Mortal Manor

If you're hungry for a hardcore retro Metroidvania from NES era, this game is fantastic with crunchy exploration but be forewarn this game is brutally difficult particularly at the beginning.

---see where this game landed on my metroidvania tier list beneath this review!---


You will die a lot mastering the handling as you try to scrape out any kind of save-able progression.

The game is very raw and not for the feint of heart. There is so much to explore and getting something accomplished feels extra rewarding due to the games difficulty. The music is abysmal and will irritate you. 20 second loops do not cut it in a video game.

I got very engrossed in the game. The progression actually feels similar to Dark Souls, with its many branching paths, all of which will kill you.

The game has many flaws, which must be part of why it is an obscure title.

In a way, the game has 2 different feels. The early game where you are dying a lot and feel very weak. And then the middle and later parts of the game where you'll be flying through these areas with multiple jumps and grappling hooks like a ninja.

In order to elevate this game, it needed a proper soundtrack. I also wish there was a less punishing introduction/starting area. This would allow people to get more invested before they have to make the tough call on whether to keep on pushing when the game starts beating them down. The other thing that is missing are markers on the map to indicate incomplete rooms. Bosses did little to differentiate themselves from enemies, generally consisting of a big thing floating around shooting projectiles, very simplistic/amateur. The game is lacking some good set pieces.

I think those are the biggest things that this game needed to become more widely known and respected as the large, enjoyable and punishing metroidvania that it is.

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My Metroidvania Tier List (excluding Metroid & Castlevania titles)
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S+ Aeterna Noctis |
S Tier (Truly Special) Astalon: Tears of the Earth | Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom | Hollow Knight |
S- Blasphemous 2 | Cathedral |

A+ Doomblade^ | Afterimage |
A Tier (Amazing) Elderand | Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Environmental Station Alpha |
A- Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights | Depths of Sanity |

B+ Blast Brigade | Haak |
B Tier (Really Enjoyed) Alwa’s Legacy | Steamworld Dig 2 | Islets | Blasphemous | After Death | Pronty^ | Mortal Manor | Escape From Tethys | Monster Sanctuary | Elliot Quest |
B- Haiku, the Robot | Rabi-Ribi | Outbuddies DX | Treasure Adventure Game | Chasm |

C+ Lone Fungus | Ghost Song | Death’s Gambit: Afterlife | Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night | Kunai | Kingdom Shell | Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight | Jrago | Axiom Verge |
C Tier (More or Less Enjoyed) Aggelos | Plague of Yamorn | Sheepo | Infernax | MF-01 Aerostrike^ | Laika: Aged through Blood | Xanthiom Zero | Carrion^ | Wuppo | Iconoclasts | Catmaze | Omega Strike | HunterX |
C- Rusted Moss^ | Moonscars | The Messenger | Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth | Ato | MindSeize | Grime |

D Tier (Liked some things, but had issues) Castle In The Darkness | Alwa’s Awakening | Laika | Pharaoh Rebirth | Yoku’s Island Express | Guacamelee! 2 | Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse | Beholgar | Clunky Hero | Headlander | Strider | Minoria | Souldiers | Bone Appetit | The Witch & the 66 Mushrooms | Transiruby | Destroy Space Aliens | La-Mulana | Guacamelee! | 8Doors | Gato Roboto | Super Panda Adventures | Phoenotopia: Awakening |

E-Tier (Didn't like) Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap | Ginsha | Dandara | Vernal Edge | Blaster Master Zero | Medusa | Sundered | Salt & Sanctuary | Valdis Story | Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet | Touhou Luna Nights | Chronicles of Teddy | B.I.O.T.A. | Shadow Complex | Timespinner | Rex Rocket | Aquaria | Nyaruru Fishy Fight | Apotheon | Gungirl 2 | Bad Pad | Lootbox Lyfe | Angel’s Gear | Fearmonium | Magicians & Looters | Dust: An Elysian Tale |
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Wherever I added a ^ icon, Mouse & Keyboard are STRONGLY advised.
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I played this game during queue using multiple steam accounts, my hours do not reflect my total play time.

While I enjoyed playing the game a lot at first, it quickly dwindled when I realized what kind of game this was. Still, I continued and explored the whole map and beat the game with best ending with no guide.

I played on the hardest difficulty, so early game combat was pretty difficult. Then it turned grindy as you literally need EXP to level up to do more damage. I pooled all my stats into STR.

Combat seemed good at first but then it was just ass. A lot of enemy types repeat themselves. The "dragon" type monster was basically impossible to kill without face tanking it and doing as much damage as possible before it kills you. I managed to kill it once. It probably drops the best weapon in the game (guess)

All weapons have EXP levels that get EXP if you get the last hit to a monster and have various upgrades whether it means adding a special ability or stat bonuses.

Exploration gets you stat point bonuses, weapons, trinkets mostly. You're not rewarded too much other than finding some better trinkets.

