Aggelos is a Indie Side-Scrolling Action-RPG for PS4, XBONE, SWITCH, and PC, which was developed by Storybird Games, and published by PQube.
This is basically a inspired retro-styled title that was played very similar to early classic series such as Wonder Boy in Monster World is one of the sub-series to Wonder Boy franchise that is heavily focused on Metroidvania style genre which is an opposite to side-scrolling platformers like the first 1986's original.
To tell you truth, I actually never played any of Wonder Boy titles in my old days as a kid because I didn't own the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive at the time when I got very busy playing with my SNES, until I finally had my own SEGA's 16-bit system in around 2016 as a young adult.
I was fully planned to find a cheapest ways to purchase any of Wonder Boy games for my Genesis/MD or PS4, but until I've discovered this game on both Amazon and Ebay for £12 which I think the price is actually not that so expensive, so I had to purchase this copy on Ebay for my PS4.
After playing it for a week, my overall thoughts on this game is actually pretty solid for the indie title as I'm a huge fan of all retro gaming stuff that really appeals to me the most.
I really liked the style of the graphics, the presentation, and of course gameplay which is kinda like mixed between Zelda II: Adventures of Link for NES and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap for Master System that made the game quite interesting. It has several of locations to explore around, many cool weapons and abilities to learn the new moves, gaining more skills, the secrets areas to discover, collecting key items, and has epic boss battles that really keeps me more entertained to play, but there's are few drawbacks that the game was been encountered with such as lacking the backstory at the beginning of the game and some annoying bugs that needs to addressed, but so far it's still plays decently well with full 7 or 8 hours length of fun to play which is the reason why this game is still worth for collecting it.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The story starts off with the 30 second of intro in ordinary days focuses on young unnamed warrior who walks towards the woods as he rescued the girl named Lyn (The Princess of Lumen) from the Valion's minion, he's taken her safefully to her home castle to see King Gentel who thanked the young warrior for saving his daughter from the Valion's minion.
Lyn and her father began to talk about the story regarding the four elements are these special power orbs that the Valion already had all four of them which allowing his dark power to destroy the peaceful homeland known as the world of light.
To prevent Valion from taking control of the land, only the brave ones could able to stop them from attacking the homeland as the nameless hero finally accepts the King's objectives to save the world by gaining all elements that allows him to fight off against the evil ones.
I got to say the story wise is rather bit of mixed overall which this game didn't had a proper backstory regarding on opening intros can only lasted for 30 seconds with no explanation whatsoever, so it would have been nice if they could able to progress enough story details on Valion's history is good to know what was the reason why he stole all four elements and why conquering the peaceful world which could have added further more storyline to make the game sounds more interesting, but it gets better at the half of the game once you're able to progress though the game.
I did like the whole characters in the game especially with most of the enemies and bosses are kinda just like you're expecting from the classic 8-bit era.
It has dragons, bulls, squids, fish, birds, clouds, bears and all others minions. The bosses are looking pretty good in the game which has big fat green dragon, hairy spikey monster, huge ass orange skull, and of course red squiggly squid. I'm pretty sure Valion the Evil Knight does look like it's straight up villain from Shovel Knight which I think it's kinda look awesome.
I don't really mind playing as the nameless protagonist which is absolutely fine the way it should in the game because this character is actually you as a hero in the game which is acceptable for most part in the game. I say Princess Lyn is pretty much like from video game princesses such as Zelda from Legend of Zelda series with similar personalities that keeps her character standards quite interesting.
I did appreciated with the overall settings on each location such as the forrest, lava, caves, aquatic, sky, mountains and etc. which has colourful looking level designs in Master System graphic style which I really liked how the levels been set in different scenery to make the game look visually appealing to 8-bit die hard fans, so each of the locations had filled with houses, shops, pubs, castle, libraries, pillars and all other layouts they added on the game seems to be pretty impressive for the level design choices.
Overall, it has mixed story at the beginning, but I give credit for the decent characters choices and appealing presentation design.
