Yuurei

A great metroidvania with many cool areas and is short enough to replay with all the different characters

I heard Rhone and Will's stories are canon to the sequel Reikon, so I played them. I enjoyed fighting against very cool custom bosses very much. I needed a bit little time to understand about Enhance.

I can't say enough good things about my experiences with just my first playthrough of this quest. The difficulty is very well balanced, the areas are all distinct with their own mechanics, the exploration feels very rewarding and was greatly improved over Hitodama. The higher difficulty even throws some curveballs at you beyond the typical "take more damage and do less damage" you often see, which is much appreciated. The fact that each character has unique elements to them also gives the game a lot of replayability, not to mention you can encounter different parts of the story and outcomes to events that transpire based on who you play as. The boss fights are ally very well done and feel rewarding to beat them.

If you like quests with a lot of exploration elements, this is a great quest to play. If you like magic spells, holy crap you should definitely play this. If you like excellent music and sound effects, still a winner. If you liked Hitodama this improves on every single concept from that and feels like a true game sequel, something we don't get much of in ZC. You should absolutely play this and keep an eye on everything Aevin does, because the man absolutely gets how to make a quest.

Probably going to keep this review short since it's really hard to find anything negative to say about this quest lol. This quest was a blast to play through and I loved every bit of it. This was also a huge step up from Hitodama in terms of gameplay, story and design. I managed to get 100% in the main game and I'm very thankful the seeker upgrades existed, or else I would've been wondering around for ages. Each area is really unique in their own way with their own cool gimmicks and ideas. I also love how the labyrinth connects up together, with shortcuts and alternate paths everywhere, giving the quest a real metroidvania feel. The soundtrack in each area was really nice to listen to as well, and they all fit their areas nicely.

I also loved the new spells included, and they definitely were used a lot more equally this time unlike in Hitodama. Though I still found myself using some spells more than others (especially Thunder, that's my favourite one), but it's nice how you can use spells for both combat and puzzle solving. That perfect mix is fantastic. The difficulty was pretty spot on, except for the Rose Garden area where I feel like it was a little too hectic for me with the hidden spikes and all the enemies everywhere, but other than that, nothing felt too hard or too easy. While I only done one playthrough as Rhone, the story was very interesting. It felt quite simple but really effective, and that random plot twist near the end with Naiya got me good I might decide to do more playthroughs of this in the future, but I think one was draining enough for me for now and I've been meaning to try other quests so I'll come back to this another time.

Besides the one small complaint about difficulty in one area, I can't think of anything negative to say, so good job making a truly fantastic quest. Easy 5/5 from me and I'll be sure to try out the post-game stuff eventually too as well as playthroughs with different characters.

I wasn't really planning to write a review but after seeing how much it inspired me to the point where it's now my favorite quest, I feel like I have to write a review that does justice and express just how amazing this quest really is. For me, this is personally awkward but I feel it needs to be said in order to show how much this quest has opened my mind. When I was first introduced to Hitodama, I found it strange and I couldn't enjoy it as much as Hero's Memory. So when I heard you were making a successor to Hitodama I wasn't too stoked. In fact, I kind of wanted to see Hero's Memory 2 instead.

So the day Yuurei came out I decided to keep an open mind and play it. A much more open mind. And boy, did I enjoy this quest a lot. From the secrets to the spells to the exploration to the pacing... I can't think of a single major aspect that you failed on. This quest excels in a ton of charm and polish. The storytelling and character development was impressive too although I haven't played much of the characters I'm afraid. And to be quite honest, this is the most fun I had with a quest in a while and it's really opened my eyes to a whole new genre. In fact, it inspired me to make a metroidvania myself and I enjoyed making it more than my previous projects frankly.

There was some issues, and I consider them trivial and minor. I didn't exactly like the croc enemies nor did I fully enjoy exploring the poison area. It's not that I hated the area, it's just that it's far from my favorite in the quest. With a quest with so many colourful and unique areas (including the one I didn't enjoy; at least it had redeeming qualities) it's pretty easy to forgive. All in all, I love this quest. I can say without a doubt it's my favorite quest of 2016. If it were 2014 or 2015 I probably would have wanted Hero's Memory 2 but now I want to see another creative masterpiece from you. Bring us a breath of fresh air into the world of Zelda Classic again, I'm really excited. So excited, I kind of want to replay Hitodama, but not before I replay Yuurei and see what the other characters are about. So much replay value it seems!

