In another time, maybe someday, humanity will reach farther than the current solar system we reside in, and discover some insanely bizarre things. Many Sci-Fi media kind of glorifies the military aspects around it, or you know, makes them seem like humanity is the big winner. This game sets itself differently from that, and that's something I believe any Biopunk could achieve because of their settings.
Ghost Song is a Metroidvania souls-like side-scroller, where the character is a deadsuit who has no idea who she is or what her purpose is being in a desolate moon planet. Playing the game with its dense atmosphere, and somber music score felt like I was in some state of trance.
While the gameplay is basic, and just something any run-of-the-mill Metroidvania could do, it helps to add itself to the narrative experience instead. Of course, I've had troubles with path finding at first, and grasping with the controls, I was also busy getting sucked in overall.
My deadsuit character woke up right after her ship crashed, a bunch of alien critters were jumping aloof, they squeak in quaint sounds, so that was one way to mislead me into thinking I can do what I want. I went the opposite direction, a roguish android destroyed me in seconds. So I course corrected. What followed were this visual display of pain, anguish, and creatures that looked like they were made of pus.
The moon is desolate and few of the people that lives here are scattered, so I have to find them and help them leave. But it took me awhile to find them because of pathfinding and backtracking issues, exploration here is troubling to say the least because the environment isn't all that friendly. Maybe that's what makes a good Metroidvania? Not quite in this case.
What's to really like about this is that environmental storytelling, even in levels that feel like they've been asset flipped a bit, has these distinguished look to them about it, telling me something about where I am going. And I like that, not many games has environments that tells players what to expect.
It's a Sci-Fi futuristic biopunk game, and it sells that. Whenever I am in levels that look like tree roots, there are snaps and crackles as I explore, it echoes inside, and I can hear a vacuum of noise coming from the outside as well. It's different when I enter something that looks like a bug's nest. Stuff sounds like they're splattering, gut liquid oozing, it changes as I delve deeper even. Then there are the enemies, they scream in either intense anger, primitively, or in crazy pain. The biodiversity in this game has a lot going.
The best part of the game is also the artwork, I guess you could say I felt immersed into the bleak, morbid side of planet exploration gone wrong. Because there are so many deaths, both robots, androids, and even humans scattered around. But there's also this sense of life that also blooms within.
This other deadsuit check tried to kill me, and after beating her, she strikes a conversation. That just fills offkilter, and you'll get a lot of this sardonic, upbeat kind of dialogue juxtaposed with the bleak outlook of its world. And that's the other thing, story and setting in some ways find out to be pretty engaging. There are moments where I fight bosses that doesn't talk, but you can clearly see they were something else before they mutated and taken shape, sometimes even in the form of large humans.
As mentioned before, this is a Metroidvania souls-like, the very essence of progression comes from killing your enemies and collecting the green spores, trade them for increased vigor, stamina, and energy. Enemies are always tough, because they come in all sorts of variety. Fighting off husks, husks with shooting branches, husks that shoot spewing moles, husks with a giant thumper for fists, bat creatures, deadly critters, humanoid infected, and so on.
I got lost in the first hour, because there were a lot of restricted areas, once I found my ways, I got permanent items that let me dodge midair, double jump, boost myself, and so on. And these come also pretty handy during combat, because enemies in waves, can easily corner you.
I even found these modules, both weapon and utility modules. They would reduce heat, spawn plants that heal me, give me shield when I dash, etc. The weapon modules act as a secondary fire, one of them allowed me to use rockets to break the red barrier to create an open way for easy backtracking. The gameplay felt basic, but the one that kept me continuing is the amount of stuff I could unlock and how much I could push my character's power capacity.
Sadly, the few things that detract me from the game are the finicky platforming, pathfinding issues, and the fact that I couldn't change the control scheme for my controller, which was pretty bad. It's not what I would a well-made platformer game with combat, but it manages to be both that and a souls-like too. Big white plants that sprout acts as firecamps for checkpoints, there are hulking dead giant robots that upgrade your abilities and even teleport you to others like them in different areas. Making the exploration much easier at least.
But the boss battles, oh boy, they're something worth talking about. If the gameplay issues weren't around much, I'd have total fun just playing them because of how challenging they are. They don't kid around, these bosses are formidable and throw whatever attacks out of the blue at you, at least being prepared to see what's coming. They are fairly designed, and can really be stretched sometimes in how long you fight em.
There's another reason to like the game, and it's the music score. The starting menu has this bass solo that echoes well, creating this lofi kind of vibe to it. And I guess the game is somewhat lowkey lofi in when it comes to atmosphere even.
I hope they patch the game and allow me to custom select controller buttons. There's no deadzone setting, which even makes the platforming for me difficult. I hope the patch arrives to fix that. Otherwise, it's a fun game, it kind of rewards you if you play well, and punishes you if you don't. Quite an interesting Metroidvania I played this game, the indie games find ways to appease people nowadays.
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