Gameplay
You take control of nameless hero in 2D perspective of side-scrolling RPG as your objective is to collect all four elements which requires you to gain better weapons and abilities to able to defeat all four bosses.
You will have sword as basic primary weapon which uses for attacking enemies in each level area, and you have a jump button which makes your player jump on platforms.
There are player's bar on the left-side of top-screen which shows your player's health, magics and item icon which really helps for player to insure that you got enough health and magic to being able to continuing on the quest. You will also have level up skill on the right-side of the top-screen which shows how many skill levels you have gained which really improves your character's skill fighting during the battles.
You can also extend your health and magics by collecting items that can add the player's capacity which slowly makes the player bit stronger on health side, while needing enough magic to use it for handy level exploration.
On pause menu, you will able to access inventory screen which showing the list of items, weapons, armors, moves, rings, and elements that you have collected during the progress of the game.
There are some shops that you can able to purchase useful items such as potion and elixir which helps regains your health quickly, while these herbs are actually used for back-up health when losing all your healths during the battle.
You may able to find weapons and armors in hidden passage of levels location as it really doubles up your attack and defend skills which improves your player's playabilities. There are some weapons and armor that are pretty effective to use such as dragon armor which protects you from the heat that damages you in lava cave, the water sword that shoots 3-ways bubbles in underwater which is effective against sea creatures, and Iron sword are effective against the slimy creatures which I think these combat are actually good for most of the level locations and boss battles.
You may also gain new moves by collecting all 4 scrolls items which allowing you to perform moves such as uppercut attack, downward stab, sword jab, and lightball attack, while these 4 rings can be found on boss stages are actually used as the magic moves such as fire that shoots fire but also creates portal for short cuts, earth that throws at the enemies but creates platforming path that you can jump on, water that floats you under the water but shoots multiple bubbles, and air that allows you to dash forward but making your player run faster which I think these moves and special rings are actually good for breaking hard objects and going across through the blocked areas, that allows you to enter the new path of hidden passage.
Going on map screen shows you where you're been located in and gives you an idea to discover a new locations and there are a save features in the game which shows the flashy water fountain which not only to save your game, but also regenerates your health and magics too.
The game does have an RPG elements where you had to follow the important tasks that helps you finding way to being able to visit the unknown places, so you may get a key information from people in the town to help you with the clues and stuff like what they need it are pretty much like from Zelda II: Adventures of Link for NES where people in the village houses may allow you to access to new locations or rewarding you with important key items in the game if you're able to meet their requirements on certain objectives which I think it really help keeps the player busy for good old 7 to 8 hours of adventurous fun.
So far, I am pretty grateful with the choices of level exploration which I really like spending time to explore the level to search for hidden areas, visiting unknown places, collecting golds to able to purchase affordable items, and talking to people in small town areas for useful infos which I think its just as you're expecting from the 8-bit classics era. I also liked the choice of weapons, items, magics, and others which I think it worked pretty well for most part of the game with excellent hit detection and being able to attack enemies effectively.
I do think there are an issue with the minor bugs where it randomly performing uppercut attack in air when I only just pressing the jump button without pressing the up+attack button that needs to be fixing the issue because I finding it quite aggravating when trying to jump on platforms without having to fall into the deadly pits which I had to start over again till I've reached it at the new area of level.
I also think the map screen is not quite as cleared in comparison with other Metroidvanias titles, so it only showing the world location of maps which didn't actually showing the whole detail of the level areas that I wanted to make sure that I have visited enough areas in the game, but thats okay.
I got to say the boss battles is quite epic which requires you to memorising their patterns and weaknesses without having to take much damage from them which really adds up the overall challenge of the game.
There are some interesting side-missions in the game where you can able to help people in the worlds such as completing the mini-game with green-tall dragon, finding pendent item for princess, and recovering one of the sea creature with effective weapon will reward you with special item which help you keep a busy with this game for most of the time.
