5/5/2023 0 Comments Legends of ethernal![]() Inside is probably my game of the generation, and – while slightly too ubiquitous – you can’t go wrong with a good, refined Metroidvania. Once I’d calibrated to the ‘Limbo, but in a Metroidvania’ reality, I was so, so ready and eager to love the game. Everything works well.īut is it any good? I wanted to reference ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ because I got an unexpected response from playing Legends of Ethernal. The platforming is simple but effective too: we never felt like the controls were slippy or inaccurate. You’ve also got a pool of mana gubbins that you draw on for your ranged weapon, some powerful melee attacks, and a full heal. You’re not manoeuvrable in a Dead Cells or Hollow Knight sense: you constantly feel like you’re overwhelmed, which fits the plot and your character. All of this is broken up with fire-pits that restore health and checkpoint you, scrolls that act as collectibles, and hidden rooms that give you weapon boosts.Ĭombat is simple but effective, with a single attack for melee (three melee weapons appear over the course of Legends of Ethernal, switchable with LB) with no combos, and a single ranged attack (blowpipes, fire bombs and grenades are also switched out with an RB). You’ll gain a bomb, poison, ally and other buffs that grant you access to a different region, and then off you trudge. You’re effectively moving from map region to map region, with a faction of enemies in each – tree-people called Jarken, frog tribes called Bruwig, spiders, zealots, ghosts – and a leader to overcome in a boss battle. ![]() ![]() This isn’t a side-scroller: the world is relatively open and explorable, like a diluted Metroidvania, with areas you can’t access yet without powers. You can jump, attack and dodge, and the world is a mixture of platforming and hordes of monsters to fight. Legends of Ethernal is also clearly not the Mario platformer we first thought it would be. So, yeah, we judged the book wrong on this one. It would be remiss to spoil it too much, but the storytelling goes to places that most stories don’t. If there were ever glimmers of hope in the starting sections, they’re quickly gone. The colourful palette quickly makes way to darkness (literally, in one section), and the same is true of the storytelling. You will fight as hard as you can, using your fishing rod and any other ramshackle bits and pieces you can find to defend yourself. The throughline is despair and helplessness, as you look to catch up with your parents.
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