It’s impossible not to die too many times in this Metroidvania game | Full Review - Elderand

There’s been a resurgence of Metroidvania games lately, and it’s not stopping anytime soon. Elderand is another addition to the growing list, and it is not for the faint of heart, both with regard to gameplay and theme.

🟩Pros

+Satisfying skill-based combat

+A highly detailed pixel art world

🟥Cons

-The story is not exactly gripping

You play as a mercenary chosen because of a mysterious prophecy to eradicate the land of evil. This prophecy seemed to be ill-fated right from the very start, sinking your ship and leaving your crew dead and you stranded on an ominous island that is to be our game’s setting.

"I don't know their meaning, but it can't be good"

The story is not exactly gripping, and can be pretentious at times with its extremely cryptic texts and dialogue. Players can also collect scattered letters and journals from the poor souls who came before them to learn more about the lore and story. There is no voice dialogue, so everything is in text form. Fortunately, the enigmatic retro-inspired soundtrack is decent enough to provide a haunting audio experience while playing the game.

Elderand features Metroivanian elements and good looking pixel graphics that reminds me of Dead Cells. The visuals are crisp and clean-looking, and the controls feel responsive and smooth.

A beautiful pixel world

The game's hand-drawn pixel art world is detailed, and the attention to detail is impressive in everything from the character sprites to the mesmerizing background landscape. The artstyle features chibi-esque looking characters contrasted by a handcrafted gothic looking world with a demonic, cultic, and creepy atmosphere that can make one's flesh crawl.

You can travel across varying levels of landscapes, everything from the underground caves to old castle ruins filled with dangers: alive, dead, or inanimate, all add to the game's haunting atmosphere. The gothic aesthetics and level design are well done, and the world is full of surprises and provides players with diverse environments to explore.

Gameplay Analysis

The platforming elements are fun to perform especially when unlocking new types of movements like a double jump and a grappling hook to reach new previously unreachable areas. This also comes with exploration elements that reward players with loot and upgrades for their weapons. The world isn’t exactly linear, prepare to backtrack a lot if you want to explore every nook and cranny that this game has to offer.

Not for the faint-hearted

One of the main highlights of the Elderand is the highly skill-based combat game where players must face over 60 terrifying creatures and beings; and around a dozen bosses that provide players with a lot of challenge, requiring a different approach or tactic for each of these enemy types to progress through the game. The combat is extremely unforgiving. Since Elderand is a 2D game, the margin of error is smaller and there’s not much dimensional space available to the player to dodge projectiles and attacks, making combat harder than usual.

Attacks also happen in stationary, so attacking while running is impossible. It’s a small detail but one that significantly changes how the game is played. The combat becomes more tactical and deadly, but also more predictable and methodical.

Your health bar isn’t particularly high, and the enemies can attack you relentlessly with barrages of ranged and melee attacks. Dodges, dashes, and jumps must be precise in order for the player to survive. It’s impossible not to die too many times for the average player. Thankfully the controls are responsive and has never failed me.

Possible misconceptions

Despite some similarities to Dead Cells, it's not really a roguelite. When you die, you revive to the last saved fireplace that you activated, with no checkpoints or rogue-like resets.

Furthermore, the similarities in names can be quite misleading, but Elderand is not an Elder Ring clone, in fact, it's far from it, maybe except for the insane difficulty level.

When things are action-packed, the visual effects clutter the screen. The screen also shakes violently, so some important visual cues can be hard to see. Luckily, you can turn this screen shake off to mitigate some annoyances.

Light RPG and customization elements

The light RPG elements of Elderand give players the opportunity to customize their experience to suit their preferred playstyle, from character appearance to their skills, stats, and weapon loadout. Merchants will also be encountered throughout your journey to help you customize your gear.

You can equip two weapon loadouts at a time, for example a sword and shield and a bow and arrow, can seamlessly switch between them at will. In addition, you also have throwables and consumables at your disposal. Eventually, respecs will become free, allowing you to try out other builds without much grind or without restarting your progress, giving players a freedom to theorycraft and experiment.

While these build and weapon loadouts do make a difference, it still all boils down to the skill-based combat for you to successfully progress through the game and not die trying again and again. For the whole story, Elderand is beatable in under ten hours, with some degree of replayability due to different weapons and builds you can try.

One of the few issues with Elderand is that the game's difficulty can be overwhelming at times. The game is designed to be challenging, but it may be frustrating for some players who do not have a lot of experience with this type of game. The combat system is skill-based with a bit of memorization needed, and it can take some time AKA deaths, to master.

Conclusion:

Elderand’s beautiful hand-drawn pixel art coupled with the highly skill-based combat system and engaging platforming gameplay is worthy of a try. The difficulty may be overwhelming for some players, but overall — while it is not a masterpiece or revolutionary by any means — Elderand is still a solid game that is a worthy play for all Metroidvania fans looking for a challenge.