In fact, I was almost punished into starting a new game file several hours into the game. I decided I didn't want to go the route the game wanted me to go and went off the deep end in the opposite direction. Monsters were much more difficult and often two shot me and I did no damage to them. Went through a cave, a beach, to a laboratory. Then jumped off to apparently the edge of the map - which is one of the 2nd highest level area in the game (I figured out after going through entire game). As you can imagine, going anywhere basically got me one shot and I couldn't even run through the area sometimes based on monster type and obstacle blockage. I only got out by climbing up and jumping across a gap I can't normally jump across and timed it so that a monster projectile would hit me, launching me to the other side and using ninja jump to get to other side. Then navigate through the laboratory from the bottom to the last save point which is no easy feat as there are these fast moving robot laser shooting things that are DEADLY especially at the under level crap I was at on the hardest difficulty. Yikes.

Games should reward you for moving into high level difficulty areas and the only thing I got there was +1 stat to defense which is equivalent to if I stayed in the level 1 area killing level 1 monsters until leveling up and putting 1 stat into DEF.

Combat is ass even if you stayed around to grind to level up. Last boss consisted of my spamming my attacks and tanking everything basically. The two best weapons in the game was found in the first 10 seconds of starting in the game and in the first cave.

The most difficulty you have in the game is navigating from checkpoint to checkpoint near beginning-mid game.

The metroidvania/exploration aspect was fun, but with no reward of exploring, makes it kinda boring and uneventful. It was fun finding the secret for the sake of finding it not the sake of getting the item and being happy with it.

Overall, even though I enjoyed some, can't recommend the game.

Had to get a refund on this one, because of some serious game design flaws, bland artwork, bland music, sloppy controls, etc..

You die immediately but enemies take 20 hits to kill. Main character moves like a sloth.

If the game had tighter controls, more enemies/enemy types that you could run through (quick/quicker kills), a better soundtrack, etc, then you might actually have fun playing an action platformer/metroidvania.

Basically every type of game like this should be taking lessons from Iga/Igavania, if you know what I mean. Unless we're looking for a cure for insomnia, we don't want to stand in one spot for 5 minutes at a time, killing a enemy at the beginning of the game already. Yeah your weak at the beginning, I get that, but ffs the enemies take forever to kill when you start playing. Also there are spots that are impossible to get by without losing 3/4 of your life. I have said enough.
Long story short, this is castlevania if castlevania went from being a handsome, popular, armani suit wearing billionaire wearing the finest macys colognes, to a guy living in a sewer with rats and roaches that smells so bad, he'll start to make paint melt off your walls.

I love this game. It accomplished what it set out to do very well. My favorite Metroidvania of 2018 by far.

This game is SO close to being a recommend from me. Some people may like it.

It's basically a "demake" of Symphony of the Night. Explore the world, collect new weapons, get upgrades, unlock new areas. Each new weapon behaves slightly different, just like SotN. You can find stat upgrades and level up after killing enough enemies.

The problem with this game is that it's too hard for all the wrong reasons. Getting hit by an enemy will knock you back 10 feet into spikes that instakill you. Combat is insanely one dimensional and most enemies have too much health. Early game, taking a whopping 2-3 hits will kill you. By mid game I was running past every enemy I saw because I didn't want to stand there wacking enemies 6-7 times each waiting for them to die.

Often damage is totally unavoidable. There's an enemy that shoots out a wave of green bullets. Unless you're standing right next to it and jump over it right before they shoot, you literally can't get past the wave of shots without taking hits. Late game the game throws tons of enemies at you that can barely get knocked back and you have pretty much no chance of avoiding damage. It really feels like you were intended to either grind or skip 90% of the enemies in the game.

I ended up finishing and getting the best ending but I was really pushing myself in the last ~4 hours or so.

The Metroidvania Review

Full Review

Worth the dough esp. if you like metroidvanias. Underrated.

No. The game had potential but the designer overused spikes way to much and made enemies like the octopus have insanely annoying movement patterns (homing movement from above with weakness from weapons that attack horizontally)

I'll start with a warning: this game is difficult, and it starts difficult. You're going to die in the first few rooms several times. You'll feel weak, slow and underpowered. You'll get frustrated. But stick with the game, it's not long before it really starts to open up. Once you start getting those relics, you'll find the movements are fluid and incredibly fun. Enemies are difficult, and the AI is aggressive. You can't just stand still and smack them around while taking multiple shots. You gotta dodge attacks, backflip over them, slide under them, back dash to give yourself time to get that last hit in before you die. The content in this game seems huge. Tons of relics, weapons, and consumables. In addition to the sheer amount of content, there's progression everywhere. Potions get stronger the higher your stats are (they heal/give % values, so they scale with you). Your character levels up, and even your weapons level with use, increasing their damage and sometimes granting special abilities with those weapons. And like any good Metroidvania, there's plenty of breakable walls and secrets!
This game is a great addition to the Metroidvania genre, and an absolute steal for the price.

A metroidvania full of content and challenge. I am a few hours in and am enjoying it quite a bit.

