Loot River Review – When Dark Souls Plays Tetris

Although in Loot River enemies do not die attaching these tokens

There are games that go beyond what was conceived, and without a doubt the saga created by Hidetaka Miyazaki is one of these cases. Dark Souls was a milestone that we’ve seen repeated a thousand and one times in many different ways. fighting like souls in futuristic environments, with pixelated aesthetics, in 2D development, in the form of pretty furs as seen in Tunic… Innovation has no end. And in the case of Loot River it was not going to be less. If you want some of the most original confrontations where a Hourly accurate with tile movement as if it were Tetris itself, so don’t miss our analysis.

Get ready before going up the tower

SUPER HOT GIFTS with straka.studio They are responsible for the madness that we present to you today. We are faced with a title with a pixelated aesthetic and an eagle view camera that shares an atypical gameplay in its movement.

As in From Software titles, in Loot River we will control an empty protagonist, without a purpose in his life beyond the fulfillment of the assigned mission. Without death and at the same time without life. Our only objective will be to climb floors in a network of dungeons filled with enemies who will want to make us bite the dust. I have already told you that our journey will not be easy at all, and we will have to shoot spirits, cool spirits and our swordsmanship to be able to get out of this place.

tile

Besides the typical weak attack, strong attack, dodge and defense moves that these types of proposals have, The most interesting thing about Loot River is its movement on the ground of each stage. We can move the tiles on which our feet walk to reach other areas of the scene. Sometimes there will even be two heights in the phase and these parts will have to be combined well to achieve the desired path. And this movement will not only help us move from place to place, since we can give it a more specific combat use.

Being an action apart from the movements of our protagonist, we can obtain a particular advantage in confrontations. It’s hard to explain with text, but I explain it with an example. We can charge a powerful attack on our tile, far from the range of the enemy. When our hero is just going to deliver the blow, we can independently move the ground where we approach the enemy and thus quickly and accurately deliver the blow we had prepared. A somewhat “dirty” fighting style, but it is valid in execution and will save us more than one jam. Be careful, we won’t always be able to use this technique, since some enemies will “touch” parts of this floor without us being able to move it as we please.

You’re dead…again

Loot River is not an easy game, quite the contrary. It has a procedural playable system, and that may be too high a wall for many people. Can you imagine that in a Dark Souls, when you die, you start over with all your stats reset? Well, it’s happening here. Yes, there is the sanctuary where with orbs we can unlock new weapons, spells and armor, but to use them we will have to obtain the precious souls that the title requires us to acquire these aids. The only thing that remains intact is a series of artifacts that will be of great help to us in certain situations.

loaded to the teeth

At our disposal we will have a series of weapons that we will improve or find along the way. There will be swords, greatswords, axes, and spears that honestly work the same way. Only the damage they deal, the range they have, and the movement of their charged attack change. But in practice, they are all treated the same. And that (along with the constant resetting every playthrough) is one of the main issues Loot River has for me. Other than visiting new places, accumulating experience and money, I don’t see combat being varied. And in the end, it tarnishes the final result.

Measure every sprite to the nearest millimeter

Visually, Loot River is a very particular game. On the one hand, the composition of the scenarios is quite simple except for the main points of interest. It’s all a random frame that doesn’t end up creating a “pretty picture”. In fact, some phases can be very cumbersome due to their length and lack of eye-catching visuals. Being a “far from the heart” camera, enemy detail isn’t very well appreciated either. None end up standing out except for the final bosses (VERY hard bones to crack, I warn).

Where it shines a bit more is in the graphical effects that the scenarios themselves generate. I mean by that the effect of water when moving a tile, and even in some places you can light a fire on the stage which will spread and leave an unusual cachet. The animation set of our hero and enemies isn’t bad either, despite its small size.

Conclusion of the Loot River

Although straka.studio wanted to combine a game like souls with a mechanic never seen before, the result is not as good as it seems at first glance. It is curious to be able to move our character around the tiles, completing the occasional puzzle. Even at first, combat using these moving parts can seem like fun. But all this is partially diluted when we have been a few hours, caused by repetitive combat and a procedural game system that forces us to start from scratch every time we die.

Yes, that’s the grace of procedural mechanics, but in such challenging titles, that factor weighs heavily. Or at least, if with each death they offered an additional improvement, everything would be more bearable… but it’s not like that. For my part, if the genre calls you, what I would say is to download the game if you have the service Xbox Game Pass and experience for yourself the challenge Loot River can bring. Yes, prepare to sweat.