Game #964: Chasm

  No chasm deep enough.

 I followed Chasm ever since it was first announced on Kickstarter, as the game looked really cool. I was hyped on the Vita at the time, and longed for a physical release, but by the time it was announced I missed it. And, years later, it saw a physical release on the Switch, my chance to finally try this game out, and after going through it... man, I would've loved this game on the Vita.

 Chasm is as pure a Metroidvania as it gets. 2-D, different armor, weapons and spells to equip, various zones you can't fully explore until you get the right power up, etc etc. The game's main gimmick is that every world is randomly generated, but the game graciously shows you your 'seed' upon which the game builds its world, so you can share it so that other people can play generated world that you got. The order in which you visit the six different worlds is always the same, the progression is the same, but the shape of the rooms and how they are connected changes. It's an interesting idea to be sure, and one that really piqued my interest back in the day!

  The Metroidvania it most closely resembles is certainly Symphony of the Night. The main character can equip different weapon types, such as swords, maces, whips or knives on one of his hands, the Y button, and a spell on the other, the A button. Spells borrow heavily from Castelvania's sub weapons, such as the knife, axe and holy water. You also get a back dash to avoid attacks. As you advance through the game you'll gain access to new skills like a double jump, a slowed decent, wall jumps and a few others.

 Interestingly, there's a large emphasis on environmental hazards, plenty of poisonous waters, spikes and the such trying to wear you down before you get to your enemies. And the game is rather challenging, not as hard as Order of Ecclesia, but sitting comfortably between it and Bloodstained. Basic enemies, at least on the normal difficulty setting, can shred your life bar in a few seconds, some of their attacks cover more distance than your backdash making close-ranged weapons such as knives very dangerous to use and most enemies will be able to tank at least three basic attacks from the strongest weapon in the game assuming you aren't grinding for experience points. Save points are pretty sparse too, but at least the game is kind enough to heal you completely upon leveling up, something you can exploit if you are close to dying but there's an easy enemy you can farm experience points from.

 Besides getting to the end of the final area, there's a secondary objective: Rescuing every villager. Most rescued villagers will offer their services, shops mostly, if you go back to the town and every villager sans the pet has a sidequest for you. A full 100% run took me about 9 hours to complete. The progression is fairly well done for the most part, but knowing what to do after defeating King Trell is nigh impossible if you like exploring, like myself. You get an amulet... but you don't know what for. After most bosses you get an ability, so knowing where to go next is pretty easy, but this amulet offers no hint of what it could do. Thing is, assuming you explored everything you could by the time... you must return to a specific room in an area which will trigger a cutscene. This was easily the game's lowest point, as I had to google what to do next and clearly I wasn't the only one stumped by this.

 I would've liked more weapons. It seemed like I was stuck with the same weapons for a long time, and the slow weapons, like the claymore, don't seem very useful in a game where enemies can cover so much ground and so quickly with their attacks. In games like Aria of Sorrow, massive weapons like the Claim Solais make sense because enemies can't tank as many hits nor are they as nimble, so the tradeoff in speed makes sense. And, now, this is a nit pick, I know it is... but what's up with the main character? Every piece of official art depicts him in this bright red armor, with a very colorful orange hair... but the in-game sprite offers a very muted brown hair and magenta armor. And it's not like the game is devoid of color, but I feel like the main character looks so much better when he is depicted with more color!

 Beating the game unlocks a new difficulty setting, but if you want something slightly different, there's an 'Arcade' mode in which you are timed, going from random room to random room defeating enemies in a linear fashion. It's a decent extra.

 Well, after years of waiting before I could finally play this game I'm happy to say that I'm fairly content with the end result. It's the best Metroidvania ever made, but it's really good and gets the core concepts of what makes a Metroidvania fun right. A few things could use a bit of tuning, like guidance or hints after King Trell, more weapons and making some weapons more useful, but for the most part it's a very good offering.

 7.5