Nano Apostle
NanoApostle was also a game I had wishlisted a long time ago, mostly because I thought the pixel art was nice. I was a bit hesitant to pick up the game initially because I saw that it looked to be quite difficult as well as the overall atmosphere seemed to be gloomy (not exactly a bad thing, but sometimes I want a happy game that’s all!)
However upon finishing it, I can say that I’m glad I picked it up! It’s actually a rather short game, depending on what you want to do. (spoilers) The game is 6 boss fights as well as 4 or 6 sort of side challenges. I finished all of that in about 4-5 hours, but I didn’t 100% the boss fights which I think does add a lot of replayability if that’s something you like.
The art is really well done and the characters while having short screen time are pretty charming. I would be lying if I said the ending didn’t get me, and while yes, I do cry and tear up easily, I thought it was still a pretty emotional and good way to end the game. I enjoyed the bits of lore we get about the world as well, though I think there was a lot of room for more explanation (which might have been a deliberate choice).
Now for the real meat of the game, the gameplay. One of the cool things I felt about having only 6 bosses is that it felt like each boss felt really unique and as a result all were fun to fight. The ability to retry mid fight plus minimal downtime made it feel really easy and snappy to get right into a fight and learn the boss fight. This in my opinion is especially important in these kinds of games, and best of all is that the bosses never felt so tanky that even when you mastered one phase, that getting to the second phase wouldn’t feel like it took forever. One thing I tended to dislike about older games is that phase ones once you learn them well enough feel more like filler until you get to the next phase, but because of how efficient you get after learning it, phase ones don’t ever feel too much like filler.
This is also on top of the fact that the bosses’ attacks really do keep you on your toes. As is probably to be expected with these kinds of games a lot of the skill check is pattern recognition and reaction times. I felt this especially in the last boss fight but this game really nails the feeling of mastery over a boss. Plus given that a challenge for many of the bosses being “complete taking damage less than X times” I think that’s an intended feeling. Things like learning what follow ups the boss can do, how to react and adjust accordingly, all that felt like it came naturally just from playing the game which I thought was excellent.
Many of the bosses’ attacks also felt like they were never unreactable or unpredictable at least. There were some attacks where I thought “how are you supposed to parry/dodge that?!” without realizing that the reason why it felt that way was because of something I did earlier. Slowly learning how to appropriately punish bosses’ openings and ensuring that I was always ready for their next string felt really good. And again, the best part is that none of the bosses ever felt like they took forever or were health sponges. Perhaps that was partially due to my build being very bursty, but when you get the feel for how to deal lots of damage and learning how to punish their big moves, it feels really, really good.
I’m also glad that they kept the game this length. It felt like just the right amount of bosses and challenges where I learned the games’ systems and then able to use them all by the last boss. I’m sure to a lot of people this game reminds others of Furi, but I actually never finished Furi. Part of that is that it has been a while since I played, though I do remember feeling that some bosses’ phases took a long time and it didn’t keep me hooked (though I think the art and music were great).
All this is to say, this was a game that basically cuts out the filler and gets you right into the fun boss fighting action. The unique bosses, fun characters, atmosphere (art, music, and story), combine really well into a nice package! Maybe 20 dollars is a bit pricy, and I did pick it up on a sale, but I’d definitely recommend it if people are interested!