I could go on and on, but all I need to say is that this quest was made with a ton of heart. I can clearly see that and it's hard for me not to give it a five star rating so here you go, you deserve it if not more. Great job!

Note: This review is based off the quest BEFORE the January 28th 2017 update

Yuurei is a completely different style of game than a traditional ZC quest. However, from the description it's a sequel to Hitodama, which is a quest that I have yet to play. I spent over 10 hours on my initial playthrough, quite a bit of it was due to backtracking and/or walking around in circles having absolutely NO idea where to go or what to do. I've only done -one- playthrough until the credits scrolled, so I've done little to no "post-game content" which I hear this quest has a decent amount of. The quest itself is definitely a metroidvania style quest, there's no real dungeons at all but there's plenty of areas to explore, lots of secrets to find, etc.

To start off, you're given a choice between choosing a character randomly or taking a short quiz to select a character. I decided to go for the quiz and ended up using Jack as my playable character. I played through the quest on Normal difficulty, which may skew this review a bit, but I wanted to see what Aevin intended as the normal difficulty. ... I completed the quest with 127 deaths, most of which were in boss rooms.

Speaking of boss rooms, good god there's -far- too much going on the screen at once to even dodge in a good manner. Most (if not all) of my boss kills left me with either a half heart or one heart remaining, and that's only because I felt I got lucky on my dodging, and not because I got better at dodging. Quite a few times I had it where bosses would teleport directly on top of me giving me very little to NO chance to dodge, making it rather difficult to get through the boss fights.

However, with that one complaint aside, the rest of the things in the quest are very well done. All of the custom "spells" (as they're called) in the game are very well done, love the fact that there's no "true" base ZC items in the quest. The timed "puzzles" in the Rose Gardens were well done. First time I'd ever see a timed switch that operates across multiple screens. The hidden spikes in the rose garden are a different story, but that's to be expected from a late-game area. The overall story I got out of Jack is very well done, thinking of giving this quest a second playthrough off stream just to experience a bit more of the post-game content.

All of the custom scripted enemies also gave it that non-ZC feel and almost made me forget that I was even playing a Zelda Classic quest. The amount of polish that went into this quest definitely shows, and I'd love to see additional quests put out by you. Overall rating: 4.5/5 stars, (Rounds up to 5/5). This quest is one of the better quests I've played. Keep it up Aevin.

Great quest as always, it's better than Hitodama in many levels. I really enjoyed it, though to be honest, I feel it lacks the impact of Hitodama. In Hitodama everything was new (game mechanics, logic, tileset...). Here, I know what to expect, and it's like Hitodama 1.5. So I feel I played in autopilot mode through the quest. I feel it needed more groundbreaking changes respectly the original quest. I appreciate the new structure, gimmicks, bosses... All the package feel very polished and professional, so there isn't nothing really wrong with the quest, and maybe it's better for new players to jump to the sequel directly. The layout is more interesting and open, and the quest is much harder than Hitodama with default settings (which is a good thing in my book).

The issue with this type of gameplay is that it lacks the depth in exploration of a classic quest. Here, all the terrain is plain. In a classic quest (like Hero's Memory) there are cave systems, secret items (coins aren't very exciting), dungeons, floors... Something like multi floors in Yuurei would make a big difference in the experience. In Hitodama I don't mind this, because as I say, everything was new. Here, I noticed more..

And a minor complain, I don't know why we need the exact weapon to break certain blocks. It feels like unnecessary filler for backtracking and coins.

Thank you very much for your work, I can't wait for the next one =)

(Mild gameplay spoilers ahead. Also, forewarning: I have not played the latest update, as I started writing this review before it was released)

...What is Yuurei?

Yuurei, from the description, claims to be a Metroidvania with an engaging story, and more playable characters than you can count. But is it? Let's take a deeper look.

