll increase the attack stats of the weapon slightly. It's a rather superfluous system, as I didn't even figure out how to apply them until after I'd got two of the game's endings, and the stat increases aren't that great. Also, with over 100 weapons in the game, you're always going to find something better than fits your play style. One thing I really didn't like about the combat, something that struck me as odd right from the get-go, is that although you have a dodge button that slides you away from or towards enemies, it provides no invincibility whatsoever. You would expect as a monster telegraphs its attack, that you'd be able to dodge at the last second to avoid its blow, but no such timing feature exists. Instead, you just slide away a little whilst almost always getting hit. This means defense isn't really an option - I found myself much better off simply wailing on enemies and taking the hits, which means combat devolves into who can get the fastest, strongest hits in first. It's such a shame that this layer of strategy isn't present, as it would have made the otherwise good feeling combat feel even better - skillful, even.
This same approach to combat is applied to bosses, too. They get their own little intro, the huge health bar across the screen and even their own, Dark Souls style musical score building up the tension. But there still isn't a strategy - you just rush the boss and rain down attacks until they're dead. The bosses have been designed with specific movement sets that are designed to be dodged and time your attacks around, but the total lack of any invincibility frames when dodging means that time is better spent taking the hit and continuing to attack. Occasionally you'll dart to the side of the screen to take a moment to refill your health bar, either from your limited but expandable pool of "glyphs" (your Estus Flask), or by hitting the dpad to drink a potion. But apart from that, it's just wail away until death. This technique took my right through the game, even on the final bosses, and that was before I figured out how to apply the near useless balms to my weapons.
As you kill the many, many enemies across the world, you'll gain experience and level up. Leveling up doesn't directly make Renee stronger, but it does give you talent points to spend in a huge talent tree full of unlockable nodes. Some nodes give basic upgrades, such as increases to hit points, attack strength, critical hit rate or even the drop rate of enemy loot. Others give extra moves to different types of weapons, so don't waste them early on! There's no point in upgrading the twin blades if you never equip them. Having said that, by the time you've maxed out at level 99, you'll have points to spare. Talent points can also be found in the world as an item, or dropped after mini bosses, so you'll always have some pooling up at some point. On top of this you'll also find divine seeds, which allow you to equip bonuses at any teleporter. These just give small boosts, such as a poison cloud appearing around you when you get hit by an enemy, or the ability to run slightly faster or dodge slide slightly farther. They're useful, but you can go the whole game without touching them and not feel the difference.
Quests in the game are a rather odd affair. The developer seems to have gone for the Fromsoft approach, where you'll meet an NPC who says something vague about their past or why they're here, then they'll dart off leaving you to stumble across them at a random point in the future. Eventually you'll meet them for the last time and their quest will end, and you'll unlock a piece of gear and an achievement for your trouble.
Despite the various niggles and annoyances outlined throughout this review, the good far outweighs the bad. Opening new areas ripe for exploration, gaining new abilities to go back to the places you've marked on the map, finding new gear, fighting new bosses, meeting new characters always feels satisfying. The map is brilliantly put together with shortcuts and secret areas all over the place - there's just always something new around the corner. Fighting enemies and seeing the XP and loot fly out of them (loot which can be taken to various NPCs to have them cook you meals which increase your stats even further) is always satisfying despite the lack of defensive options, and just looking at the world and listening the score as you jump and dash and wall climb through it is a pleasure. In fact, Afterimage gripped me until I'd gone through several endings and New Game Plus, and I still have to go back and get the last collectibles and even unlock another zone and a "true" ending.
It's just a solid, solid Metroidvania despite the few niggles and how derivative it is, and how forgettable and all over the place the story telling is.
Achievements:Afterimage achievements are a little weird for the average achievement hunter. You see, nothing is missable - a blessing when it comes to a huge Metroidvania such as this one - and even the different endings and "true ending" can all be easily obtained on the same save file without having to replay the (enormous) game.
However, almost all of the achievements are buried deep, deep within the game - the come at the end of long, multipart questlines, the come after collecting all of the upgrades, killing all of the bosses, etc. there are a few that will be drip fed to you now and then - once every couple of hours you might unlock one for doing something simple, like jumping from a waterfall or reaching a certain area.
Only the most dedicated will see the majority of the list despite the fact it's not hard, it's just you need to more or less 100% the game's various abilities and collectibles to get them all.
In short, everything will drop near the very end of the game, but you'll be grinding out the last few levels to reach level 99 and find the last few items to finish the collection and get the achievements.
In total, it took me around 34 hours to obtain 100% completion.
Overall:I've not heard anyone talking about this game since it launched in 2023, and it's a huge shame. The gameplay, the art, the music, the loop of upgrading, leveling and exploring are all top notch. It's slightly cheesy voice acting sounding like a dubbed Asian cartoon and a total lack of direction on where to go next may put some people off though. Just remember to use those map markers!
4.0