Summum Aeterna, a prequel to 2022’s Aeterna Noctis, riffs on a Useless Cells-style style fusion, mixing roguelite components into the robust Metroidvania construction of its predecessor for a sport that doesn’t pull its punches. The outcome feels tough across the edges but it surely’s laborious to disclaim that the gameplay feels fairly nice.
Enemies hit laborious, steadily gang up on you, and can nearly assuredly ship you again to the hub dozens of occasions earlier than you handle to efficiently full a run. And whereas Summum Aeterna primarily calls for dexterous expertise to beat its hardest challenges, you do have one thing to indicate for every failed run. You, in fact, lose a lot of the upgrades you snagged whereas out and about, however each run will see you gaining foreign money and crafting supplies that you could then reinvest into issues like higher stats and beginning weapons. This meta-progression system thus ensures that you simply’ll all the time be making progress, even if you lose time after time.
In an fascinating departure from related video games, Summum Aeterna additionally introduces a cool seed system for producing the world you run by means of every time. Earlier than venturing out, you will need to first create the world by inserting a seed in a machine that may generate it for you. Every seed is exclusive, spawns you in a special beginning biome, and may have constructive and detrimental modifiers that’ll change issues like enemy well being and the drop price of sure rewards. Choosing the right seed is thus as a lot part of one’s technique as deciding on a construct, and we appreciated how this positively impacts run range.
Controls are easy and responsive, whereas weapon sorts really feel genuinely distinct from one another and provide fascinating twists on fight. A sword will be thrown and both shortly recalled or teleported elsewhere. The scythe, then again, builds up Harm-over-Time debuffs on enemies with every hit which you’ll then set off all of sudden. Second-to-moment gameplay feels snappy and interesting, which inspires you to dare to strive once more.
The visuals really feel like a cross between the illustrious Castlevania: Symphony of the Night time and, of all issues, Little one of Gentle. Whether or not you’re exploring the shadowy reaches of a familiar-looking Gothic citadel or the brilliant canal-bordered streets of a Venice-esque village, all environments characteristic a painterly, hand-drawn fashion that looks like an ideal match for the considerably dreamlike tone of Summum Aeterna.
Sadly, Summum Aeterna feels relatively poor on the efficiency facet of issues. Fortunately the body drops right here or there don’t have an effect on issues an excessive amount of, however loading occasions will be fairly lengthy and we had a number of cases the place the sport outright crashed, ending promising runs and erasing some hard-won progress. Hopefully patches are forthcoming, because it looks like this could possibly be a superb addition to any roguelike fan’s Swap library with a little bit bit extra elbow grease.
Launch instability points apart, it might be a bit by-product, however Summum Aeterna finally ticks sufficient bins to be value your whereas. Easy fight, robust issue, and an fascinating seed system all come collectively to make this one value investigating.