izigame.me

TL;DR:
Berserk Boy is a mediocre platformer that is so busy with forcing its numerous ideas onto the player, that it forgets what made the games that inspired it good, namely: being a fun ride. That being said, this is also one of the few games that actually feels like a worthy MegaMan successor, which is why I'm inclined to advise you to get it (so long as you think that it looks fun).
In short: While this title suffers from a lot of first-gen woes, if the developers listen to feedback, in time we can all have an amazing sequel on our hands.
Full review:
I'm just going to say it how it is: Berserk Boy is mediocre. And I'm willing to bet that most of the 9/10s that the game got are given out by people who didn’t play this platformer through. That being said, I still think that you should support Berserk Boy Games, because there is great potential for a sequel here.
I'm going to be honest about my opinion too: a lot of what I'm about to describe can be labelled as "first-gen woes". Playing this title often made me want to replay MegaMan X5 and MegaMan Zero 4. Obviously, Berserk Boy wears its inspiration from those series on its sleeve.
To me, the central issues with this game are a striking lack of QA and bad game design. More specifically: mechanics that have a great deal of momentum clashing with levels that seemingly have one sole purpose: to diminish that momentum.
A great example of this are the different berserk modes that you can switch through. They take way too long to change from and to. This, in turn, ruins the game’s general flow. Not only that, but every form has its own mechanic associated with it, sometimes numerous even, which wouldn’t be an issue if they were fun to deal with.
But they are not, because the level design uses them as a form of gatekeeping. In a way, the game wants to put you in a certain frame of mind. It repeatedly throws the same obstacles your way, but in different sequences, only to give you excuses to use the different berserk modes.
That would’ve been fine if at least one of them was more or equally as fun as the first one you get. Not only that, but all of them have different abilities, right? Well, some of those transfer over to all the forms, but others: not. And that’s for the same reason too: so that the devs can force you to use their ideas.
And here’s where it gets confusing: at times, you can ignore these signals and successfully pass through such segments through other means. That’s great, right? Well, it would’ve been, if it were a feature. But it is not, which is proven by how the game doesn’t always let you do that, by penalty of immediate death. This naturally leads to rapid difficulty spikes, which aren’t earned.
Playing Berserk Boy feels like the game is using its ideas to challenge the player, instead of presenting the player with a series of challenges, which they can use experience and skill ro solve. This is exactly why Berserk Boy feels inspired by, but very far from equal to Megaman X, Zero or even the ZX series.
Those games are great, because they have a solid base, which was further expanded on. And Berserk Boy already had such a base: the first berserk mode (lightning). I am certain that if all the other modes simply granted extra abilities to that central gameplay style, the entire adventure would offer a much better experience.
Oh, and on the topic of comparing the series: I urge the devs to go back and check the time it takes to complete the levels in those games, because most take about five minutes to best. Berserk Boy’s stages, in turn, require about ten minutes and the game certainly overstays its welcome. Not only that, but this decision makes it very hard to want to replay it. In contrast, I can replay X5 daily, because it’s fast and fun.
On the story: as someone who actually thinks that the continuous plot across the MMX, MMZ and MMZX series was awesome, I must say that I got nothing from Berserk Boy’s plot. It was difficult to follow. It often felt like the game story’s elements were there to fulfil some sort of requirement; to fit the mould of the game’s progenitors, instead of those elements and tropes being present, because they bring actual value to the game itself.
I don’t see myself replaying Berserk Boy anytime soon. If I have to be honest: I probably won't play it ever again.
But I’m hopeful for the sequel, because the good in here is really good. And I think that you should get this game if it looks like a fun time to you. How can I possibly say that after all of the negatives that I just mentioned?
Well, easy: these aren’t negatives. This is feedback for the developers. And they should use it when making their next game. Because Berserk Boy is the first game to successfully bring me true MegaMan vibes. And that means something.