Roah

This game has been very unfairly maligned. After an unfortunate rushed release, this game was panned and ignored because of reports of bugs, glitches, and unbalanced mechanics. This may have been true in the first few weeks, but the developer of the game has polished it since into an incredible 2D character action/metroidvania blend.

The meat of this game is the combat system, which encourages you to string together combos, like in DMC or Bayonetta, to stunlock enemies and bosses for as long as possible. This game accommodates high level play while still being accessible to lower skilled players. The combos are easy to grasp and open to experimentation, with nice optional tutorials that reward you with items for showing your mastery. Every single attack can be dodge cancelled, allowing you to focus on combos and quickly dodge enemies without worrying about committing to a long string. Even if you're not good at combos, you can beat the game by using consumables to freeze enemies, heal in the middle of battle, raise your damage, and more. Additionally, most bosses in the game give you the ability to choose between an easier or harder version of the fight by choosing to taunt the boss. The regular version of the fight generally has lower health, lower damage, and the hardest attacks are nerfed or removed from the fight. The harder version of the fight is a great challenge that will test the limits of seasoned masocore players, especially if you try to beat them without using any consumables at all, a feat the game encourages its mostly sweaty players to accomplish, same as all great character action games.

The metroidvania elements are a distant second to the fights, but they are still satisfying. After the first two bosses, you are given free rein to explore the entire world at your own leisure. Throughout the world, you can find trinkets, which can be equipped for status effects and nice buffs, which allow strategic players to mix and match for an advantage. You can also find permanent HP/MP/Damage boosters. The metroidvania elements themselves are somewhat standard, but the platforming is nontraditional, same as the developer's last game, Wings of Vi. You'll be encouraged to use your jump and flutter, as well as various types of jump refreshers, in novel and interesting ways that are not always obvious how to get past. The developer also does a good job of keeping the platforming interesting by throwing in fun gimmicks that help to keep the game paced well.

The bosses in this game combine with the platforming to make up the most fun segments of the game. No boss feels like filler, and all of them have unique gimmicks and attacks that differentiate them and encourage players to use their brains to figure out the best way to minmax damage while still managing the boss fights gimmick. The developer's bosses are so fun because they have little to no invincibility frames, and can be attacked at nearly any point, allowing highly skilled players to quickly kill bosses. I enjoyed nearly all the bosses (one boss involving the water level doesn't count) and didn't even find the boss I didn't enjoy a big issue, as I could have made it easier by playing the easier version of the boss and using consumables if I really felt tired of it.

In short, Roah is an excellent time with a unique 2d character action game style combat that is very rarely seen, if at all. I would recommend this game to both moderately skilled players and sweaty hardcores, and I can not wait to play this game again on the hardest difficulty.

Yes, this game is not polished enough and has some bugs and weird behaviour here and there, but that doesn't mean that it is bad.

As your usual metroid-like game, you have to explore the open-ish world, defeat all bosses and collect powerups and upgrades along the way in order to complete the game. Visuals are good (DAMN levels of good, I am surprised there are little to no rule 34 content about this). I played with music turned off, but the first location soundtrack is a banger.

The world is tightly packed, so you won't need to travel 20 kilometers just to reach your destination. Movement is quirky, but I got used to it pretty quickly, because there is no additional movement buttons like in Wings of Vi. Combat is straightworward enough, I don't like using combo systems and I was fine in this game without it. Level design from the platforming side was on par with movement: quirky, but manageable. Bossfights require you to learn them, so no facerolling (you will get overwhelmed pretty quickly if you try to).
There are also additional challenges for the fans of boss grinding in form of achievements.

Overall, very enjoyable game even for those who don't like metroidvanias. A bit too expensive imo, wait for the discount.

It's an action platformer. I liked the main character's design and evolution through the game. One of the bosses was fairly unique and was a very fun multilevel boss. I don't entirely enjoy walking around at times/ backtracking but that was also because I couldn't persuade myself to just keep moving forward as you can do things in mostly any order. I'd complain about the whole "save" situation but the bosses and levels aren't that bad to make it actually a problem unless you're bad at platformers. Don't expect the brutality of Wings of Vi on hard, I completed this game in about a third of the time it took me to do that.

After only 1.5 hours in I have been stuck in the ground, enemies have gotten stuck in walls, and chest have gotten stuck in the ground. I don't understand how this game is so buggy after three years, did Solgryn just give up on it?

it's kind of fun, but I'm literally getting glitched into the floor every 20 minutes, and you have to use a item or quit when you get stuck setting you back, with save points being limited to 3 uses before you have to pop a item to restore them.

