Any game with this many proper nouns in every conversation needs an in-game encyclopedia. I've played and enjoyed media with incredibly-dense worldbuilding and lore (e.g. Axiom Verge 2 or The Fountain), but this one just feels like it's too happy to sniff its own butt.

But any game can still manage to be fun if the gameplay is fun, right? Too bad Ultros feels like a bog-standard "we really like Hollow Knight" metroidvania, but with even more punishment. Combat is your usual dodge-rolling, counter-striking, combo-grinding souls-lite. It has an interesting tie into progression with the monsters dropping food (better quality based on how you take them down) that both refills health and advances you on the skill tree, but that's all I saw of interest in the hour I played.

The worst part of gameplay is that the game is supposedly loop-centric (like many roguelikes), but dying dumps you back to your last save, with all progress lost. I thought we got rid of that particular stupidity a decade ago. Are they going to bring back lives systems and quarter-munching next?

So the lore is obtuse and the gameplay is alternately unimaginative and overly punishing. What about the front-of-the-box selling point, the art? It's ugly. The artist clearly doesn't understand why we have restrained palettes per sprite, or simplified backgrounds, or any of the other dozen techniques that make game worlds comprehensible during play. If you want crazy-weird art with restrained color schemes, try Hollow Knight. If you want basic art with vibrant colors but proper palettes, try my favorite metroidvania Dust: An Elysian Tale. More colors does not equate to better art.

It's fugly, it's boring, it's frustrating, 2/7. There might be a good game in here somewhere, but I don't have the patience or endurance to find it.