Recent reviews by OrangeIsBorange

I spent a lot of time playing the Switch version, and it wasn't long until I purchased this game again on Steam simply because I wanted to be able to play this on my computer. The boost in frame rate and overall sharper visuals really made the game stand out more. I wished the game came out physically for PC alongside the collectors edition for the Switch. Though, I'm not disappointed with a second purchase, on the contrary I absolutely love this game.

There are so many things I can gush about that would lead into spoiler territory, but I personally think for the price it's at, it's more than worth it. The game has so much to do and explore, and I absolutely enjoy the 8 different paths you can take, my personal favorites being Tressa's and Olberic's. There are additional classes (4) aside from the main 8 that you get, and the mixing and matching of these classes are amazing, really reminds me of Final Fantasy 5 and Final Fantasy 6.

My only issue with the game is that when you gather more team mates, I wished there was more interconnecting story. Unfortunately; you don't get those bits until the true final boss appears after completing all 8 paths. Even then, the characters don't speak to each other much aside from small bits here and there between points of interest. I will admit that the story bits you do get between the characters are fairly good.

All in all, if you're looking for an old school traditional JRPG similar to Live A Live, this is your ticket.

I generally haven’t played a lot of Castlevania or Metroid games beforehand, but something that sets Necrolepsy apart from those two series is that it doesn’t feel like a Castlevania or Metroid title. To me, it felt more like a Zelda 2, but with an emphasis on the combo heavy mechanics. However, I wouldn’t outright state that Necrolepsy has direct takes from Zelda 2, but they definitely feel there. Necrolepsy’s core mechanic is a time-based counter at the right-hand corner, which keeps track of how much time you have left until Lira falls asleep and has a nightmare. As far as I am concerned, when a nightmare occurs, everything is twice as harder. Enemies have a buff, requiring more damage and do more damage to you. It’s a mechanic I don’t often see, and in a way, it’s very interesting. It’s almost like I have to do a speedrun to get to the next save point throughout the game, and to me, that’s something I affectionately enjoy.

Something that I thought was worth mentioning is the combat system also reminds me of typical fighting games, such as the Heavy Attack being the Claymore, the Light Attack being the Hand Axe, and the Medium Attack being the other Axe you get later in the game. Alongside this, you have your Crossbow which can be similar to a ranged attack. Had Lira been proposed as a character in a fighting game or even Super Smash Brothers, I feel like the moveset fits her conceptual design and movement flow really nicely. I remember playing a lot of SNK games, and her moves remind me of a lot of the characters from there, mostly my mains which were Terry Bogard and Nakoruru. Not for their fighting styles but how the combat is composed in a similar way makes me appreciate the design of Necrolepsy’s combat style. It’s intuitive, engaging and extremely rewarding to a player when they successfully pull off combos.

While I haven’t exactly played this on the keyboard, playing this on the controller has been amazing. All of Lira’s moves and abilities are extremely responsive, and distinctively have weight to them that gives them drive, especially for how heavy the combo system is later down in the game. Of course, at the start of the game, you don’t really have much to work with and that isn’t such a bad thing. This leads to having excitement when you get new equipment and abilities, much like getting different abilities in Super Metroid or Momodora: Reviere of the Moonlight. Something I really enjoy is going back to Bart’s Bar to purchase any items from him through his shop. The best part about this is that Bart isn’t static at all times, and actually shows the items you are purchasing really giving charm and personality to his overall character. It’s something I wish other games would really look into, most of them feel so lifeless and having no other aspects to them to make them unique or stand out. Minor characters such as Bart don’t get enough time on the screen, but I can really appreciate that the developer gave Bart a position that expresses Bart’s supportive and positive energy towards Lira in an excellent way.

I really do think the story is quite charming, and each of the characters engage in such silly dramatic conversations, in which the Necromancers bounce off Lira’s headstrong personality. The flow of these conversations suits well for the setting and I find myself chuckling to the rough 90s references of old that makes me long for those times again. Graphic fidelity aside, the game’s artistic design reminds me of games like Cave Story, soothing pixel art that scales nicely on screens and doesn’t have to be adjusted for pixel-perfect scaling or anything of the sort. I also had vibes of old 90s anime style with the shading and how the colors highlighted against the other complementary colors the creator chose. Lira and Bart feel like they had jumped right off a manga artist's workstation and straight into a video game, or perhaps a cartoon would be better suited? Either way, the art style is very gentle on the eyes, and I can really appreciate the attention to details like this. My only issues with the artstyle is that character portraits appear very pixelated and have jaggies, somewhat in a similar style to Fire Emblem portraits for the GBA titles. I don’t exactly have a problem with this, but for a game that exhibits different art styles I feel like hand-drawn portraits would be better suited, much like the promotional artwork. Backgrounds in the beginning of areas have a nice scrolling pseudo 2.5D aspect to them, and they look really impressive, however when you enter the dungeon the backgrounds become more placid. Not saying that there should be a lot of activity in the background, I just feel like the first dungeon did these backgrounds justice with paintings that change dramatically when you go into Nightmare mode. Something I really enjoyed was how drastic and bizarre the backgrounds would change based on your location when you went into Nightmare mode, some of them often having pretty disturbing imagery and really exemplify Lira’s nightmares realistically in a very charming way.

Necrolepsy’s musical impact is something to behold, it’s really soothing and has amazing piano synthetic approach. May Mansion I is probably the most rememberable, the upbeatness to the drums and horns following along the synth piano is just really something I can’t express into words. Noah Aman really had whatever it took to get a good amount of emotion into this soundtrack. I can easily hum the music to Ctarl Caves which has almost a Dark Souls feeling of unknown and mystical undertones. I get a sense of unsettling aura from Ctarl Caves specifically as I continue through the dungeon and the music becomes more and more interesting, especially the flute melody just really beautiful. Also, the choice to make the rock soundtrack for the second part of the Fortune Fortress, Racing Towards Victory captures the entire embodiment of the game. Heavy rock and just over all chilling to the bone action, I can not express enough my overall gratitude to the soundtrack. If you don’t like the game’s graphics or story, hell even the controls, I have to give it up to the creator’s and their team’s taste in music. Phenomenal nonetheless. Sound Effects are a bit out there, some of the sound effects didn’t really suit well at least from what I thought. Not to mention there are sound effects that sound almost identical to The Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gamelon and The Legend of Zelda: The Faces of Evil. Nothing remotely wrong with these, but noticing them in such an obscure Indie title was not only jarring but also somewhat hilarious.

Like any Metroidvania, you should really explore your surroundings and get a feel for the map layout of each area. Something I really enjoyed about the first Metroid is getting lost and trying to remember where I needed to go, creating a mental map of each area and trying to get my way around each area. I feel like this is executed properly in Necrolepsy, there are fast travel spots that are very resourceful when you’re trying to get to different parts of the map quickly.

Stolken, very clearly has put a lot of attention to detail in his work, and I really do appreciate him gifting this game to me to review. I wouldn’t have enjoyed a fast, speedrun-esque archetype combo-centric Metroidvania game had he not trusted my previous work and allowed me to make this review. Overall, this game has a sweet spot in my heart, it’s definitely not perfect but Stolken’s appreciation for his own work and not giving up really strikes me as something to admire, even from afar. I can really understand how he was feeling in the development of this game, and seeing this transition into a game he very clearly is prideful about is something to behold. I’m really proud of him, and not knowing the person very long I feel like I’ve gotten to know the person just by playing their game and experience it. The game is certainly worth a try, and a good experience.