So, I reviewed Arzette, but now it's time to review the other game I got recently: Berserk Boy. I don't have quite as much to say about this one as I did with Arzette, that game was a very special case, but I can say that it's also quite a fun time even if I comes with a fair share of flaws.
Berserk Boy is yet another Mega Man-inspired action platformer, though I wouldn't exactly say it's inspired by the Classic or X games like many of its contemporaries. If anything, Berserk Boy seems a lot more like a Zero or ZX game, with a stronger emphasis on free-flowing combat and combo potential. As someone who adores the combat in those games, I can definitely say that Berserk Boy 100% lives up to its inspirations in this aspect, main character Kei feels incredible to control. He's fast, tight, and has a sick multidirectional dash that forms the crux of this game's combat system. When you dash into an enemy, you get a number of perks including a bounce, a midair dash, and the ability to zap a nearby enemy with lightning. Landing a hit on an enemy will also start up a combo that can multiply your score, so skilled gameplay will have you bouncing off of enemies without hitting the ground and it feels so damn good. On top of that, Berserk Boy takes from ZX by having you earn alternate suits from defeating bosses, each with their own unique movesets that you can swap between whenever you want. From a ninja suit that lets you shoot tons of Kunai, to a Harpuia-esque suit that lets you fly around, the sheer amount of variety in Kei's movepool by the end of the game leads to some of the best 2D character action combat I've seen in quite some time.
But while the movement is great, the level design isn't quite as strong. It's not bad, not in the slightest. The game will have you doing fast-paced platforming sequences and fun combat encounters that get more complex as the game goes on, and there is a fair share of neat setpieces that show up every once in a while, usually involving Kei's techie friend Dizzie showing with a vehicle that you can use to wreck everything in sight. However, the problem is that these levels can end up feeling pretty samey a lot of the time. Despite each world having a unique aesthetic, there aren't any world-specific mechanics, you'll still be dealing with the same elevated platforms, rails, and suit-specific switches. And even with the difference in biomes, the entire game takes place in the same-looking mechanical bases. The penultimate world, the Sky Fort, does try to remedy this with more open exterior areas, platforming across airships, elevator fights, and shmup segments, but even there the repetitiveness can still be felt, especially with how long the levels can be. The bosses are a lot better though, especially the act bosses, though that's too be expected when the combat is this good. They're fast and have a lot of attacks, though some fights can cross the line into Pyribbit territory where they're invulnerable for way too long. Also, I find it really strange that some of the boss fights don't come at the end of the level, instead having a lengthy platforming sequence right after them.
Berserk Boy also has quite a lot of side content too, particularly if you're a fan of exploration and collectathons. Each stage has five Berserk Badges to find, along with a number of citizens to rescue ala Gravity Circuit or Mega Man X5. There's a ton of hidden areas in each stage that are fun to scout out, and since you can teleport between checkpoints, combing a level for everything doesn't feel too time-consuming. I've seen a lot of complaints that the true final boss and ending is locked behind getting 50/75 of the Berserk Badges since you will need to backtrack for some. Personally, I thought the requirement was lenient enough that going back for Badges didn't really take much of my playtime, and it all clicks into place once you realize the true final boss is just straight-up a Super Sonic fight, which are almost always locked behind collectibles. Berserk Boy also has a few other neat bits of side content like an upgrades system and multiple difficulties, along with a whopping 15 EX stages that really bring on the challenge. They're short but brutal time trials with entirely new level design, but I sadly wasn't super encouraged to play them for what I believe is Berserk Boy's biggest issue.
Berserk Boy has a ranking system for its stages, and it's actually fairly well-implemented and generous. It's pretty much entirely score-driven, all about fully exploring the levels and racking up massive combos for more points, and you're penalized for dying. It's pretty reasonable and when everything goes well, going for an S rank can be really fun... but there's two problems here. First off, dying often felt completely out of my control. The vast majority of my deaths in this game weren't due to me lacking in skill or anything, but because of me jumping down a pit because I thought a secret was hidden there. Maybe that's just a me thing, but there was some seriously poor secret signposting at places, like how some pits have a danger symbol telling you not to fall while others don't, or how some ladders extend through the bottom of the screen but don't lead to anything. It's also very easy to get stunlocked by two hazards if you get hit in just the wrong space, which always led to some serious frustration for me. But even for the deaths that were my fault, the real biggest issue with going for an S rank, especially in the EX stages, is that there is no restart feature, and dying and being sent back to the start of the level doesn't reset the timer or your death count. This means that if you want to get an S rank and die, you have to exit out of the level, go back to the map screen, and reselect your level, all the while waiting for a few loading screens. This absolutely sucks, and it kills any replay potential this game could've easily had. And since there's really no reason to do the EX stages other than to go for a high rank, I didn't really bother doing most of them as a result.
As for the presentation, Berserk Boy looks really good, with an asterisk. The actual spritework is flat-out fantastic, it's detailed, fluid, and looks great in motion. I will say that I'm not enamored with the character designs, though. Maybe Gravity Circuit's sleek and badass-adorable robot designs left a bit too high of a bar, but I don't really love the chibi bobblehead look that a lot of the characters have in Berserk Boy (except Ice Kunai for some reason? She's the only one with normal proportions). I'm also not huge on the voice acting. Berserk Boy does that thing the Shantae games did where only certain lines are voice acted, but the voice-acted dialogue is usually different than the dialogue written on the screen so it feels pretty tacked on. Dizzie was voiced by Milla from Freedom Planet though, so that's pretty cool at least. On the other hand, the soundtrack by Tee Lopes is predictably phenomenal, easily my favorite thing about the game besides the combat. Berserk Boy's soundtrack really shows off how versatile Lopes is as a composer, as he goes for a synthy futuristic style akin to One Step From Eden or the Mega Man X games. From the tense X5-esque Welcome To New Hope City, to the smooth Electric Flora, to the rocking The Resolve, to the chill and infectiously-catchy Icy Echoes, to that godly STEEL_PLUS ass solo in Frost Song, Berserk Boy has got a lot of bangers. Tee Lopes has really been killing it this year and the fact that he also has Metal Slug Tactics down the pipeline too? I could not be any more excited.
Berserk Boy is a frustrating game because it gets so much right. The developer absolutely nailed the movement and combat, which is arguably the most important part of a game, but the just fine level design and numerous issues involving the side content hold it back from being something truly extraordinary. I'd still recommend you check this one out for the movement alone, though, and I think a lot of these issues can be pretty easily ironed out with updates if the developer wants to stick with it.
3.5/5 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment