Dandara

One of my favourite games of 2018.
It's bursting with charm and flavour and plays unlike anything else I can think of. You can only jump and cast spells, there isn't any traditional movement like walking, running, climbing, and when you get a feel for it you can really zip through the screens. There are plenty checkpoints and a fast travel system, so aside from being stumped by a puzzle element now and then, the pace is nippy.
It's had a recent update that improves on the mouse/keyboards controls, adds new content, and remastered sound.
I'll be keeping a close eye on their next game.

Diary: Dandara: Trails of Fear Edition
Summary
GameplayQuick Gameplay, Interesting Movement Mechanics, Projectile based weapon, helping characters unlocks more paths
StoryInteresting main story, fun side characters
GraphicsNice 2D pixel art
SoundMain Menu has nice sound effects, jumping from surface to surface sounds great
ControlsGreat controls, no need to remapping
Day 1 - 3/23/2020
I started up this game, not expecting much, and man oh man was I surprised. This game has fascinating gameplay, being able to jump from one surface of salt to another so smoothly and quickly. It makes the game different from others, because the movement and how you go around the map is so different.
The checkpoint system was a little odd to me. Your progress is still "saved" when you trigger a mechanic, it's just that the flag sets your spawn location. So there is no need to fret if you die after doing something important.
I also got to use the stat system a lot today, and man, it reminds me of Dark Souls. If you die, you leave behind your salt, and you have to go back to collect it. Once you do, you can, of course, use it to buy upgrades from the tents for your character. Which is a nice way to choose how you want your character to grow. I like when my healing potions heal a lot, for example, instead of having a lot of base hp right from the start.
Death Track
Death By
✔I got speared right through the stomach
✔The bee stung me to death
✔I ran into a wall too many times

KBM controls are unplayable, but Dandara is very much worth experiencing with a controller. Gorgeous and innovative and extremely enjoyable. I got this game as a gift from someone with humble monthly, loved it, and I cant wait to try out the new content update.

Buy it. You'll be hooked. The controls are smoother than a buttered baby's butt.
100% use a controller and you'll figure out the flow in no time.
If you only got PS3/4 controllers, just find an Xinput wrapper to make the computer think you're using an Xbox controller. (I use "Scarlett Crush Productions" for my PS3 controller)

Metroidvania style, but you can only fling yourself from surface to surface to move - making combat interesting. The pixel art is incredibly beautiful - and the story is very ethereal.

It took me hours to pinpoint the genre of this game, which i eventually decided was a funky blend between Celeste and a dark souls game. It's deceptively easy in the beginning, but it does an excellent job of ramping up the difficulty as you go along. Each area feels as hard as it should, with the final area being a bitch and a half. The art style is gorgeous, gameplay is unique, and enemy designs are delightfully diverse. FRUSTRATINGLY diverse closer to the end of the game, as by then you face multiple different kinds of enemies in the same room. The only thing is I do wish that there was a better mouse and keyboard control scheme. The game plays best with a controller, but I believe that more accurate jumps could be made with a mouse if it was aiming instead of mimicking a joystick.

As a Brazilian with a strong appreciation for the history and past of his country, if you told me a decade ago that a Brazilian team made a fantasy game with a story loosely based on Brazilian history, with tons of references to Brazilian culture and a main character based on Dandara dos Palmares, I'd tell you you're going crazy, or that the game is probably some educational crap. If you told me, on top of that, that the game contains amazing pixel art, atmospheric music and an unique twist to the exploration-based platforming genre, I'd tell you you're hallucinating.
But lo and behold, the game exists! Not only it exists, but it is also quite good. On top of the tons of Brazilian culture influences, it has good gameplay and a lovely atmosphere that can be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of how familiar they are with the references the game makes.
I'd like to start by talking about the story. It is loosely based on both the Brazilian slavery period and the military dictatorship. It does not, however, take place in the real world, let alone in either of those time periods. Instead, it takes place in a fantasy setting, with events, characters and settings loosely based on the aforementioned historical events, as well as Brazilian folklore, pop culture and religion. The game never directly mentions any of those historical events, only through metaphors and analogies, which is for the best, since it'd feel like an educational game otherwise.
The story's central theme is opression, which is something it shares with the time periods it draws inspiration from. Dandara, based on the real life Dandara dos Palmares (I'm gonna spare you the history lesson), awakens to a world taken by opression, and sets out on a journey to end it. I'm not going to talk about all plot points, but suffice to say it is quite decent. It took me a while to realize what the "salt" was a metaphor to, but when I got it, I felt really stupid for not getting it earlier.
The atmosphere set by the game's nice pixel graphics and sweet ambient music perfectly sets the tone for Dandara's adventure, with some calm moments, some tense moments, and some melancholic moments. Sceneries look beautiful when they're supposed to be, busy when they're supposed to be, and just outright chaotic when the situation calls for it. There are some mishaps, like when certain enemies blend a little bit against the background, but those are rare.
Which brings us to gameplay. Instead of being a straight forward platformer where you run and jump and get pulled down by gravity, in this game, you constantly hop between platforms by pointing a cursor at them and jumping, without running or gravity. This concept is quite unique, and at first it felt kind of clunky, but as I got used to the controls, it became fluid and fun. However, whenever the difficulty curve takes a sudden spike, I see myself anxiously jumping to the wrong platform over and over, and taking cheap deaths because of it.
Movement involves quickly moving from platform to platform while avoiding obstacles, and fighting enemies has you positioning yourself to shoot and then quickly picking a platform to escape to when the enemy is about to attack. It may sound clunky, but it's actually pretty fair and enjoyable. However, there are occasional difficulty spikes, in particular when you encounter any room that's full to the brim with enemies on all sides, those are just outright frustrating and not fun at all.
As for level design, I'd say it's good overall. This game has a lot of exploration, you move around a large map full of stuff, and unveil progression items and some secret upgrades. There is something inherently satisfying about playing a game that lets you find out things on your own, and I particularly like games that use lock-and-key mechanics for progression. However, there are also flaws in the exploration as well, as sometimes the game becomes a "where the heck do I go" game, because it gets confusing to navigate, and the amount of backtracking you have to do in order to get to certain places is a bit absurd. The worst part is when you navigate an entire series of hard rooms just to find out the path you were going through is a dead end with a treasure in it.
All in all, I'd say Dandara is a good game with some annoying moments. The game's shortcomings aren't enough to make it bad, but they're definitely enough to cause a lot of unnecessary frustration at times. Still, there is more fun than frustration here, at least in my experience.
With that being said, by God, get yourself a controller. The mouse controls in this game are just not good. I don't get why we can't just use the mouse to point at the screen, instead of having to move the mouse in very specific ways to make the cursor spin around Dandara. This game does NOT play well with a mouse. I tried it for a couple of seconds and couldn't stand it. The "new mode" introduces a cursor, but it can only move a few inches away from Dandara, so it is still impossible to point directly to a platform you wish to jump to or an enemy you wish to shoot, which would be ideal.