From what I recall playing this game, it felt sort of like a fnaf Security Breach situation: the gameplay was very enjoyable, and I sincerely believe the developer has what it takes to envision a video game project and execute a fun and smooth gameplay experience, but the amount of bugs in the game really hinders my ability to enjoy it. My keyboard controls won't even save when I exit and re-enter the game, and combined with other bugs, this makes it quite infuriating for me to get into speedrunning the game. Despite this, I think the game is a lot of fun for casual playthroughs and challenge runs, including achievements, and the combo system and bosses feel really solid.

Cons

• BUGS. Bosses like Moka and B.O.S.H.Y. have a history of odd behavior and cheese strats, though these issues have largely been patched out by now. Other small issues include occasional weird behavior with enemy shields, occasional sped-up animations and infinitely spawning rocks (causing immense game lag) on Reanimated Field Marshall, indefinite music looping if a player exits a save file immediately before a new track fades in, and probably more that I can't think of right now. However, the developer is responsive and has historically attempted to patch out issues that players bring to his attention, but this has often created new issues that weren't present before.
  
• A few platforming saves likely have not been properly playtested, particularly in The Crypt and Sekkian Hive 2, the latter being virtually impossible if I recall correctly.
  
• It feels a bit clunky to have to pause the game to use consumables; it sort of detracts from the boss fight experience.
  
• I'm still confused as to why save points need to have limited respawns. At the very least, there's a consumable in the game that directly counteracts this issue.
  

Pros

• The combo system feels very nice. Once you get it down, it makes the combat feel fluid and engaging.
  
• Trinkets are generally well-balanced and creative and they support a variety of playing styles adequately (damage-based, health-based, defense-based, gimmick-based, etc.).
  
• Achievements and challenge runs are fun to do.
  
• Bosses and enemies are creatively designed and generally fair.
  
[*]Fun references like B.O.S.H.Y. and King of Death = Skeleton King.

feels like its held together with paper clips and clue.
Janky menus that just dont work sometimes. I have to unpause and pause to actually get the item menu to use an item. It THINKS im in the item menu, but im actually in the menu before it, so I have to back out, then get back in for it to work properly. This isn't a rare bug, it's present throughout my whole playtime.

enemy attacks and my own attacks clip through walls. If some obvious attacks did it it would be fine. but the fact everything does it just reaks of laziness. Game isn't well build, too jank, what is there isn't very fun. Environments are kinda ugly, music is bleh, animations lack flare. Whole game, even if it wasn't buggy is still 5/10, closer to a 4 than a 6.

bought this game cause its literally my name. spent 5 min just trying to grab the ledge to get the map hated the fact that jumping lunged me forward instead of letting me control the jump direction. shares my name should have known it would be a disappointment.....

I loved Wings of Vi. I flawless-ed all the bosses in that game and I loved the platforming and movement in the game. Roah is a frustrating (and not in the good kind of way) buggy version of Wings of Vi.

The combat is fun, it plays like a 2D fighting game with some platforming. You have a weak and heavy hit moveset all which you can use to combo enemies. As well as some magic abilities which use a "magic bar." All of this, is fun. Throw in some platforming and you have yourself a fun and challenging game in your hands. What isn't fun is dying to a boss that has an insane amount of health and has the potential to do 3/4 of your health in a fraction of a second.

The bosses just feel horrible in this game. It also doesn't help that the game limits the amount of tries you have. Yes, you read that right. (At least on normal difficulty) You get 3 retries from the last save and then you get booted back to the previous save spot and repeat. This is ok for platforming sections, they're not too hard but it is terrible for bosses. This makes grinding against a boss EVEN MORE frustrating. Bosses (on normal) have 15 tries then you get booted back. There are items that can restore your health and the amount of save retries you have but its like...... why? Why can't the player have a larger health pool and no restore items? Larger health bar allows you to make more mistakes each attempt. No restore items means your mistakes count. If you die in 3 hits to bosses whats the point of restore items. Why have the player regress backwards for failing to beat a section or boss in less than x attempts when they have already proven they can beat the previous section? That isn't difficulty, that's just annoyance. That's just to make the player frustrated, that is NOT what difficulty is or should be.

I think the reason bosses feel so bad is because Roah is all about combos. Your combos deal a LOT of damage if you get good at them. The problem is..... you can't combo bosses. So you do no damage. And they have a metric f-ton of health. So it's gonna take forever. And it's just frustrating more than it is hard.

