Eryi’s Action Review

As I have mentioned several times on this site, my first ever video-game purchase was “Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins” for the Nintendo Gameboy, a platform game which helped foster a passion for video games and even more so – played some small role in The Otaku’s Study actually existing. Eryi’s Action is the latest platform game on the market developed by Xtal Sword and published by Nyu Media today. However while Super Mario Land 2 helped develop a love of gaming…. at some points Eryi’s Action was the closest any game has gotten to destroying it.

Following in the line of such games as Sybon Action, “I Wanna Be The Guy” and heck… for newer gamers Demons / Dark Souls, the game is designed to be evil. Evil as in it is practically impossible to NOT get a Game Over, as even before you escape the starting zone you will likely deplete your total life count of 2 (See HERE). It is nearly impossible not to die as while from the look of things each stage is bright and cheery and look like any normal stage (With a cutesy protagonist as well), nothing is stopping that patch of grass from unveiling a set of spikes, that hole from blocking your way back up or end of stage flag being rigged with some sort of trap.

As most of this games fun is derived from uncovering and dying from these traps which litter the stages, I will not go into too much detail on them. But what I can say is that while the first few stages require some degree of caution, skepticism and well, taking the leap of faith – the later levels make it more difficult by incorporating elements of skill, logic and time into them as well.

The game incorporates a total of twelve stages in it – seven of which are platforming stages similar to a Super Mario game, four of them are boss stages which I will detail a little bit later on and the final one is either the starting zone (Which you visit everytime you load up the game – containing “pan” traps) or possibly a hidden stage after you collection the games seven crystals inconveniently placed in the games stages (Going by a press release here, as I only played through eleven of them). The stages each have different themes and have designs and traps included mostly based on them.

Some of the level designs include a simple grassy plains to a “Boss’s Castle” area to an underwater stage with the usual awkward mechanics. A particular highlight was the underwater level, which easily caused me the most strife in the game by making use of very strong water currents, innocent looking fish that could kill and as mentioned before… the normal “more awkward” mechanics.

Wait… hold on a minute…. was that just an RPG system in a platforming game?

The games boss battles are a bit different from what you may expect in a normal platforming game. Rather than have all four bosses follow a simple pattern of jumping on the enemies head or throwing a giant ball at them, after the first boss the game ditches the battle system and provides you with other challenging versions of other genre’s game systems. All four boss battles added their own twists to their gameplay systems and for the first two at least incorporated the games sly means of making things randomly more difficult well. To keep the other three a surprise at least, I will not go into any more detail but they complemented the game well.

Some previous experience with the platforming gameplay system is almost essential to complete the game, but the controls themselves are pretty self-explanatory and easy to pick up (Arrow buttons and a couple of keys to pick up, select and so forth). The title does require a bit of creativity in the controls use so once again, comes down to experience in some degree.

There were a couple of issues I did have with the game however that I would have liked to have seen built upon in a sequel. Firstly, I would have liked to have seen more reason to test the boundaries of the game, as the only collectible item are seven gems. This would have added to the replay value and (while at times challenging enough to find the correct route) would have given more reason to backtrack and cause more frustration. Secondly, I would liked to have seen more levels – as while for a $4.99 game there is a good amount of content and I was left exhausted after completing it…. I was left wanting more!

Storyline

The storyline in this game is not critical, and only serves as purpose to Eryi’s journey across the harsh environment and the games final boss. However if you are after more information on each of the games main characters, including the minor bosses, the official website goes into more detail HERE.

Design / Music

While there is nothing unique to highlight in regards to the games visual appearance, the game is overall bright and colourful, with solid and often cute character and environment designs. While offering a cutesy aesthetic and alongside with level designs offer many references to games of the past – the designs also serve as good distractions. Except where required, the level design was good with no notable issues with their construction – and if you follow the correct path and procedure you should not fall through a floor or anything.

The game does not feature an extensive soundtrack (Although has a few good tracks in it) and the “Game Over” music which plays every time Eryi dies can soon get on your nerves – taking into consideration other aspects of the game it serves its purpose.

Personal Opinion

Nyu Media have not avoided mentioning the fact that the game is hard, posting messages on the games official website such as “WARNING! This game is frustratingly addictive!” and “WARNING! Contains traps that will annoy the heck out of you!” and even a gamers pledge about what to do if Eryi dies 100 times. I can also vouch that this game will not be for many casual gamers as there were many moments which were testing my nerve and patience. While the games official website also mentions that they will be opening a spoilers section soon (HERE), I think this is a game that is worth the sleuthing and planning to complete – purely for the satisfaction.

Either way, it is only $4.99, and I at least think it is a solid game for that price!

Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: D
Design: B
Music/Voice Acting: B
Gameplay: A
Replayability: B
Personal Opinion: A-
Overall Score: A-