Void Memory

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kPye1h0K5PY&pp=ygUWSmVmZiBidWNrbGV5IHlvdSBhbmQgaQ%3D%3D

I like this game but the fact that you can only use keyboard with a very limited bind gives me a a handicap in playing.
I really hate it when dev don't use the full capacity of what a mouse and keyboard does. If you put games on PC its a no brainer to put MKB support no argument.

A little clunky in some respects, but a charming title on the whole with a nice aesthetic.

I am sorry, but too many things about this game are just aweful.
The list of stuff i encountered when briefly testing it out:

- It does not have any sound options.
- It does not have proper fullsreen, and will leave most of your screen black to present itself on a tiny rectangle in the middle (and no, it's not a 4k-screen).
- The game crashes when i accidently press any key or button that does not have a functionality within the game.
- You can only access the options from the menu, not ingame.
- You can only access your inventory when at a savepoint. Even to just take a look.
- Items descriptions in your inventory do not tell you anything useful but a tiny bit of generic lore instead.
- freesound.org
- Walking animations are absolutely aweful and do not fit the walking speed.
- Enemies often walk in place and are intangible while doing so.
- The combat system is aweful (you find out when fighting the first boss: You can not dodge anything neither by jumping, nor movement nor dash. But facetanking works just fine!)

... and many more to come, i will never encounter, since i put it back into the corner where it came from.
Please mind, that i usually have a huge tolerance for... questionable... games, but this one is not only borderline unplayable, but also not worth playing, sadly. Even if the game might look nice in some screenshots or split-second video-material, you will find that it is not like that in reality.

The controls are a bit clunky, and it's hard to use your sub weapon as you have to hit UP + Attack to do so. It would have been nice if they had their own button. There's no menu, and you can't swap weapons and equipment on the fly, but ONLY at save points. Cool concept, but very bad execution. I got it on sale, so it was an OK price, but man, the game is NOT forgiving.

I'd say only get on sale, or if you're a fan of punishing gameplay. I've hit a wall with the Knight Sarath boss, and doubt I'll ever finish.

i literally had 10 mins of trying to play this, sure it's not much, but what just made me only invest 10 mins into finding out how to fix it is simple.

1. VSync makes the game run like 3000% faster
2. Non Vsync makes the game slower for me (for some unknown reason)
3. Controller support? Your controller will just become the mouse.
4. no 16:9 resolution options??? what?

Honestly my biggest problem is no volume control. Who or what is a Danche? Clumsy / Careless gameplay. Game is hard--not challenging, as in posing fun to beat, but hard as in the game makes everything your character does difficult. Needs some major tweaking. And better translation.

A rather weak metroidvania tbh, it has quite a few nice things about it, so I'll start with that.

The weapons available are quite varied, similarly there are different outfits, a customization like that in 2d is usually rather limited. The animations of your character for the weapons are also pretty ok. It's a bit difficult, which kept me going quite far in it. The locations are also a bit varied, for the very little price it's ok.

However that's probably where I'd stop with the positives, the game is overall functional, but it's ridden with issues. The difficulty mostly comes from gravity deaths, either wonky and unsatisfying platforming at places, or the worst offender - being pushed back by attacks and ending up falling to death. It happened a lot, and was almost exclusive death cause for me. Also at a few places some of the falls lead to secrets, and there was rarely way of telling which drops were to secrets, and which were fatal.
The music is barely there, the boss themes were not really interesting to me, the checkpoint theme was shooting up from complete silence every few screens, no smooth transition to it.
The running and jumping animations were rather stiff, but understandable with different clothes option. Enemy animations were also rather weird at times, not "lively" I could say.
The metroidvania aspect is almost completely nonexistent, besides being a big 2d map with platforming and backtracking. There is only one mobility perk, wich also uses the same slot as combat perks. So you sacrifice your usual setup to reach the odd inaccessible place sometime.
The bosses are very strangely balanced, most of them have the simple tactic of spamming, being the most optimal. The dodge can be terrible as you cannot control it's range, and a flurry of projectiles all bounce you around like stupid, which is all the more terrible since you can't dodge midair. So one of the worst ones is a skull that floats and spawns smaller ones as buzzsaws on the floor, and projectiles at the same time. So for the most of the fight, you get juggled unabled to do anything, and you really need to jump to reach the f**ker, and dodge only when landing.