As for the buggy aspect of the game. I have softlocked a few times in the four hours I've played. I have clipped into a wall while climbing a ladder unable to get out. I softlocked sliding down a hill and landing on an entrance in the ground. I softlocked jumping after exiting an entrance. I wonder how much more there is.

I get that this game is supposed to be difficult and I honestly like games like that (wings of vi, I wanna be the guy etc) but this just replaced difficulty with annoyance and frustration rather than actually making the game hard. This feels more like a "getting over it" kind of game than anything else.

I'll stick to the game, maybe try and beat this stupid boss. But I'd hate to restart the game on easy.... I don't see myself trying to flawless bosses in this game. I just can't recommend the game right now.

This game has a lot of good ideas and charm. There's some bits that may be frustrating but honestly it's ultimately satisfying. Exploring and challenges are very rewarding and it feels like it's all worth it. I'm glad something like this exists where I had to think about how I should attack and evade throughout the game so you always feel engaged. I'd say the positives outweigh the negatives. Sometimes you may snag on ledges, which is the most consistent problem. Some situations are made a bit more overwhelming because of it. Still, from what I understand this game was a big learning experience as well and even now updates keep coming in for it to tweak the experience. The game's also much better since launch, from what I came to understand.

Movement and physics can be very satisfying in this game, among the other interesting ideas. Platforming challenge from Solgryn's previous games can be felt here with creative sections. They don't all land quite that well, but even then it's satisfying to complete. That being said it also can be pretty fun to just get around.

Fighting is heavily inspired by timing in traditional fighting games and it's part of what makes this so interesting and engaging. There's no one thing that will win you every encounter and your style will matter.

For as tough as it can get, it's very fair. Such as bosses paying out money as you land hits so you never stay broke or have to grind on enemies to stock back up on items.

I say that if you're unsure about it then at least watch for a sale. But, I think many people who want a satisfying challenge should get this game.

Also, transforming monster girls. Come on, people.

*Edit: Added comments about mechanics and gameplay aspects.

Enjoyable game that is bizarrely unwelcoming for the first couple hours or so. If I didn't know what Solgryn was capable of, I would have abandoned it in the first zone.

Pros: Bosses are colorful and fun. Platforming is as finger-destroyingly satisfying as ever (controller binding suggestion: assign up arrow to right bumper).

Cons: Core movement feels slow and floaty, no weight to it. The combat system is probably too complex for a platformer and is hard to parse, particularly when the character is small and obscured by a large enemy.

Verdict: This is a good game beneath the quirks. If you liked Wings of Vi, you will find this worth your time.

Advice to developer: Your bottleneck is lack of delegation. Take a page from Derek Yu's book and find a trusted partner who knows good code architecture. It is a lot easier to code well the first time than it is to fix problems afterwards. You have great talent in gameplay and art design (your bosses are especially good), and if you learn the right lessons from this project, you will make many successful games in the future.

Overall:
This game is great mashup of a fighting game and a metroidvania. i'd rate it 8/10
It sure is an challenging game but nothing over-the-top difficult.

pros:
+the combo-system is amazing! there are alot of ways to express yourself in the combat but it is not required to beat the game ... so if you are not into fighters you can pretty much ignore the crazy combos
+great, challenging bossfights
+very good soundtrack
+great art-style, animations etc.
+ the developer is a cool dude and very active ... patched things he saw on my playthrough before i've even beaten the game ... this game will improve more&more

kinda cons:
+/- this game has bugs ... i haven't encountered anything gamebreaking and they were rather funny/ entertaining
+/-some parts turned out quit hard and might be frustrating for some people

The game is great, the price is fair, the waifs are *sips from mug*
Please don't stop making games :D

+ Thicc Monster Waifu: The Platformer
+ Active developer, most of the bugs have been fixed
+ Pretty artstyle
+ Interesting, combo based combat system
+ Intense but fun boss battles
+ Lots of trinkets and power-ups
+ Metroid-like style of exploration
+ World offers a wide variety of areas to explore
+ 3 difficulty levels
+ Phenomenal soundtrack by Ashton Morris (Wings of Vi)
+ HOW IS EVERYONE SO CUTE.

