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Timespinner, by Lunar Ray Games, finally released on Steam today, an event I've been looking forward to for months now. I've played it for about 2 hours at this point, and now I'd like to take a second to give a first impression.
(DISCLAIMER: Some of these graphics are from the beta versions of the game. Nice as they are, the finished result looks even more polished.)
It is so far proving to be an exemplary Metroidvania game. The controls are highly intuitive with one exception, the graphics are some of the most breathtaking spritework I've seen in years, and the combat system is excellent.
Your primary weapons in the game are magical orbs which you wield in pairs; you can equip the same orb in each hand or a different one to mix your combat style up. So far I have the Blue Orb, your default weapon which has a very nice rate of attack, and the Blade Orb, which generates a sword on itself, trading a bit of speed for higher damage and an overhead swing that makes hitting higher enemies easier. You can also equip Aura-guzzling special attacks (fortunately, your Aura recharges naturally) and lingering effects to your orbs; currently I have the option of a rapid-fire blast or a massive room-sweeping blade, and have the Scythe Pendant equipped to allow my orbs to damage enemies and break items without attacking.
One really neat feature is that your orbs can also gain experience and level up, just like you. This increases their damage output, and may have other effects I have yet to find. So far I've gotten the Blue Orbs up to a point where, combined with the fact that they take the Scythe Pendant's effect with them, they do more damage per hit than the Blade Orbs, and at a faster rate as well. Now all I use the Blade Orbs for is to hit lanterns over my head.
One of the coolest abilities you get, though, involves the titular Timespinner itself. The parts of it apparently give you new abilities, with the first one allowing you to, for brief spans, stop time for everything but yourself. This lets you use enemies as platforms to get to new areas, but you can only use it as long as you have power for it, represented by the sand in an hourglass. Like your HP and Aura, you can increase how much sand you have by finding items and leveling up.
From what I've seen, the game feels very much like a love song to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The areas are expansive and gorgeous, the music is beautiful, and there's a crow who sells you stuff at the local library. I just finished grinding experience, both for myself and the orbs, while also collecting enough Entropy, the game's currency, to buy a 3000E piece of equipment called the Ancient Coin, which provides a better boost to my Defense and Luck than either of the other items I had so far.
As far as the story goes: I won't say much for spoilers' sakes, but it already feels nicely engaging. The bits of backstory I've been getting filled in by finding the scattered Memories of your character's mother (which I won't explain why they're around) paint an intriguingly grizzly tale.
So far my only gripe has been with that one control discrepency: Pressing the pause button while in the menu, an act which normally unpauses the game, instead acts the same as hitting "Confirm," leading to moments where I've tried unpausing only to open the Orb equipment menu or using an extraneous healing item instead. However, if that's the worst the game does, that is hardly an issue. Cave Story had a similar issue where hitting the ESC key again in the menu exited the game rather than unpausing, and look how great THAT was! :D
In summary:
So far, it's definitely proving to have been worth the wait, and then some.
(DISCLAIMER: Some of these graphics are from the beta versions of the game. Nice as they are, the finished result looks even more polished.)
It is so far proving to be an exemplary Metroidvania game. The controls are highly intuitive with one exception, the graphics are some of the most breathtaking spritework I've seen in years, and the combat system is excellent.
Your primary weapons in the game are magical orbs which you wield in pairs; you can equip the same orb in each hand or a different one to mix your combat style up. So far I have the Blue Orb, your default weapon which has a very nice rate of attack, and the Blade Orb, which generates a sword on itself, trading a bit of speed for higher damage and an overhead swing that makes hitting higher enemies easier. You can also equip Aura-guzzling special attacks (fortunately, your Aura recharges naturally) and lingering effects to your orbs; currently I have the option of a rapid-fire blast or a massive room-sweeping blade, and have the Scythe Pendant equipped to allow my orbs to damage enemies and break items without attacking.
One really neat feature is that your orbs can also gain experience and level up, just like you. This increases their damage output, and may have other effects I have yet to find. So far I've gotten the Blue Orbs up to a point where, combined with the fact that they take the Scythe Pendant's effect with them, they do more damage per hit than the Blade Orbs, and at a faster rate as well. Now all I use the Blade Orbs for is to hit lanterns over my head.
One of the coolest abilities you get, though, involves the titular Timespinner itself. The parts of it apparently give you new abilities, with the first one allowing you to, for brief spans, stop time for everything but yourself. This lets you use enemies as platforms to get to new areas, but you can only use it as long as you have power for it, represented by the sand in an hourglass. Like your HP and Aura, you can increase how much sand you have by finding items and leveling up.
From what I've seen, the game feels very much like a love song to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The areas are expansive and gorgeous, the music is beautiful, and there's a crow who sells you stuff at the local library. I just finished grinding experience, both for myself and the orbs, while also collecting enough Entropy, the game's currency, to buy a 3000E piece of equipment called the Ancient Coin, which provides a better boost to my Defense and Luck than either of the other items I had so far.
As far as the story goes: I won't say much for spoilers' sakes, but it already feels nicely engaging. The bits of backstory I've been getting filled in by finding the scattered Memories of your character's mother (which I won't explain why they're around) paint an intriguingly grizzly tale.
So far my only gripe has been with that one control discrepency: Pressing the pause button while in the menu, an act which normally unpauses the game, instead acts the same as hitting "Confirm," leading to moments where I've tried unpausing only to open the Orb equipment menu or using an extraneous healing item instead. However, if that's the worst the game does, that is hardly an issue. Cave Story had a similar issue where hitting the ESC key again in the menu exited the game rather than unpausing, and look how great THAT was! :D
In summary:
So far, it's definitely proving to have been worth the wait, and then some.