Odallus: The Dark Call – PC Review – by K3W3L
Genre: Indie Action Metroidvania
Developer: JoyMasher
Publisher: JoyMasher
Release Date: Jul 15, 2015
You can tell from Brazilian indie developer studio JoyMasher’s catalogue that they really love their retro games. They have made a whole bunch of games with an incredible 8-bit aesthetic that has since become their trademark. Besides the bunch of freeware games on their website, they have two games on Steam – Oniken, a Contra-like, and this title here – Odallus: The Dark Call, which is the game featured in this review.
Henceforth shortened to just Odallus, this game is somewhat of a departure from Oniken in that it features metroidvania elements. You play as a guy called Haggis, who definitely would not sound out of place in Scotland, but whatever. His son has been taken by the evil forces that have risen in this land, and it is up to him (you) to vanquish the evil and rescue him. Well…at least that’s the somewhat cliché story out of the way.
Seriously, this game features amazing 8-bit sensibilities in all aspects – graphics, music, gameplay, you name it. Even the display looks slightly curved at the edges to mimic one of the old displays. Heck, if I didn’t have the particularly modern-looking Steam FPS counter in the top-left corner of my game, I probably wouldn’t have realised I was in 2016 and not in, say, 1990.
The combat is very satisfying. Most of the time, you cannot just blindly gung-ho right into an enemy (yes, I used gung-ho as a verb, so there). You have to carefully read their attack patterns and accurately counter them so you take as minimal damage as possible. And, true to their metroidvania elements, levels are big with quite a few secrets to explore, ranging from new items to upgrade your character’s power, and in some cases leading to even more levels. There’s definitely a lot to find in each level, even though there are only 8-9 in total (including the secret ones). However, Veteran mode does encourage replayability once the main game is beaten, as it is much harder than the normal mode.
There’s honestly very little I can nitpick about the game, other than that the aqueduct level really annoyed me when it came to the boat riding section. The margins for error were simply not as large as the previous level – you had to be pixel-perfect while avoiding the obstacles or you would either take a load of damage and/or fall off into the water, thus forcing you to reset the section. This is generally also true of a few other sections in other levels.
Also, I do wish the checkpoints were placed slightly better. Backtracking to the boss fights after a death, while not overly annoyingly long, is still a bit longer than I would prefer.
The merchant system you will find is also quirky in that his costs for each item raise as you buy more of it. It definitely forces you to carefully think about whether you want to buy his wares, and how often you do so. Losing all your lives in normal mode thankfully isn’t such a large drawback either, unlike…well…Inexistence, which I reviewed for the site previously.
Pros:
- Graphics, audio are incredibly on point
- Good amount of secrets to find in each level
Cons:
- Very low margin for error sometimes
- Checkpoint placement could be slightly better
K3W3L gives Odallus: The Dark Call a Drastik Measure 9.0 out of 10 (90).
I have to say that this was a far better proposition as a metroidvania than Inexistence. At the same time it is also more expensive, but you are paying that extra premium for a title of overall greater quality. Definitely one of the best modern-day retro throwback metroidvanias that you can pick up now, Odallus’ status as a critic’s darling is well-justified.
