DEVILFORT

DEVILFORT by VUQM
Music: • Stardew Valley OST - M...
My review of DEVILFORT:
-Interesting parkour mechanics. I like the use of time-space ruptures and feel like they were used in an interesting way. However, I think it does get repetitive regrabbing the torch and climbing up the side of the towers. I also dislike the RNG aspect where you have to go into the dragon's skull to get the goblet. That was not necessary in my opinion and just added a feeling of tedium to the world. I liked how the parkour was incorporated with the design itself (particularly the sunnyside yolkfalls being incorporated with the lava at the bottom). The anagram puzzle in the towers felt a bit boring and unnecessary in my opinion as you're actually taking an anagram of 3 distinct words which can be slightly misleading but it isn't all too difficult so whatever.
-While the open-ness of the world is nice, it is very clear that this world can be done in unintended ways. Like there's a "blocked off" area that tells you that mocks you for thinking you can go a certain way...but you can if you're good enough at parkour (which is clearly unintended). You can also go the entire world without ever going through the parkour on one of the sides (left or right) since you can just go through the same path you did previously to get the torch and don't have to explore a new one.
-Design is alright. I feel like the shadows are needed to make some bits of the tower feel in front (mainly the central strucutre) and the two arches feel more like they're in the background. I also feel as if this could extend to the skull itself as it blends in with the arch a bit weirdly. Additionally, whatever is on the right side of the world should be hidden from view more imo.
-The story is satisfactory enough. It's nothing amazing; it just establishes a context for the world to be set in and not much else.