I said to myself I'd force myself to complete the "DLC" update area, but the long road with no checkpoint really made me stop, I basically only have final boss left besides that. I might eventually complete it, but at this point I know exactly what this game has to offer. If you're starved for 2d platforming fights, on a pretty big map, then you may spend those few coins, but there is still a big risk you may come back unsatisfied by the experience.

I could also mention the story, but it's got some errors in translation I feel, you control some ghoul-like white haired phantom thingy, that's different from regular humans, some powerful creatures still remain in the world that need to be killed to bring some balance, also a few feral guys like you as optional enemies. I don't think I can confirm it's bad, I just had troubles following it.

Honestly one of the best vanias that wanted to do something similar is Blasphemous, which I can't recommend enough. I'd rather play that game over several times, than start NG+ of this :/

Bought this game on a whim and enjoyed the first half of the game. The end was however unfortunately not as fluid as the beginning of the game. The main problem this game suffers from is it's poor game mechanics.

Dodging is good but often enemies track you to an insane degree ensuring you'll always be hit no matter how good you think you are.

There is almost no visual indication that you are hitting an enemy. They just freeze up instead of having a stagger animation.

There is a wide variety of weapons but unfortunately they all deal about the same amount of damage with no single weapon being a direct upgrade if you don't count their attack animation with has wider reach or faster speed than others.
This made it very hard to calculate which weapon would be effective against different enemies. Since the tooltips for blunt weapons indicate they lower enemy armor, I assumed this would mean that my weapon would deal more damage overtime against single opponents or bosses since I would keep hitting them or maybe I would deal more damage against knights who are by all definition wearing armor.

This is not the case. It is just a part of the weapon lore. The game would very much benefit a detailed menu for damage or atleast the exact effects of accessories and items since the game does not tell you that very well.

Secondly the endgame is a slog and feels very, very rushed. Most of the bosses deal insane amounts of damage on a single hit and can one hit kill you leaving little room for error. That does not even account for the amount of pits in this game that emulate the classic Castlevania death.

The best part about the game and most unique is the fact that outfits change your entire character. While this has very little effect on actual moves as they remain the same, it does change a few animations which are unique for each outfit. I found myself using the starting Danache Summoner outfit due to it's tiptoe animation for jumping.

I also found the easter egg items in this game to be a nice addition.

I will sadly not replay the game due to it's sheer difficulty in the endgame. I can safely say that if the game was easier towards the end it would be okay in my book but I only got one ending and I won't go back since I don't have the patience to sit through one hit kills for any longer than I have to.

If steam has a rating called "Mixed", I would definitely rate this game that.

Until then, let's just keep it negative now.

It is a souls-like metroidvania with a long learning curve. Once you get the hand of it, it is a unique adventure to go through. Combat is clunky and requires some management. Every weapon has two-combo moveset. It is not recommended to fininsh due to the fact that the attack and dodge takes away so much stamina that makes you feel like you never exercise before––tired as hell. Plus all the bosses has a barrage of unforgiving movesets. That`s for later part. For story, you are a phantom summoned for the sake of collecting the broken "Relic" to...destroy the fractured world? Or save it? I am not quite sure what`s the meaning of my so-called "holy yet cruel crusade of relic-hunting". Almost all the lores come from dialogues, from a subjective point of view. Often time the clues I can find in game are enigmatic or straight up unrelated to the whole. As a result, levels becomes a multi-stage runthrough without in depth connection. Your progression transforms to following orders without question, a shame really for me who digs this game`s design and story.

Remember the bosses I mentioned above? Here comes the part which I love/hate. I love how the bosses are designed, as well as their movesets. They are distinctive. However, I hate how unforgiving they are. On paper, their movesets are dope; in reality, they are ridiculous to a degree of losing fairness. Our protogansit`s only way of evasion is to dash forward. The problem is the AOE bosses have are often long and lasting. It is hard to tell whether the skill is over, or did I successfully escape. Mistakes are made, and half of the health vansih. Most unbalanced one is Grammartys.Being the earlly challenging main boss I don`t even know how many time I got kick in the ass by this damnable montrosity. Let`s keep it this way: imagine in Dark Souls 3, put Pontiff Sulyvahn to where Abyss Watchers is, and ampflies his speed and range. That's HIM.