The developer is actively pushing out patches and is responsive to user feedback.

Mortal Manor is the game where I need to write my first review. It seems to be very unknown which is absolutely undeserved. In short: this game is incredibly good.

Many metroidvania games lack of the urge to learn the map. Often you can simply rush through the levels (Hollow Knight), dont need to explore its secrets, ... But Mortal Manor reminds me very much of old Castlevania games although they are different types of metroidvania. In Mortal Manor your skill really grows during the game. It just feels fantastic to jump and run through the map after you have better equipment.

+ exploration
+ platforming mechanics
+ satisfying gameplay experience
+ music

- rough beginning

Took me 40 hours according to Steam to complete this game. It definitely takes a lot of patience to get into since it can be frustrating in the beginning. It might even be worth playing on Easy at first. Once you do get into it though, there's a lot of fun to be had, and a lot to do. A huge world filled with secret areas and items, on top of multiple modes and endings kept me plenty busy. Plus the dev has been super responsive answering questions and issuing patches for issues myself and others have brought up in the forums. Definitely worth the asking price.

This game is somewhat of a love letter to the Metroidvania genre while trying to greatly expand on what makes those games great.

First things first, this game was done entirely by one person - coding, graphics, music, everything. It's a game that's impressive in scale but I find my favorite way to play this is to make a playlist of my favorite classic Castlevania music and put those on repeat while as I retry the same section 20 times but FINALLY get past it. Or don't get past it and wonder if I need a new relic or other powerup to progress.

If you're a fan of mastering mobility techniques and enjoy games like Dark Souls that require a lot of repition to get past a section, this is definitely your game. This game is all about classic difficulty but the kind of difficult that's also fair.

The start will be slow and frustrating - the enemies feel overwhelmingly powerful and more mobile than you are but after you get your first two mobility items, the game opens up dramatically. It's almost too much as there's tons and tons of rooms (over 1,000 unique rooms!). You can tell a lot of care went into enemy placement and difficulty so that when you die - it's really your fault and not something you couldn't have predicted. But the game does throw curveballs at you - enemies don't die when they jump into pits, but you sure do!

Also read the help that's in the menu! There's a lot of things that aren't obvious like being able to warp between save points or that you need to press up to be able save at crosses.

You can equip three weapons at a time each assigned to their own button and they've been thoughtfully balanced as best they can and the enemy types make sure you'll need to put some thought into what weapons you're using for the situation

There's plenty of tongue-in-cheek moments and little pieces of humor sprinkled thoughout too.


Overall this game is huge and there's a lot of attention to detail - it will absolutely punish even skilled gamers but you'll feel great when you finally backflip-hookshot-slide though the situation.

This game is an absolute steal at this price!

This game is Amazing, period...So much content and variety it's insane, the amount of customization of your play style makes it hard to settle for one style and you'll find yourself changing your equipment often to suit the scenario, and the large number of weapons to find you will constantly have new favorites which can each be upgraded twice with weapon stat improvements as well as new moves specific to that weapon. If you enjoy metriodvanias then this is a must, and in many ways this game is more open ended than most of recent additions to the genra. You can play through the game taking which ever route you can and your not shoe-horned into one specific route, which many modern metroidvanias are guilty of, they often make you feel like it's an open world and you have choices but really it's just a false sense of freedom and your really just limited to following the path that the dev chooses for you, but not with this wonderful game. I'm not fond of writing reviews, however everyonce in a while I come accross a gem like this that is criminally under appreciated I feel an obligation to shout its praises through review. If this game looks even the slightest bit interesting to you, you should buy it, and then thank me later in your dreams.

This is an awesome game! A game that pays tribute and plays like a variety of games seen in the NES days. You can see references/inspiration from a variety of sources such as castlevania, metroid, ninja gaiden, faxanadu, iron sword, kid icarus and the like. Lots of classic concepts and tight controls that feel satisfying, especially some of the maneuvers you can pull off after you get the grappling hook. I think there is a steep difficulty curve in this game, even on easy the game is pretty unforgiving. This can lead to frustation but also immense satisfaction once you manage to clear a particular section. The graphics and use of backgrounds are well done and fit the overall theme nicely. The music and souds are good, but nothing amazing. They do the job without being annoying or grating but neither are they necessarily memorable or a melody you'll be whistling later. I recommend this to anyone who grew up with or enjoys retro rpg/platformers that have a high difficulty curve but also reward patience and diligence. I have no qualms about paying the full price and if on sale the game would be a steal.

Overall: 8/10

Controls: 9/10

Music: 7/10

Difficulty: 8/10

Fun: 10/10

OK! So this game is a metroidvania where the enemies are a bit harder (multiple hits), and you can equip 3 weapons at the same time. The graphics are nice, the sound is nice, the controls are nice, I really liked this game.
Heres a video of me exploring the beginning of the game (I find a few secrets and gets some weapons and a relic)
https://youtu.be/IDqVJJpdFBw