Providing a new world with a variety of enemies, weapons, gear, and a bit of lore is the essential premise of what makes up the background of a Metroidvania game. Third Sphere Game Studios nailed all of these aspects and even put in a solid combat system when they designed Watcher Chronicles. While the game isn’t flawless, it is definitely a top title for fans of challenging combat to get in on for the start of this year.

Story

While purgatory used to be a fairly safe place for those who have passed over in life, a new unholy threat has arrived. A group of fallen ones called “The Watchers” now seek to transform it into a new hell. Now, lost souls must unite in order to fight back against this unholy invasion!

Gameplay

When you start the game, you are given a basic piece of armor and a starting weapon. This is what you will use to fight through the first section of the game. Once you reach the Haven, that is when the game starts to get more depth. The path leading up to the Haven will have a few enemies and challenges that help introduce you to what awaits you ahead.

Once you reach the Haven, you are given a task by the one who also acts as your upgrade station. Each NPC in this section of the game serves a different purpose, but they all run on the same currency - purple gems. You can Ascend (upgrade your stats), go to the blacksmith to have armor and weapons either made or upgraded - which will actually cost upgrade material items, go to the shopkeep and purchase an item or two, and then the herbalist in the back which is more of a mage dealer.

While I never really got into the mage aspect of this game, the option is there and it is likely helpful for players who want to have more ranged attack options, given that the arrow attacks isn’t enough. For me, Metroidvania games are best enjoyed as a melee combat spree! That said, I dived into the different weapons in the game. You can find a bunch of different weapons throughout the map, but they are all beneficial based on your play style. Do you prefer heavy hitters that are slow and take more energy, faster attacks that hit for less damage and cost less energy, or something in the middle?

The main thing to keep in mind is that everything you do takes energy. Dodging, dashing, blocking, and attacking are all going to take energy, so make sure you always keep an eye on your green meter. It is best to know how much everything will cost you, energy-wise, so that you can also focus on your surroundings. I personally enjoyed using the Katana most as it is a middle weapon with good attack damage and speed, especially once upgraded.

Finding different areas on the map is completely up to you, but once you find a save statue, you can start fast traveling there. There are up to four statues in each zone of the map and you can teleport to any statue you have used before. Using a statue will restore all of your health, energy, mana, and potion stash, but it will also respawn all enemies on the map, excluding bosses. When you go to fast travel to different areas, it will have the suggested level at the bottom so you know how difficult the area you are going into will be.

The rest of the combat is learning how your combo’s work, knowing when to use your arrows and how quickly you can earn energy back to use arrows again, knowing how much energy all of your actions will cost, and, of course, understanding your enemies. Boss fights are more trial-and-error than anything as you learn their moves better with each attempt, you will get closer to defeating them. Just don’t hesitate to use a health potion when fighting a bunch of enemies since there is a chance they will drop a potion for you.

Another awesome detail to the gameplay was the fact that they offer multiplayer that isn’t strictly local. In fact, they offer remote play with this game so you can invite friends that don’t even have the game to play as your mercenary. They literally take on the role of a typical AI mercenary, but they get to control them in full. If you catch an elevator or get too far away from them, they will teleport to you, but if they go too far away from you, they will teleport back to where you are. When your friend loads in, they get to choose between three different fighter types, will be able to hold the same amount of potions as you even after upgrading, and will even be the same level as you so they are as strong as you are. You just cant upgrade their gear or give them different gear to wear.

Audio and Visual

When I first saw that this game has a cartoon style for the game’s art, I wasn’t sure if things were going to even look threatening. I quickly learned that even when they don’t look all that threatening, their attacks and damage dealing is threatening enough! It isn’t an art style that I find very fitting for the genre, but it works well enough for this game.

As for the music, I was very impressed with the music implemented in this game. The heavy drums and guitar rifts during boss fights that shift to a melodic threat when you reach the bottom of a bosses health bar was such a nice touch. Not to mention how each zone had its own music style that was fitting to the aesthetic environment you were in.

Replayability

While I am not sure that you will end up playing through this game more than once, there is a ton of options when it comes to playing through the game itself. Whether you want to change up your melee action or try out being a mage, the combat options are able to be explored and expanded on. So, while I am not sure about the replayability, the options for a single playthrough to be full of variety is a nice secondary to this.

What Could Be Better

It was really annoying that I would collect dropped health potions even when I was fully stocked. The game doesn’t give an option for the potions to be left on the ground and picked up when I make room for it, so I couldn’t always utilize the free health potion drops as well as I could have if they wouldn’t have been collected when I didn’t have space for them. Just leave them on the ground and let me come back for them or even just use my current potions and pick them up after.

Verdict

Watcher Chronicles is an unexpected Metroidvania gem! Going into this game with doubts and then having them wiped out through an entertaining experience was such a great feeling. Despite having questionable graphics at first look, this game pulls off having a very fitting environment with great music choices and a variety of combat options and enemies that it never got old as I played through it. Even after wondering if the game was going to get truly difficult after mostly breezing through the first few bosses, getting crushed over and over by the first Watcher boss fight instilled that desire to win and the pride of finally taking them down that any Metroidvania fan loves to accomplish! This is a solid title to start the year off with for those looking for a challenging new game.