pancakes :nonbinary_cat: (@pancakes)

finished pseudoregalia

thoughts

the movement is really fucking good. the controls are pretty solid and there's a good variety of abilities. by the end of the game you often have sequences where you need to chain together a few abilities in a row and it's very satisfying. my only complaint is probably the air kick which slightly extends your jumps but also works like a buffered walljump. i found it really easy to mess them up or misinput them and then waste my kicks and/or die (a lot). the combat has some cool features but i found that mashing attack was usually the safer option.
on average the soundtrack is pretty good but it can get a bit repetitive in larger areas. the aesthetic of the game is really solid both in terms of its style and its emulation of PS1 graphics. i like that you can toggle texture resolution and animation framerates between "retro" and smooth and that it has small details like texture warping which is neat.
i had some other complaints that i'm not going to get into because it's partially on me. i don't want to be too harsh on a game that was originally part of a game jam (and that has since been expanded upon). i really did enjoy it and for the price i definitely think it's worth playing.

thoughts

to be honest the wall kick thing is mostly a skill issue on my part. as I said, lots of misinputs and lots of deaths. it is a cool mechanic and I think it's better than traditional wall jumps in theory. I just don't think I could properly develop the muscle memory for it throughout my run which is a shame.

thoughts

oh I didn't mention the exploration at all. all of the areas that you go through are cool. it's very traversable and there's lots of ways to get between different places. there's also lots of items to find around the map and it's really rewarding. unfortunately I don't really have an eye for secrets (VI). by the end I had a collectible slot missing and a few locked doors unopened but again that's on me.

thoughts

I said PS1 but I initially thought and mainly see the comparison with N64 graphics. from what I understand the texture warping thing is more of a PS1 thing though so I'm unsure. either way it's pretty nostalgic to me. both consoles are before my time but I played a lot of Mario 64 on Wii virtual console as a kid