+/- Storyline is cute and interesting enough, but nothing special
+/- Can get very frustrating, even on standard difficulty
+/- Checkpoints have charges that can be used up (Can be refilled using consumables. Not necessarily a bad thing, just something I personally dislike)

- Some animations are a little stiff
- Level design and background artworks of varying quality
- Some (fortunately mostly minor) bugs still remain

-----------------------
(In-depth analysis deleted due to Steam's character limit. Here's the summary)

In summary, Roah might not be a perfect game. It's a little rough around the edges. But it's doing a damn fine job being what it was intended to be, especially considering that Solgryn did all the programming, writing AND artworks by himself. I'm having a lot of fun with it, and am glad to see that Solgryn is still actively developing it, fixing bugs and even adding content.

In its current state I can gladly recommend Roah to fans of the genre. Why Solgryn released it in November as the bugfest that it was back then remains beyond me, but the game has already come a long way, and continues to get better and better.

(a word of advice though: If you're not either extremely good at action platforming games or just a bit masochistic, do yourself a favour and play it on easy. Standard difficulty is fine for somewhat seasoned players for the most part of the game, but the last 3 bosses WILL F**K YOU UP and make you question your every life choice. You WILL suffer. I know I did. Solgryn... let's just say he has a very different understanding of a 'challenging game'.)

While the launch may have been buggy, the current state of the game is actually good. Don't get deterred by all the people complaining about bugs; most of them are fixed now.

This is a great game that unfortunately had a somewhat rushed release.
The vast majority of problems have been fixed by now and the developer is still working on improving his product.
None of the remaining issues are annoying, much less gamebreaking and they will very likely be fixed in the near future.

What kind of game is it though? It's a really well done mix of a fighting style-esque combat System, a hardcore platformer and a nice metroidvania. It has great platforming, amazing bossfights, cool musics and many different paths to take.

( English is not native to me - I apologize in advance )

The premiere of the game did not have the best luck- but the developer does not remain indifferent and polishes, wherever society notes problems. ( You can join the official Roah Discord Server)

Roah is a non-linear Metroidvania Hack'n'Slash I risk to say- what I mean is a huge world, where previous places can be returned (if you change plans or temporarily get stuck), combat attacks and many items to help you.

The game is not for casual players in the long run- for reminder:
Solgryn created the Megalovania game"Wings of Vi", which may tell you how he approaches making games.

Personal particle: I haven't been interested in Roah for 3 years, but I owe Jesper Erlandsen something- my gratitude.
My earnings (and yours) will not be wasted. I am of good cheer

This game had a rough launch, and that's probably why you see so many negative reviews. At the time of my review, most issues have been fixed and the game works just fine save for a few small things (Solgryn is still updating daily to get the game working better)

Reviewing the actual game itself, it's stupid fun. The combat is the highlight of the game and is ridiculously rewarding. The combo system takes a bit to master, but when you figure it out, you can really start to optimize boss fights and deal some very punishing damage. The platforming is actually quite fun as well, involving some mechanics like gliding and sliding.

The only negative thing I have to say about this game is that the dialogue is questionable, but that's not exactly something i personally even care about in the face of just how fucking fun this game is. Recommended to anyone who enjoys action games with good combat.

I wanted to love this game so much. I gave it every chance I could. I LOVED Solgryn's other game Wings of Vi and wanted this to be as good, but it's not even remotely close. The game is riddled with gamebreaking glitches that require you to restart your client constantly; boss hp bars disappearing, getting stuck on walls and corners so you fall forever, abilities straight up not working when you press the button. It's advertised as having combo-heavy combat and half the bosses can't be combo'd at all.

This game was rushed so the dev could say he released both of his games on the same date and it's worse than an Early Access game.

Sadly, as a hardcore platform and metroidvania lover and been looking forward to this game since 2015 have only been met with disappointment. I have beaten I wanna be the boshy, wings of vi demon mode etc. I loved his previous games for the most part. I'm a seasoned hardcore platformer beaten rabi ribi DLC 3 BEX etc. This negative review isn't a matter of "git gud" considering I was one of the first if not the first to complete some of these bosses esp harvester unnerfed version GM with like a 17 hour binge play.

Roah was released extremely buggy - Solgryn's strategy was to tackle bugs as they come up in streams (i.e. use guinea pigs). He is also unsure of how hard to make the game on grandmaster and there have been several patches after the fact that players are unable to beat bosses where he nerfs them heavily. Then wait til the first player / first few players get to another boss then nerf / fix. Rinse and repeat - it's not a fun experience when you're the one ahead of everyone else.

