Zeran's Folly is pretty good as a story-oriented metroidvania. Similar to, but not quite as good as, Wuppo. I enjoyed it, and on a 50% off sale I'd say it's well worth its price.


+ Interesting characters, good story
+ Enough optional content, but not so much that 100%ing it is out of reach
+ Reasonably fun gameplay


* The writing is not for everyone. It's very crude at times. Characters openly talk about sex, rape, incest, child molestation, etc. Nothing graphic happens or is implied to happen during the course of the game, except a boss and several costumes have exposed breasts. It just is a part of characters' backstories & motivations. I imagine some of it could be shocking if the internet hasn't already desensitized you to everything though.



- It's very hard to control. Most attacks involve some sort of movement, but their behaviour changes dramatically depending on if you're in the air, and if you're "Focused". If you're hovering by repeatedly using an Up+Attack move, but your feet touch the ground for any reason, your Up+Attack move won't get you back in the air, but instead will send you rocketing across the screen. If you fall into a pit of spikes, you'll take damage and lose Focus, which means you lose most of your mobility moves until you've managed to avoid damage for ~1.5s. Without your mobility moves, it's hard to avoid damage, especially when you're stuck in a pit of spikes.
- Because of the control issues, it's not a precision platformer. I played on Easy, so I had enough health to survive most of the times I got f***ed over by the controls. However, if there were more difficulty, I imagine it would be more of a frustrating challenge than a fun challenge.
- The dungeons are a bit too long without much enemy variety. By the end of the game I was just cheesing the fastest characters to breeze through them.

Zeran's Folly is pretty good as a story-oriented metroidvania. Similar to, but not quite as good as, Wuppo. I enjoyed it, and on a 50% off sale I'd say it's well worth its price. [h1]Good[/h1] + Interesting characters, good story + Enough optional content, but not so much that 100%ing it is out of reach + Reasonably fun gameplay [h1]Neutral[/h1] * The writing is not for everyone. It's very crude at times. Characters openly talk about sex, rape, incest, child molestation, etc. Nothing graphic happens or is implied to happen during the course of the game, except a boss and several costumes have exposed breasts. It just is a part of characters' backstories & motivations. I imagine some of it could be shocking if the internet hasn't already desensitized you to everything though. [h1]Bad[/h1] - It's very hard to control. Most attacks involve some sort of movement, but their behaviour changes dramatically depending on if you're in the air, and if you're "Focused". If you're hovering by repeatedly using an Up+Attack move, but your feet touch the ground for any reason, your Up+Attack move won't get you back in the air, but instead will send you rocketing across the screen. If you fall into a pit of spikes, you'll take damage and lose Focus, which means you lose most of your mobility moves until you've managed to avoid damage for ~1.5s. Without your mobility moves, it's hard to avoid damage, especially when you're stuck in a pit of spikes. - Because of the control issues, it's not a precision platformer. I played on Easy, so I had enough health to survive most of the times I got f***ed over by the controls. However, if there were more difficulty, I imagine it would be more of a frustrating challenge than a fun challenge. - The dungeons are a bit too long without much enemy variety. By the end of the game I was just cheesing the fastest characters to breeze through them.