This is got to be a finest side-scrolling adventures that the fan of the Wonder Boy series are able to enjoy similar titles like Aggelos filled with many locations to explore, gaining more powers, finding hidden secrets, and battling against the enemies and bosses throughout the game with many goals and rewards.
Overall, it has multiples locations to visit, great RPG elements, fluid combat gameplay, and epic boss battles.
Graphics
I got to say I really liked the style of 8-bit graphics which is very close to early classic Master System titles filled with colourful environments on houses, trees, stones, castles, seas, and other cool layouts in the levels that made the game look very appealing for the fans of the classic 8-bit era.
The game does have really cool parallax scrolling at the backgrounds area which has really nice scrolling animation on the back layouts and these textures on the environments are in nicely sharp filters with no scratchy details whatsoever.
The characters sprite in the whole game is looking fantastic for most part especially with many of minions and bosses are quite looked cartoony, but very good at the same time which fits perfectly well for the old-school titles like this game.
I'm glad that the developers did keep the graphics detail intact to make the game just like from classic gaming from 80's era which made the game quite good.
Overall, it has colourful environments, cool background parallax scrolling, sharp textures, and great use of sprites.
Music and Sounds
I got to admit the original soundtrack in whole game is the best part of the whole because it was combined between the early Master System and NES days was known for having a energetic sounds of 8-bit music.
I believe I think it was composed by Francois Perez who not only did his work on designing and program the game, but also did made his own original music which I'm quite surprised that he did put a lot effort on the whole game during the development.
The music in every locations are catchy, happy, and some bit of the darker tone in the game which I think it really did a outstanding job, but I did encountered with bugs in sky palace locations where the music had suddenly stopped after pausing the menu which I don't know what was causing the music to stop until I've moved to other location which makes the music suddenly plays.
It does have a use of classic 8-bit sound effects for atmospheres in every locations, the slashing sounds on combat weapons and magics, and cool roaring sounds from every minions and bosses.
Overall, it has outstanding music and classic style sound effects.
Special Features
Unfortunately there are no unlockable content and some DLCs in the game which is kinda shame except it does have two difficulty options and aiming to have 100% completion for smaller replay values.
It would have been awesome if the game could have been added a new extra content for more adventurous expansions with brand new locations, more epic bosses, some mini-game, and having new game plus.
Unlike the digital release, the physical copy of the game comes with small manual book which has the info on characters, items, weapons and etc. is kinda awesome for game collectors.
Overall, I wish they could able to add new features in the game which would be sounds awesome to have one in the game.
Advantages
Appealing level and characters presentations
Great RPG elements with over 7 or 8 hours of lengthy campaign
Fluid combat
Epic bosses
Colourful graphics
Outstanding music
Disadvantages
Lacking backstory
Some minor bugs that needs fixing
Not enough special features
Final Verdict
Presentation 6.5/10 - despite with no proper backstory at the opening intro, the game has fairly decent characters choices and appealing presentation design.
Gameplay 8/10 - multiples locations to visit, great RPG elements, fluid combat gameplay, and epic boss battles.
Graphics 8/10 - colourful environments, cool background parallax scrolling, sharp textures, and great use of sprites.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - outstanding music and classic style sound effects.
Special Features 5/10 - despite with no unlockables and DLCs, but at least the physical copy came with cool bonus manual book.
Overall
8/10 - A very solid clone title deserves a praise for interesting presentation design, lengthy side-scrolling campaign, and has excellent gameplay overall did add up the positively about how unique the Aggelos played on both PCs and Consoles.
It is a overlooked gem is more likely becoming a obscurely title for video game collectors that loves collecting a forgotten title like this, so it cost around from £12 to £15 on Amazon or Ebay which is not quite an expensive to pick up and play.
It may be not for everyone to play, but it's more recommendation to fans of the retro-gaming days, so I did not regret myself for picking up an fun side-scrolling adventures which is worth playing again sometime in future.
So far, it's a Wonder Boy's love letter to fans that had done everything right, so in fact I loved this game.
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