Valfaris is an amazing game with a wonderful gritty aesthetic, intense game play, and a chaotic-catchy Doom/Groove/Industrial Metal Kick-ass soundtrack! You will probably die more to headbanging too much instead of the enemies (lmao). This is the sequel to Slain!; a game I wasn't very fond of. When I first saw this game get released, I was like "Oh no, not again" but when I beat the first level, I was hooked.

Now, I technically have over 100+ hours in this game, as I played it on GOG ever since it first released in 2019.

Let me quickly tell you what you are getting yourself into when you choose to play this game:
- 9 Long, Action-Packed levels
- Intense Boss Fights, Mini Boss fights, and epic enemies
- Slow, but Contra-Like run n' gun action
- You will die a lot
- A New Game Plus "Hard Mode" that carries over all of your equipment and upgrades for a brand-new experience.

So, this game is clearly not that long, and seemingly doesn't have much going for it. So why have I clocked in 100+ hours? Let me explain how it works:


The weapons in this game go as follows: A gun, a sword, and a "Destroyer" weapon. You hold one of each. The guns and swords will be your primary way of damaging enemies. But your Destroyer Weapon can deal tons of damage to enemies at the cost of your energy meter.

The energy meter refills from destroying boxes and other objects via melee with your sword. You also refill your energy by hitting and killing enemies within the game. Destroyer Weapons and Blocking/Parrying consumes the energy meter.


The weapons you unlock are epic, and useful. The descriptions for the weapons are plain and simple; they don't tell you much about it functions, and that's okay because they expect you to just pick up the damn gun and figure it out yourself.
There are a few weapons that I personally dislike and found quite useless. Like the "Leg Of Arach": A spider leg that steals health from enemies and gives it to you. Sounds good on the surface, but the amount of health it gives you isn't worth the low damage the weapon deals. "Bishop's Reach" also is another useless weapon. It launches out tentacles that, once again, steals health from enemies and gives it to you. The only difference, is that if you aren't hurting the enemy it drains your own health. Adding a nice risk=reward system. But honestly the risk is too high for the little damage this weapon actually deals. See my point? Some weapons are useless, but can be kinda fun if you upgrade them right.


Every weapon can be upgraded, yes. Every. Single. Weapon.
Across the game you will destroy boxes, kill enemies, and discover secrets that will give you items called "Blood Metals". Blood Metals can be spent at checkpoints in every level to upgrade your equipment. Each weapon has 4 levels (there are a few exceptions); to upgrade a weapon to the next level you must spend a certain amount of Blood Metals that increases as you upgrade. Upgrading your weapons increases their stats, like the standard pistol becomes a spread shot, the range on certain melees becomes bigger, and some weapons gain special alternate modes!
If you are a bit short on Blood Metals, you don't have to worry, because at the end of a level, you can spend "Resurrection Idols" to give yourself up to 3 extra Blood Metals.


This game plays like an old-school platformer game. You beat one level -> Move on to the next. But what makes this game so different is the risk involved with checkpoints. Across the stages you will find "Resurrection Idols" that allow you to activate checkpoints. Every time you grab an Idol, your health bar increases in size; allowing you to take more hits. The risk is either, spending the Idol to activate a checkpoint - thus allowing you to upgrade weapons, or skipping the checkpoints and collecting idols to increase your health bar and survive longer. It's your choice.
The best part (and my favorite part in the whole game) is that if you reach max idols (There is a cap to how many idols you can hold, and the cap raises every time you beat a mini boss/level boss) all future idols picked up will convert into health and energy.


Valfaris is an amazing game with a unique flow, clean combat, a simple-yet effective system, and balanced difficulty (you'll die a lot haha). Even with it's flaws, It is my favorite action-platformer of all time. A near perfect experience that you'll be sure to enjoy.

My Final Rating:
- Gameplay: 9/10
- Soundtrack: 10/10
- Difficulty: 8/10
- Weapons: 8/10
- Story: 7/10
- Overall: 8/10 - An amazing game that challenges the player's patience and skill. A big step up from it's predecessor; I recommend checking the game out, as it's worth the price, and it has extensive replayability as you will always try to find new ways to approach enemies and bosses with different weapon combinations.