Marko: Beyond Brave Review (Ratto)
I love the fact that its a Bulgarian game with folklore elements (as a Bulgarian myself)
But I just can't get over the issues of the game, especially when considering the price tag, some of the issues include:
* Missing VFX, SFX and UI polish
* Missing user-feedback when doing certain actions
* The art is good when it comes to the animated characters, but there is Inconsistency in the style, for example - background, foreground, enemies and visual effects often have a different style, and its noticeable in a bad way
* Some actions feel a bit janky, either too snappy or floaty (for example the mid-air down-attack can be missed easily, no grace period where the attack hitbox stays active for a few more frames to check for collisions with an enemy)
* Bad telegraphing, especially the first/tutorial boss
* The difficulty of the game to a big extent doesn't come from a design/logical choice, but rather the combination of the missing telegraphing and user feedback when certain actions happen (ex: missing SFX when boss attacks, or needlessly fast animation with minimal delay)
* Map design - some areas are not well connected, for an example the tutorial area could use some "railway" guidance to push the player properly in the right direction and learn the basic mechanics without feeling too lost or handheld
* Missing basic tutorial steps
* Buttons not displayed in the text (example: "Heal by pressing the Courage/Heal button", whichever that button is)
* Bad default keyboard mapping
* Missing Bulgarian translation (in a Bulgarian folklore game)
At the end of the day its an indie game, and the devs are fixing some of the issues and taking feedback, so we could say its not "finished".
On the positive side, the game has good music and artwork with folk elements (Personal favorites are Kozan and the Samodivas)
Is the game worth 19€ in it's current state? For me - No.
Does the game have room for improvement which the dev's are currently working on? - Yes.
Will the game be worth 19€ after bugfixing and updating? - Its up to you.
Currently I'm enjoying the game even with its current issues, but personally I would rather market it as a work in progress/early access game rather than a finished product. All in all it's very cool to see a Bulgarian themed game, and I wish the dev team good luck on their journey