Ah, the Classic Metroidvania, a kind really ahead of its time, demonstrated by its always current popularity. Nowadays, we really feel that the genre has found its place in the hands of independent developers – and it is honestly not a big surprise. The idea of ​​iterating on simple concepts, reuse the same frame using back and environmental puzzles are all intelligent ideas that allow small developers to expand their limited assets through their creativity.

The last competitor to cast his hat in the ring of this legendary heritage is betrayer: curse of the spine. The game brings many familiar mechanics while innovating on its own ideas. The décor of Dark Fantasy, although clearly not Gothic, brings the original spirit of Castlevania, and the complex graphics in pixels also follow this classical nostalgia. However, the curve ball comes from the fact that traitor allows players to spend points to unlock bonuses instead of simply finding them around the world, which complicates the formula in many surprising ways.

The traitor world is mysterious and disturbing. With very little information about your situation, you wake up in an abandoned garrison, knowing only that you have been cursed. With little things to do, you are looking to break this curse and hopefully find answers along the way.

Reflecting this mystery of the world, the design of the card is equally confusing. Everything is great open to explore, which means that you could easily enter areas too hard to overcome. I love this type of design, it makes the world more real. The world does not adapt to the player, instead, the player must find his way around the world, and it gives him something tangible to work. It even gives people ready to challenge the satisfaction of beating something for which they are not ready.

Speaking of this, since the exploration powers can be unlocked according to the way you assign the orbs that you find in the world, you can almost choose the area to unlock next. Many unlock conditions also seem to have been conceived around this fact, which means that there are many ways to access it. Sometimes I had the impression of having almost deceived the system and arriving in areas where I was not supposed to be by making a lot of Janky stuff. I also mean that in the best way possible, it’s great when games allow players to be smart.

As the game is currently under development, I hope developers will seek a little more fighting systems. Currently, it is the biggest disadvantage of this game for me, especially because the focus is on the fight in this game.

The fact that your attacks have a scope so short and the way they hit your opponent so far makes it impossible to use the combo system of the game. This is aggravated by the fact that your opponent charges you blindly or stay away and draws projectiles. There are no exploitable schemes or complex attacks to overcome. Finally, have as many improvements as do more damage or give a critical blow chance is not a very interesting way to deepen the fight, and I wait a little more of the bonuses of my Metroidvanias.

But again, what the game has for him is incredible, and with an also solid base, I can only see betray: curse of the spine get better. Keep an eye on this one!

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