by
Heralding back to metroidvanias, have you ever asked yourself what one would look like underwater? Look onward my friend towards…
I’m just going to give this one to you straight and quick. Valdis Story is a polished metroidvania game with tons of toys for you to play with but fails to perfectly capture the goodness of the genre that it represents.
Story-wise, it has something to do with sea-dwellers being labeled as angels by those who live underneath it, two goddess sisters born unto light and dark and some sort of clash between both aforementioned pairs. You play as a top-sider who falls into a city in the sea and it’s up to you to beat the ever-living crap out of anything that gets between you and the next plot-trigger. The dialogue is acceptable (if a bit dull) and the opening drags on for what feels like an eternity.
There are 4 playable characters to choose from (2 of which need to be unlocked) each with a focus in a different fighting style, although it seems that it can be easily summed up as “Fighter, Healer, Thief and Mage.” I chose the healer (because I’ll be damned if I’m stuck playing a fighter again after Fortune Summoners) and I was happy to discover 8 distinct starting spells and several spell-casty perks to be picked up with each level gained.
The art is appealing as well, with very stylized characters and a bright and colorful world. The HUD and menu’s interfaces are also snappy, colorful and very user-friendly. It took me a matter of seconds to become acclimated to them. Monster drops are bright and apparent and upon pickup are immediately sent to their cozy little home on the inventory screen. Judging by the blank spaces, there’s even the promise of multiple pieces of equipment ranging from weapons to armors to finishers and pets.
The problem is, something about the game just doesn’t feel right. The world is almost too bright, and oftentimes I’ll lose the character in the action that’s going on. Smacking enemies in Castlevania felt satisfying and every level up felt earned–in Valdis Story, combat feels a bit button-mashy and level-ups almost feel gimmicky. You start out with so many skills that I almost feel spoiled and I feel I’ve done little to earn the power that I have yet I’m just as impatient for more power so that I feel a sense of progression. Horizontal movement within the game feels very slow and while I appreciated acquiring an early dash, it’s button input (down and quarter turn right/left?) was a little bit awkward. It was probably done so that other buttons (bumpers, I’m looking at you) could be reserved for powerups later, but the Castlevania series reserved the shoulder buttons for dashes for a reason.
In spite of all this polish and content I wish more thought had been put into the game design itself. Access to a healing spell right off the bat puts emphasis on turtling and hoarding MP just to have a bigger life bar. Some skills don’t seem very dynamic while others just seem like an alternative (and MP draining) method to mashing the attack key. Regardless, it can’t be denied that there seems like a lot to discover through multiple playthroughs and even offers a decent challenge–and I was only playing on “Normal” which was 3 levels below the ominous “God Slayer” difficulty. All this adds up to a high Tier 2 and definitely will be something I come back for once I clear out my T1 list.
