System: Swap
Launch date: November 16, 2023
Developer: Inti Creates
Writer: Inti Creates
Inti Creates has definitely earned a fame for creating prime quality 2D motion titles having introduced video games resembling Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and its sequel in addition to the Blaster Grasp Zero collection to the Swap through the years. The studio’s newest sport, Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze within the Deepblue, relies on a fantasy spinoff of Love Stay! Sunshine!! The setting lends itself effectively to a online game and it has a stable basis that makes it enjoyable whereas it lasts, however sadly it doesn’t capitalize on this sufficient to make it any greater than a middling expertise at finest.
Yohane the Parhelion could be very gentle on story, with Yohane and pals exploring a mysterious new dungeon that has appeared on the outskirts of Numazu. Separated from her pals, who ventured into the labyrinth and didn’t return, Yohane and her companion, Lailaps, have to dive into the dungeon themselves to rescue everybody else, and within the course of try to uncover the mysteries surrounding it. Even if you happen to’re not acquainted with Love Stay! Sunshine!! Yohane is a fascinating protagonist with an virtually embarrassingly tacky and quirky character that’s on full show in each line she says in cutscenes and her callouts in sport when she assaults. Though her interplay with the remainder of the forged is temporary and by no means sufficient for these unfamiliar with them to get a way of their relationships and even their personalities, that is clearly a sport designed with the followers in thoughts, and there may be greater than sufficient right here to fulfill those that know the characters. The story serves extra as a automobile for the gameplay, with the interplay being an added bonus or fanservice somewhat than the focus of the sport.
Yohane the Parhelion is a 2D Metroidvania, and if you happen to’ve ever performed one up to now you’ll discover no surprises right here. As Yohane you’ll be traversing a collection of interconnected areas, defeating enemies and interesting in some very gentle platforming, to be able to discover your lacking pals, who’re guarded by boss battles that you just’ll want to beat. You’re free to discover as you see match, however the sport will not directly information you alongside the proper path by inserting obstacles in your method that may require skills you’ll purchase later within the sport.
The sport could be very by-the-numbers, and whereas this isn’t essentially a nasty factor because the controls are tight and responsive and it by no means throws any specific irritating puzzles, platforming sections, or bosses on the participant, it’s noticeably missing within the challenges and hidden secrets and techniques which have develop into the hallmark of the style, which is one thing gamers searching for just a little greater than a really primary expertise will wish to contemplate. Yohane the Parhelion feels prefer it was designed with these unfamiliar with the style in thoughts: most enemies might be defeated in a single or two hits, and though bosses take considerably extra punishment, usually attacking them and avoiding their assaults in return is sufficient to safe victory.
When you’ve saved one in every of Yohane’s pals, you’ll acquire the power to make the most of their distinctive potential, which is able to help you discover extra of the dungeon. These skills have very restricted software, however are helpful throughout your complete dungeon and are fairly charming for his or her animations: for instance, You’ll hearth Yohane out of a cannon to clear gaps she will’t clear by leaping, and Hanamaru rolls throughout the display at excessive speeds to destroy spikes, getting dizzy when she collides with one thing. These can be upgraded into stronger variations by discovering distinctive objects in sidequests of types, providing you with just a little extra interplay with the characters that followers of the collection will little doubt admire. The usual upgrades for traversal, resembling double leaping and climbing, might be discovered scattered all through the dungeon, making these skills really feel extra like added rewards for development.
Though you should utilize your comrades to assault and defeat enemies, that is usually fairly awkward, as their assaults are sluggish, troublesome to purpose correctly, and clearly designed extra for environmental puzzle fixing than fight. As an alternative, the sport encourages you to create your individual tools by the Solid system, which makes use of the objects dropped by defeated enemies. There are all kinds of weapons with the same old advantages and disadvantages: weaker weapons are quicker and have a decrease Darkness Level (DP) value, and stronger weapons are slower with a better value. What weapon you employ largely comes down to private choice, as the sport is notably missing in problem and enemies don’t have any specific weaknesses to talk of. The extent of freedom right here is good, though I usually discovered that utilizing the strongest weapon I had was the higher selection due to the large well being swimming pools of bosses.