NG+ is hell. The difficulties rank up because there are more late-game enemies in begining, and they all hit like trucks. To this point our protagnist is a true paper doll––two-shot by everything. This is a cheap way to cover new difficulty. Bosses are even more unforgiving than before. Faster. Stronger. And larger AOE. I don`t even know why I bother finish it again considering there`s no true rewards other than achievements.(which I am obessive with, so screw myself then.)

To ravel it all, I only recommend this game for first time playthrough. Other than that just don`t. DON'T.

If you're into Souls games/Castlevania, this might be your cup of tea.

Great game. About 6 hours in while writing this. Has a lot of the Souls elements present, and some clear insipirations (cough cough blood borne). Some of the bosses are difficult, while I also found some of the mini-boss fights very hard.

Attacks are basic, there's only two hit combos, but the Character you play can dodge almost any attack (with timing).
Weapons are varied, but you have the usual categories of Long Swords/Speers/GreatSwords/Maces/Pistols. There are NO SHIELDS. I'm not really a fan, but some people who are shield players might be disappointed.

Story is a bit wierd. Something about being summoned as a Phantom ring a bell? Then at times you are also called an Investigator.

Doesnt help that the item descriptions and NPC conversations seem a bit off. I think the developer's were from Russia and Japan.

There are many parts of the game where you can't see ****. Its just pitch black. I have yet to find any items such as a lantern to help alleviate this.

Some NPC's can just throw you off the map. Just something to watch out for.

There are no merchants or blacksmiths. Kinda wondered where they all went...

No ranged weapons besides some pistols...a bit disappointed

I got the game on sale for 5$ Canadian, so for the price its a great deal. If I really wanted , I would have paid the 11$.

So if you're a sidescrolling fan , definetly pick this up. Its not the perfect game, but I got enough enjoyment out of it.

Metroidvania meets Soulsborne in the worst possible way.

2D Jank Soul.

The graphisms look weird and the background is pretty ugly. Animations are weird, hitbox take some time to get used too and I still don't really understand how the iframe work on the dash. The english translation was clearly not made by a native english speaker (just like this review!)

The subweapon system feels pretty limited, there's quite a lot of them and you're limited to one item (it can be a weapon with limited usage, a passive buff or a limited buff/heal) or a spell (quite a lot of different spells too).

But this being said, the game is still pretty fun. It's a fairly decent 2D action game, with some freedoms as where to go next. Bosses are the main draw of this game, and they're all fun and challenging. There's quite a lot of them too.

If you really like this game the NG+ completly change the ennemy placement and give bosses's new move. You also get a secret final boss once you reach the max level.

Overall, the game is fun Korean Jank

THE POSITIVE:
I like how smooth the combat feels, although the controls a little weird but you get used to it. the art style is gorgeous, and you can change the player model to many different cool appearances, it has a wide variety of weapons to use which encourages different playstyles. it even offers a side weapon. somewhat like Bloodborne.

THE NEGATIVE:
I was enjoying it very much until I finished the first half of the game, I reached an area so frustratingly difficult, I never played it again.
Difficult as in: the run to the boss drains all your resources only for you to reach an overpowered 1 hit KO boss to finish the job and kill you instantly.

And you can't change the resolution past 1600x1200.

Not recommended for impatient and casual players like myself.
If you like the difficulty then by all means go ahead and play it.

Since i don't have internet for my laptop where I live, steam has not recorded my actual playtime. I have played around 6 hours.

It's ridiculous that you cannot open any menu until you are at a "bonfire". Not being able to change equipment when you want hurts experimentation. That's not getting into the problem with changing system settings. I have to manually close out the game and run it again because there isnt a way to open settings ingame or even go back to the title. This is especially bad when you're playing wih a controller and the tutorial gives you the keyboard controls. And then when I checked the gamepad controls on the menu, Two of the button where switched around so I ended getting paranoid about actually customizing them. To add insult to injury you have to figure which buttons are relevant to the "bonfire menu because it gives you the keyboard prompts.