Yuurei is advertised as a "deep" Metroidvania. What is a Metroidvania? Some would say that it's a Castlevania with Metroid elements, but it's most commonly used to mean a game with a high focus on exploration, with lots of hidden goodies to find, and is heavy on backtracking to old areas with new items. And boy, does this quest have a lot of exploration. A huge 16x16 map, split into 16 areas, is available for you to explore, filled with hidden goodies. 16 Magic spells, 12 Health expansions, 6 Magic upgrades, and 100 coins. Coins are the main collectible of this quest: collect 10 coins, and you gain a level up and become stronger. You may get a defense upgrade against a certain element, which makes you take less damage from that source and allows you to block it when facing directly towards the element. You may also get a power boost for a certain element, allowing you to deal more damage casting spells of that type, or you may get an magic cost decrease for a certain spell.

Ah, yes, Magic spells. There's one per area, and all but 2 endgame ones allow you to uncover more secrets and proceed further. Let's talk about the combat for a sec. The game has a total of 8 elements: Light, Dark, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Lightning. Some elements are strong against enemies of the weaker element, dealing more damage to them, using a spell your opponent is strong against won't do much damage, and using a spell of the same type as your opponent will cause minimal to 0 damage. Rock Paper Scissors, but with elements. Almost like Pokemon. Light is weak to Dark, Dark is weak to light, Earth is weak against Wind, Thunder is weak against Earth, Water is weak to Thunder, Fire is weak to Water, Ice is weak to Fire, and Wind is weak to Ice. Some enemies also have specific weakness', such as the mimic ghosts having their shields destroyed by quake. However, the player can only obtain defenses for 6 of the elements.

The story, from the 6 characters I have played so far, is fairly deep (except for the postgame character I played, which had no story). While I can't say much without spoiling, each character has their own backstory, which only becomes revealed as you play more and more characters.

The characters. There are a lot of characters you can play as in Yuurei. 9+ characters are available for you to choose. You choose a character by naming your file after the character. However, you can take a quiz to play as the character which most fits your personality. I got Jandra, and thus, Jandra was the first character I played as. You can also choose at random which character you play as, instead of taking the quiz or picking a character. This is to encourage people to try new characters that they might not have otherwise tried. Each character has their own story, their own personality, and, of course, their own spell strengths. Rhone, for example, gains a boost in Earth magic damage upon leveling up, while Hito, on the other hand, gains a boost in dark magic and a cheaper Halt spell. Thus, the character you play as helps decide how you play.

And then there's the boss battles. One of my favorite things in Hitodama was the boss battles, and how they involved you learning 2 individual boss' patterns before they team up and you fight them in a combined battle. From all the playthroughs I have played, there was always at least one team-up battle. And boy, are they tough. The difficulty in this quest is up there, and the bosses are where the game bites. Almost all the battles are fair (I'll get to the "almost" in a bit), yes, but they are difficult, especially once you hit the halfway point. All the bosses try to control the flow of the battle. One of the bosses, for example, will try to spread flames to limit your field of movement so that they have a better chance of hitting you with their otherwise inaccurate main attack. All the bosses also try to encourage one to keep moving and not camp. Going back to the boss I was just talking about, they will occasionally teleport to the side of the room and shoot flames that move in a wave pattern, hitting anyone sitting still, and will later summon knife meteors where you are standing once they reach low health, forcing you to move, else you take massive damage. This, to me, is actually really smart boss design that feels a lot more engaging than a lot of bosses on PureZC.

Finally, the post game content. This, to me, is where the game shines. beating the game under certain conditions unlocks new secret characters for you to play as. Each of these characters has their own little gimmick, usually in the form of their unique starting item. And these characters are rather fun to play. From shooting lightning balls in a nonlinear, open labyrinth, to raging your head off at the true difficulty that is playing Moosh's beam spamming girl on difficult mode, there is a lot of variety from what I have played so far of the secret characters (and I'm not even halfway through the secret characters). There is also the options menu, unlocked by beating the game once. This menu allows you to turn on/off challenges. This is the second half of the postgame. These challenges present to you a challenge (duh) that also rewards you for playing it right. For example, Pacifist. The game is modified slightly to automatically open all doors that require killing all enemies, doors that require you to kill enemies with a certain item will open once you get the item, and required items will automatically appear without you needing to kill all the enemies (not optional items, like coins and a certain endgame spell). The game expects you to avoid killing enemies, and return, rewards you with increased life regen for each new area you find. However, killing enemies (besides bosses, which you are still required to kill) will lower that life regen, and eventually make the regen negative, draining your life. This brings you new ways to play the old content that you've been playing this whole time.

