Quick Look: Valfaris

METALROID (ok not really, it's more linear.. but STILL)

Happy Alex got to do this one. This caught my eye on UPF, been meaning to play it. Seems like a good time.

I lost my shit when Vinny immediately got (jokingly) defensive when Alex said they had a technical issue. This was a great little pick me up for my Tuesday morning.

I could listen to Vinny making woodworking jokes all day. Would love to see what his home setup is like.

Heck of a game. One of those side scrolling shooters that's full of memorable set pieces, great art, and music that fits perfectly. I really liked the boss designs, too. Between this and Blazing Chrome and the Contra Anniversary thing, it's a good time for Contra games that aren't new Contra.

But be warned that there are maybe half a dozen checkpoints that will make you want to throw a controller.

I'd recommend those playing to rely more on melee and the parry mechanic of the shield, not only is there a boss in the late game that requires mastery of those skills, but a lot of enemies are vulnerable to those tactics. Additionally the resurrection shards can be held on to to cash in for blood metals or to increase health, so in the early game if you can resist check-pointing it can really help you later on as the game gets more difficult.

In case anyone else was wondering, I looked it up and and seems you can disable screen shake in the options (at least on the PC version, but I would presume/hope also on console versions as well).

Always glad when a developer puts in options like that because man I don't know if I could play a game that shaky.

I have a huge backlog so I rarely buy something at release. This is a definite exception.

Okay, there's needs to be a Vinny long play of this. "Vinny"-faris.

Of course Alex would reference Dethklok. It should have been so obvious

Kinda wished they played more of it when they played this on UPF it looked pretty cool! Sometimes a QL is actually a Quick Look.

Dont let em sit on ya!

More of this game pleeeease

Alex needs to learn how to use the shield to parry and reflect projectiles but otherwise a solid quick look. This game was great on Switch, in my favorites of the year.

@mikeissogroovy: It looks like learning your sword's hitbox and active frames is a big part of survival.

It's not mentioned by anyone in the quick look, but this is made by the same developer that made Slain! Back From Hell a few years back. And you can definitely tell! I never did complete that game. I got frustrated with a boss, and then my Xbox 360 gamepad broke, and then my Xbox One gamepad had some issues with the game.

I played the demo/beta of Valfaris about a year ago and my Xbox One controller did work well with that game, at least, but it'd be nice if they would fix the issues in Slain.

I wasn't going to watch this but then I saw the title screen. Still not my kinda game, but definitely has a style

What was the other hack and slash sprite-based quicklook from a couple years ago? Super metal aesthetic. Pretty sure Jason was on the video

Anyone?

Driven me nuts for ages

loading screen or credits has the main dude playing a guitar in a pool of waist high blood swinging his long hair through it

Feels like I'm playing a new Heavy Metal magazine game.

This game looks like a lot of...

Metal Wolf Chaos!

Probably Slain, by the same dev:

Quick Look: Slain: Back From Hell

I wish there were more games that ripped like this. Brutal Legend 2 please?

Would love to see more of Valfaris on a GBEast playdate.

I think you should let me get sat on if I want to get sat on

@exsiccation: Its by the Slain devs.

That is kind of just their art style. Metal by way of an Adult Swim cartoon riffing on Heavy Metal.

You should never endeavor to suck LESS ass.

Looks neat. Reminds me of that game Jason liked. Slain? Also had a similar Metal aesthetic.

andd.. there it is in the comments :D

This game looks good and seems fun. Too bad that's what I thought about Slain, which I thought super sucked.

buying this immediately