Your character controls rather stiffly. Attacks lack proper weight. When you're hit it, there's not really an animation. Your character just flings backwards(or forwards into the air. Every attack does this. It makes platforming even more of a chore and is one of the reasons why enemies aren't fun to fight. Unless I'm missing something there's no way to upgrade your healing which is a bit a problem in higher levels.

The artstyle is pretty good regarding your character, npcs, enemies, and bosses, though some of the animations aren't that great. Locations are not as good. A lot of it is pretty blocky looking and amateurish at times.

Platforming is terrible. In dark areas you have to rely on leap of faith jumps to see where can go. There's uneven terrain you don't know you can walk on. Backgrounds sometim looking like it can be platforms. A later level is a gauntlet of cheap, poorly thought traps that are often unavoidable with how they're positioned. Enemy placement is awful and exacerbates the bad platforming. Enemy spam, enemits on tiny platforms, enemies that make traps unavoidable, enemies that hit you from offscreen before you even realize they're there, etc. Bosses are hit and miss. When they're good they're really good, but when they're bad oh God.

I want to like this game but there are so many glaring problems present. It's just so unpolished.

I cannot fathom the 94% positive rating this game has. As someone who loves every Soulsborne game and has beaten each one multiple times, this is nothing like them. Salt and Sanctuary as well. The difficulty of Dark Souls and games like it comes from good design, the difficulty of this game comes from BAD design.
But I will start with what this game does right. The pixel graphics are gorgeous, and the game knows it. As you progress you continue to unlock new outfits which completely change your look and even sometimes animations, and that's something I genuinely appreciate. The music is acceptable. Some of the animations are very fluid and satisfying. Unfortunately that's where the positives stop because this game does just about everything else wrong.
Horribly translated dialogue means you have at best a vague idea of what's going on. I'm still not sure if Danche was a person, place, or organization because it's referred to as they and it at various points, and spoken of as if it takes individual actions.
Combat is clunky and unenjoyable. It lacks all of the fluidity a modern Metroidvania should have. You can swing your weapon twice before you're out of stamina, and for all the several levels I gained, my stamina, health, and damage never seemed to increase. For a game with even partial controller support it really wastes its button economy, and the gameplay suffers for it. Subweapons/spells are tied to the same buttons as movement and attacking, and its very easy to fire off a spell in the wrong direction because you're trying to evade enemies at the same time as actually fucking doing anything. Meanwhile I have at least three buttons that do nothing which could easily have been used for items/subweapons.
Movement can be described at best as slow and difficult. Control in a game with only 2 dimensions is the most important thing, but if I'm fighting the controls as much as the enemies I'm not having as good a time as I could be.
Then you have the Metroidvania aspects, where the game fails once more. Staples of the genre are shortcuts, powerups, and secrets. The one shortcut I've found thus far took me from a random pit in the ground... back to the save point I was just at. You find a great variety of weapons and subweapons, but they're all either "as good" as anything else, or outright useless. Nothing you get feels like an upgrade or an unlock.
Which brings me to the next point. The progression in this game is almost purely cosmetic. I've seen no notable difference in performance between the seven weapons I've obtained thus far. Just some different movesets that, because of the clunky combat, offer zero situational advantages based on the one you choose.
Conceptually great; weapon and item variety would be very welcome in a Metroidvania normally, but the execution of this, as with much else in the game, is poor. It is clear that very little care went into the design of this game, in its levels, encounters, and even fundamental gameplay. Half of each level is just instant death pits that you can't see because of the lighting, and the number of leaps of faith in any given level is actually impressive. Because the game takes the babby's first game development approach to its design, it tries to substitute killing you for entertaining you, mistakenly thinking that that's why you're here or the reason that games like Dark Souls are successful. This game isn't punishing you, it's just insulting you with its consistently poor design choices.
This became especially apparent to me after fighting an enemy that could kick you right off the map with zero counter play. If you get hit by the kick it's just over. Instead of making this long distance knockback the setup for a different ability it made it a cheap move that either knocks you back into the previous area resetting the enemy's health, or off a nearby cliff. It's not a boss either, just a horrendously designed optional fight that gives you a non-upgrade as a "reward" and loops you back to the save point you were just at. Add to that its multitude of ranged attacks which far outclass your own, a magic arrow spell chain that takes out 80% of your health and stunlocks you if you get hit by even one of them. Can be avoided, but good fucking luck because your I-frames don't last long enough to dodge through all of them. Again, just poorly designed and rewards circumstance more than skill, and is simply unsatisfying even when you eventually win.
This game lays the foundation for a great title, but fails to make good on any of its promises. The lack of polish across the board makes this a thoroughly unenjoyable game, and I wish I could see what everyone else apparently sees in this negative experience, because I do want to like it (and it's too late for me to get a refund).