... That's not to say the quest doesn't have flaws, though.

My biggest complaint with the game is that, for all the gameplay differences each character has, it's not enough to make their gameplay stand out. Each character goes through the same areas as the other characters, they get the same spells, most of the same level ups (minus the ones unique to that character), and the same basic flow of the game. Each character goes to points A and B, order is up to them, then C, etc. The bosses are often reused for other characters, with little to no difference. You always fight the same set of characters for your first bosses, regardless of who you are playing as, and the later bosses seem to be the same bosses for 6 of the 9 characters. This, here, is disappointing. There could have been much more potential with the bosses. There could have been situations where characters from different trios suddenly team up to kick your ass, for example. Then there's also the fact that the Wisps, the main characters from the last game, are strangely absent from an entire Trio's story, which seems to not make sense, considering how important they are.

Back to that Point A/B/C thing: this also applies to the story. For some reason, for every character, their first bosses are in the exact same place as the other first bosses. This applies for all the bosses. You will fight each boss in the same order as any other character. You get the exact same path choices as the other characters, exact same boss location order, the same bosses (unless you play as a certain trio, in which case the later bosses get replaced with new ones), maybe with one of the first bosses switched out for another boss if you're lucky, the same story structure. Not only that, but the basic story for all the characters is the same. Even a certain plot twist is used throughout all the stories. Honestly, feels a bit half-arsed. Maybe it'd be forgivable if the characters were more different than "this character gets half magic on a certain spell" and "this character gets stronger attack power on this element!".

Oh, let's not forget that certain characters are bad because of this. Jandra, for example, doesn't get her signature spell until the final area, and it's useless against bosses and an earlier spell you can get before the halfway point of the game outclasses it because of it's poor accuracy. There are other characters, too, which don't get their specialties until the halfway point. You know what could have solved this? Unique starting spells for each character other than sound.

Remember when I was talking about how almost all bosses were unfair? Let's get to the almost now. There are quite a few bosses which are bullshit. Like, for example, all of the bosses in between the first and final double battle, for 6 of the 9 characters. We have a boss that has spikes surounding the arena, litters the ground with hazards, then charges after you for a good 15 seconds. We have a boss who destroys most of the arena, shoots both slow moving and really fast moving projectiles with no warning on which it's going to fire, fires an instadeath laser that's hard to dodge, and positions itself in a way to make it impossible to attack from any way but the front, where it's firing. Oh, and you know that final boss in Hitodama that everybody hated? The one with the projectiles that gave you statues effects and spammed them repeatedly? Good, because we have a teleporting asshole who somehow manages to spam these even more in every color of the rainbow, along with giving himself a meat shield. All of these sure sound like fun, don't they?

Finally, some other issues I had:

Caverns was a bit too difficult for a starting area, especially in difficult mode.

The Candle Corridor in Hikaridoki is almost impossible to get through without getting hit in during an Evasion/Pacifist run. Actually, in general, it's hard to avoid taking damage here.

The Hikaridoki room with 2 earth elements and 2 light crystals in difficult mode: Just, no.

The spikes in rose garden are too sensitive, and it's hard to get through the place without memorizing where the spikes are.

Witchrobes: they have this nasty habit of teleporting onto me when I first enter a room. That's not exactly fair difficulty.

The sand crocodiles are a bit hard to dodge, what with them locking to the grid when attacking.

The drowned final boss is a pain in the ass, especially on difficult mode. I probably was fighting it wrong, though, so you can ignore this.

EDIT: I forgot to touch upon my last major concern. That concern being: quite a bit of the story contradicts itself, and each story feels non-canon because of this. Is there a canon story I am missing, are they all equally canon, or?


It'd be nice if most of these problems were addressed, but other than that, I give this 4.5 stars, which rounds up to 5.

(Also, this is my first attempt at a serious review. I hope to eventually update my older reviews up to this new standard)