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Teeny-tiny pixel games have always had a warm cosy spot on my gaming roster from the many Joust-alikes back in the day to FTL's Oids and retro-modern titles like
Rock Boshers DX. Thy Sword keeps the trend rolling with surprisingly thoughtful hack-and-slash action underlying the dinky pixel single-screen presentation.
Across gloomy forests, whispering woods, dungeons and obsidian mountains your Barbarian or Valkyrie must eliminate the nasties clogging up the platforms on each screen. They range from poisonous spiders to trolls and gnolls, golems and other unfriendly folk. You need to kill all the enemies to escape through an ominous gate, except those that burst out of crates or barrels or fly in randomly during the level, with plenty of loot to grab and the odd bonus chest.
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| Normal graphic mode, another day in the woods |
Thought processes, and enacting them quickly are key to success. Firstly, if there'a crow carrying a key, you need to whack that carrion before it escapes to open up the random chests that some levels offer. Doing that while not losing some of your health is tricky in itself, with left trigger blocking, right trigger dealing a normal sword attack, a stronger one of the square button and the bow and arrow if equipped, vital for range kills.
Is it easier to jump up at them from below? Can you deal the multiple hits by safely jumping at them from a nearby platform at a similar height? Are there baddies that can throw rocks or fire arrows at you that will make your current target trickier to kill? And what if there are two or three on one platform, with an exploding barrel nearby? Quite a few thoughts, not a lot of time.. or you can just leap around hacking like a maniac hoping for a health vial to appear as the hits mount up.
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| Pixel grid graphic mode, beware the exploding barrels, and beasties creeping out of the others |
Every section of map is divided into five levels, complete them by not losing all your health and you can visit a rogue's camp. If you've collected enough coins and gems, pick up better weapons or trinkets that will improve your chances in the later levels and the bosses that block your progress further into this stock-fantasy realm.
Each boss, from a giant spider, tentacled-swamp thing to a fiery dragon and beyond all have a fixed movement patter, with a few tricks, you need to learn to get through to collect one of the gems that hold the secret of power in this cursed land.
As far as the effects go, we have a suitably retro gothic soundtrack, woody and clanky battle noises and a pixel grid option to make it look more retro, or not. Difficulty modes let you breeze through with endless retries, while the hardest mode offers permadeath for seasoned questers.
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| Get used to this screen |
I love the tight focus on gameplay, especially when you're down to one or two health and have to really thing things through. A few more secrets would be good, and perhaps a mini-game? Also, the quirky little pinball-style pixel display at the bottom of the screen that signals major events is a fun touch.
Is all this worth double-the-price of a normal Ratalaika game? Probably not quite, but with PSN difficulties and PEGI changes looming, I'd be trying to get all the money I can from a Vita release, so fair enough. And as a first effort from GamePhase, a three-person team, this is pretty impressive and I'd hope to see more.
Developer GamePhase/Ratalaika
Price: £7.99 (PSN)
Score: 7/10
Progress: Gems don't cure stab wounds.
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