It's a Hit or a Miss for Amaterasu's Wrath

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Chronicles of 2 Heroes: Amaterasu's Wrath (Reviewed)

Developer: Infinity Experience

Publisher: Catness Game Studios

Released: May 26th, 2023

Price: $20 USD

Chronicles of 2 Heroes: Amaterasu's Wrath is a retro platformer that claims to have Metroidvania elements but seems more like just an action platform puzzler.

It's daring at moments, with informative techniques to help you through each new section of the map that you unlock, but it also manages to become boring over time. While yes, some of these abilities are actually quite visually pleasing, it's just not fun doing the same mechanic over again with so much clever hand holding.

On your quest to save Japan, you will confront various creatures from Japanese folklore, such as Kappa, Yōkai, Oni, and many others.

Story

Amaterasu and Himiko

You play as Ayame and Kensei, two trained warriors tasked with stopping the goddess Amaterasu and her tyrannical forces alongside the Empress Himiko.

They must be crafty in order to safeguard their treasured homeland of Japan.

Over time, the two will frequently exchange witty banter, demonstrating a sense of comradery and caring for one another, while also coming across as overly ambitious / careless. Which is a good sign of character growth for video games.

While the story is basic, there isn't much else to mention just save Japan.

Problems

Reason

In this game, there is zero rewarding sensation for doing anything. Nothing feels important. Gold is meaningless, and reward chambers are frustratingly pointless with a artificial leap in difficultly all for the promise of a new heart container, 50 gold, or a Cat collectable, which doesn't really change anything in the game.

Reward Chambers

The closest thing I can compare these reward chambers to is when I used to play games like Ninja Gaiden or Ghouls 'n Ghosts, which had clearly unfair features like randomly spawning buggy monsters flying directly at you mid-jump.

Certain reward rooms are exactly that: buggy, difficult, unfair, long, tedious, and unrewarding when you lose your reward when you leave the area even though you had clearly completed it. It would simply disappear without a warning.

Music

It's not memorable for the right reasons. It's unforgettable because it's just plain annoying. The same loud chiptune song blaring in your ears on loop for hours and hours with no actual change, and when it does switch to a new song, it's honestly a hit or a miss, because it's normally only the boss fights that are good. They all sound the same to the point that you would wish to turn it off completely.

Fortunately, you have that option. I understand that this may be considered a personal opinion, but this is coming from someone who will listen to a song on repeat for those YouTube (10 hour) versions. The music is just not that good.

Gameplay

Bland

I'm not sure what it was that eventually led me to the conclusion that this game is nothing exceptional, but the fights are sometimes alright, but oftentimes way too boring and simple, with the buildup to those fights consisting of you learning how to use your heroes in numerous ways until you reach the boss room.

There are no menus or real uses for the map other than finding your location, and the temptation to return to prior spots is non-existent when you realize that the destinations simply have a Cat or some currency to give you for your futile backtrack through extremely boring and long locations that have no teleports.

The very least that could be implemented is the ability to scroll the map quickly, it's so slow and really takes you away from the actual game as a whole.

Presentation

As previously noted, the game looks beautiful, but it's not enough to keep my attention for long. You must have good aesthetics as well as snappy gameplay with easy-to-navigate maps and overworlds otherwise it's half of the pieces.

That is all this game currently has going for it. Visually appealing with a blend of clumsy gameplay, unique design for the (2) heroes, and the utilization of their powers in tandem to solve a platforming puzzle so you move forward.

Frustration

I don't mind playing video games for long hours at a time as it's one thing I am good at. It's nice to be able to reach out and try new things, different genres, and see the work put into things that certain developers are quite passionate about.

However, the more I play this, the more it dawns on me that I have spent the last 2-3-4 hours doing the exact same thing in each room, if not different from the last ever so slightly making it feel way too linear with zero freedom.

You visit a new section of the map and learn how to use a new kill like the ability to double jump. The game then shows you the next handful of rooms that revolve on that mechanic, as well as particular things you can do with it together.

Example: kill a high enemy, double jump + kunai, or combine your ability with the other heroes' abilities to reach a higher spot to utilize the samurai slash.

This continues until the boss encounter, at which point additional skills are obtained, which then rotate around each other, allowing you more time to acclimatize to them before being given newer abilities to do the same with.

I'll admit that I didn't get very far, but it was owing to the game's severe hand-holding aspect. I want to play, not have an invisible tutorial constantly teaching me how to accomplish stuff. There is a tutorial section, but I kept having to think if I was still in it since everything felt like a lingering tutorial fading away slightly.

Conclusion

A mixture of confusion

I haven't felt this dethatched from a video game in a long time.

I'm not sure what this game is attempting to be. Is it attempting to be a training ground during the first 5 hours, demonstrating how to employ the powers of each warrior who have spent their entire life training for this day or is it meant for a nostalgic audience who wish for the "golden age" of retro platformers?

The game looks fantastic yet again. It has a very retro feel to it. However, it fails to capture the true gameplay sensation of those 16bit classics.

It is slow and unpleasant, and you will come to recognize that over time, despite the game's daring decisions in how they approach progression. It's just too repetitious and unpolished becoming more puzzle than action / Metroidvania.

This concludes my views of this game; while my opinions may be met with criticism, that is what distinguishes gamers; you don't have to like the same things as others, nor do you have to agree with them.

If you want to catch me on one of my streams or locate me on social media, you may do so at the following locations, I'm always playing something new.

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- Pawkt