It's ok. The gameplay is pretty solid, fun progression and a good amount of weapons and items to see. Ultimately there are three low points in this game that really soiled the experience for me, and if you don't like wasting your time to run back to bosses over and over they might make you quit. Additonally a few of the enemy types are really poorly thought out and frustrating to deal with, and they appear often enough to be a notable annoyance. Overall though I had more fun with it than I didn't. Just don't expect a masterpiece.

Also the audio mixing is terrible at times and there's no volume sliders as far as I can tell. Don't use the holy water item if you value your hearing.

SoulsVania
This is a metroidvania game focused on combat and with some light to moderate plataforming, its clearly inspired by both SoTN and the Souls games, its enjoyable and the bosses are REALLY good but the common enemy is not that fun to kill, even so everything else fits well enough

Swing up, Swing down (or viceversa)
The game uses an stamina system to dodge and to attack, but almost all weapons control the same, some are a bit faster, some have greater lenght, but they all make either 2 swings with moderate damage or 1 with heavy damage per combo, the simplicity works really well against bosses but makes normal enemies a chore to kill since your agression is heavily limited by your stamina most encounters will follow a pattern like "attack some, dodge, retreat to recharge stamina, repeat until killed, move to the next encounter"

Needs a Boss Rush
The game does feature exploration and secrets, but the exploration is obviously not the point. the bosses on the other hand are really fun to fight and let the mechanics shine to their full potential

Recommended at a discount

You itching for a little bit of that Soulsy kinda Castlevania like action? I reckon Void Memory might just do the trick. I found this baby while desperately searching Steam for something to play that wasn't absolutely terrible and I'm damned glad I did.

Keep in mind it's not a perfect game, there are times when it's a little too dark for comfort which can lead to MANY unfortunate but hilarious fall deaths and the enemies have two tiers, the trash mobs and the relentlessly irritating.

Some of the translations are absolutely hilarious but this doesn't take away from the experience so much as enhance it with a few good chuckles. Despite the translations you can fully tell there's a nifty bit of lore going on in there with an awesome atmosphere and sweet, sweet tunes when there's music to be heard.

The different weapons, accessories and sub items/weapons allow for a variety of playstyles and strategies to be formulated to fit every situation that might come your way. For some of the later bosses I'd completely rework my characters loadout to make my life easier.

Speaking of bosses, that's where the game really stood out for me. The boss designs are absolutely fantastic and some of them fully test your mettle as a gamer. They felt great. Perhaps infuriating, almost exhausting at times but hot damn they felt great.

At the price of 11 bucks or so, I'd buy it again. Absolutely delightful experience and I'd hope to see Gustav churn out some more of the good stuff in the future.

If you are a fan of the old side scrolling castlevania games, especially SotN, this is a must have. From mechanics to the music, void memory delivers an amazaing game experaince. The game lets you explore how you like with oodles of secrets lurking throughout. Combat can be challanging at times but, everything is fair. Be perapred to sink an easy 20 hours into your first play through. The only negative I have with the game is its lack of support for a full screen mode, which is not ground breaking for me at least. For under 5$ on sale, you would be getting quite the steal. Even the orginal price tag of 16.99 is worth it in my opinion.

Good and challenging game. Boss fights are also pretty varied. The dodging involves stuff other than using phantom maneuver at the right time, which is pretty cool given how limited your character's mobility is.

It's hard to see if enhance defense is still active or not. The light blue aura is hard to see since your character has a lot of white. I don't have this issue with enhance attack and enhance stamina so it's definitely the color.
At first I died a few times from pressing Phantom Maneuver and not having directional key held down. Took a while to figure out why my Phantom just sat there and took lethal hits lol.