Imagine you're the first to fight a boss and you see the numbers are INSANE compared to the previous bosses. Spend 4 hours fighting and beat a boss only to have been a patch to basically make that boss a joke and beatable within a few attempts. Even the hardest version of boss easier than the unnerfed version. Okay fine move on. Two bosses later run into some impossible shit where you have to memorize 6 exploding balls to attack in correct order or instant death and also with broken hitboxes made this even more frustrating when you hit wrong ball instant death. It's also limited time you must hit all 6. Spend a few hours doing that while the save point is broken forcing me to run back 3 checkpoints go to boss every 10 deaths. Complete the 6 bombs and do 10% of the boss' life. Make one mistake = instant death. I wasted 3-5 hours. So what was the nerf for this boss? Dropped a few hours later - reduced armor of boss. The BS mechanic of the exploding balls was there there so how do I win? Equipped all the damage items and basically 100 0'ed the boss. Literally he didn't even have time to do anything at all. I spammed magic and attack he literally went from 100 to 0 stun locked. That's not good boss design. Or game design for that matter. Also his patch introduced a bug where you could spawn infinitely from boss spawn point instead of 10 deaths like it should. Instead of making him burstable, he should've made the aspect of memorizing the balls less intensive. Twitch clip: (SPOILERS): https://clips.twitch.tv/SoftPowerfulDurianDatSheffy

This process will likely repeat for the remaining 2 GM bosses with 0% achievement so best thing to do is wait for the nerfs then play to avoid the frustration of an impossible fight.

Also, you're very likely to run into bugs that basically trap you into death, force you to restart, screw you over in boss fights, kill you, crash your game, etc.

There are positives, though. The metroidvania aspect of the game was fun - altthough you'll have to explore and run around a lot to figure out where to go / what upgrade you're missing. There is no detailed map so you'll have to make do with your memory and running around, but I find that to be a plus in a metroidvania especially one that is difficult. Luckily after the first day, he nerfed all the trash mobs which originally (surprise) were basically impossible to kill. I'm talking HUGE nerfs as with any time I mention nerf. Like up to 70% damage reduction, 50% health reduction etc.

In short, what you're buying is basically an EA version of the game and a clown fiesta. I'm just going to beat the game and forget about it at this point. After playing Rabi Ribi I can't look at this game and say to myself that it's good boss design.

If Solgryn can polish the game to make it as good as or better or Wings of Vi, great. But I don't see that happening. For me, my experience and hope has already been soiled and destroyed.

Wings of Vi was a step in the right direction after his first game I wanna be the Boshy. He tried to make Roah another step forward but instead went like four steps backward.

:(

Game is fine-ish, but I am really disappointed that controls are not very smooth and in some zones I fight controls more than I fight actual platforming.
Wings of Vi from same developer was so much better, smooth and fair. That game was patched a lot, so maybe this one will be fixed as well? Especially bugs when you got stuck inside the wall or in the floor.
Challenges and platforming are more annoying than challenging overall, bosses are fine, but in Wings of Vi they were many times better, plus here sometimes bosses just forgetting to attack. Invul frames on enemies is a weird descision as well.
I was expecting from this game more. It is still not bad game, tho. For now it is maximum 6.2~6.5/10, when Wings of Vi was 8.5-8.8/10.

Edit: Solgryn did a lot of fixes and added new stuff. Game is much more polished now and controls are better. However, they are still not perfect like in Wings of Vi, and bugs with stucking in things are still there. I would give it 7.2~7.4/10 now. Solid game, worth playing if you are a platformer-masochist and you like games like IWBTB.

I only played for about 30 minutes, and sadly I have to refund and suggest to people interested in this game to wait it out for some quality of life patches, bug fixes and overall polish.
This is a very expensive game for the lack of polish - hit boxes on edges and slopes are sketchy, you're never climbing UP an edge, you're wading through the sprites on the slope drawn beneath it.
It looks about the quality of the game I'm making in pixel game maker mV, only I'm just a regualr person. This dev has made some really good games.
I'm so confused as to what happened here.
Boshy is fantstic, and Wings isn't my fave, but it was an admirable and challenging effort into pushing forward a more full game than I wnna be the boshy.
But this game is sloppy, with floaty controls, quesitonable hitboxes, combat that is neither diverse, nor filled wiht " tons of moves " you seem to plataeu as soon as you get your tail. Im told to tail slam, okay... but how do I tail slam? no control on screen, no info in the menu, no anything - I have no clue.
Game feels unfinisihed.
not recommended for now.