The Solid system is an fascinating method of buying new weapons that makes preventing enemies really feel rewarding and loot drops are prevalent so that you don’t have to spend hours grinding an enemy only for a brand new weapon, however sadly though the sport will let you know precisely what it is advisable make a specific piece of substances and can even offer you an on-screen alert to let you know when you may craft one thing new, it doesn’t let you know the place you will discover the objects you’re lacking. This makes the entire system really feel considerably arbitrary and missing in focus, particularly when many enemies will drop the identical sort of loot, and there usually is not any sense of development because of the open-ended nature of the map. Plenty of stronger weapons and armor want objects you’d have been getting close to the beginning of the sport, which retains them related, nevertheless it additionally means for lots of the sport you’ll be one or two objects wanting creating one thing, which ends up in the query of whether or not you haven’t been to the appropriate space but or whether or not you simply haven’t had the appropriate drop from the enemies.
Yohane the Parhelion is a way more accessible sport than many Metroidvanias with generously spaced Save Rooms that you could quick journey to at any time. This was a characteristic I appreciated enormously throughout my playthrough, because it in the reduction of on a number of unnecessary backtracking; discovering areas I used to be unable to progress resulting from missing the required potential was a typical incidence. It additionally made revisiting areas later to amass treasure chests that I used to be beforehand unable to succeed in a lot simpler: the sport marks these on the map while you enter a room, nevertheless it by no means tells you precisely the place within the room they’re, letting you could have the enjoyable of discovering its secrets and techniques with out losing time looking for out whether or not the room you’re in truly has any secrets and techniques to search out.
The sport options a sexy pixel artwork fashion with extra emphasis positioned on the character animations than the backgrounds, though every space feels distinct sufficient that you just’ll get the sense of getting into a brand new biome, with the backgrounds giving a novel aesthetic for every space. Bosses have equally distinctive and memorable (though generally weird) designs. Sadly although, there may be a number of repetition and recoloring of enemies between areas with the identical assault patterns, which makes the sport really feel fairly repetitive over prolonged play periods. Dialogue makes use of anime stills and occasional cutscenes, that are of a a lot greater high quality and match the anime theme of the sport.
Sound design in Yohane the Parhelion is great, with some extremely memorable and catchy space themes that caught in my head lengthy after I’d left the realm in query. The sport can be totally voiced in Japanese with the voice forged from the anime reprising their roles. There isn’t a number of dialogue within the sport, however this makes it really feel prime quality, and for followers there may be additionally a brand new track, Deep Blue, which serves as the sport’s theme.
Yohane the Parhelion is an especially quick sport, and I used to be fairly shocked after I was executed with my playthrough inside 5 hours, even after having scoured the map for hidden objects and collectibles. Past creating each attainable merchandise for the sake of private satisfaction, there isn’t something to do within the sport when you’ve completed the story and finishing the sport doesn’t unlock any further options or greater issue ranges. This notable lack of replayability makes the worth level really feel particularly steep: until you’re an enormous fan of Love Stay! Sunshine!! you then aren’t going to be getting your cash’s price right here when in comparison with different titles that supply extra on a primary playthrough and have added replayability past that.
The Verdict
Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze within the Deepblue is a reliable sport that does little or no to raise itself from its contemporaries with an absence of selection in enemy design, easy environmental puzzles, and an absence of replayability make this really feel like a number of wasted potential. Its sole defining characteristic is its Love Stay! Flavoring, and for followers of the anime that’s doubtless going to be greater than sufficient to persuade them to select this up, however if you happen to’re not acquainted with the supply materials, there isn’t actually something right here to advocate this over related titles, particularly contemplating the quantity of content material for the worth level.
Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze within the Deepblue copy offered by the writer for the needs of this overview.