This retro-inspired action platformer is HARD | First Impressions - Elderand

Elderand is a 2D retro-inspired action platformer that has recently been released, and it is not for the faint of heart.

You play as a mercenary chosen because of a mysterious prophecy to eradicate the land of evil. The game is a skill-based combat game where players must face terrifying creatures and beings to progress through the game.

The game features Metroivanian elements and good looking pixel graphics that reminds me of Dead Cells. However, 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.

The visuals are crisp and clean-looking, and the controls feel responsive and smooth. The platforming elements are fun to perform especially when unlocking new types of movements like double jump and a grappling hook to reach new areas.

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 from underground caves to old castle ruins filled with dangers: alive, dead, or inanimate.

The combat on the other hand 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, making combat harder. 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.

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.

The 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.

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.

Elderand’s beautiful pixel art coupled with the highly skill-based combat system and engaging platforming gameplay has resulted in a satisfactory experience for me so far. The difficulty may be overwhelming for some players, but overall, Elderand is worth checking out for fans of the metroidvania genre.

Full Review will be posted soon here on Taptap! Stay tuned!