Dark Devotion

Things you will not get in this game: (even though you'd assume its obvious they are there)
- rebindable controls - there's no way to change the default controls, if you don't like them then it's unfortunate, good luck rebinding them with Steam controller config or getting used to them
- sounds options - there's not a single volume slider in the game
However: It's still a pretty decent game. It has all shortcomings of someone's first real attempt at making a videogame and is plagued by some strange design decisions that you thought you'd never see in 2020 - like dialogue lines vanishing on their own without players input (better read fast), or the fact there's no way to change which consumable goes into which slot, so you end up sometimes using something else instead of healing item in the heat of battle - just the most bizarre problems you'd assume never would make past the alpha stage.
But at the same time it is an enjoyable game.
+ really nice pixel art graphics and animations
+ unique mix of metroidvania, Souls and roguelite elements from games like Dead Cells
+ varied and aggressive bosses with lots of different moves
+ classic dark fantasy theme
Dark Devotion is the game to play when you're done with all the more polished and established installments in this genre like Hollow Knight, Salt&Sanctuary, Blasphemous and so on. Be aware that you're getting into a game that lacks a lot of refinement and you will have fun.
Overall it's 5-6/10, worth getting on sale.

Awesome game, had a great time with it.
With its stamina-based combat, punishing difficulty and a bleak dark fantasy setting, Dark Devotion inevitably draws comparison to Dark Souls. Yet, players expecting simply a 2D version of the influential RPG will instead find a very different game that belongs more in the action category, with some platforming and rogue-like elements.
--
Every time you start the game or your character dies, you go back to the shelter having lost all of your possessions. You must then leave the shelter through one of several doors, each leading to a different area in the game world, and attempt to reach the next point of progress. Aside from one, these doors must be unlocked first by reaching their respective areas on foot.
Instead of being a seamless open world, the game map is divided into several dozen rooms, each having its own layout, with at least one exit to another room. These exits close behind the player, making the revisiting of rooms impossible during a run. Routes must be planned in order to reach specific destinations and, thus, several bosses can be avoided because of this.
In each typical room the player may find consumables, equipment and altars, while also having to deal with enemies and traps. Praying at specific altars or doing positive actions such as performing well in combat may confer the player small buffs, here called Blessings, whereas performing poorly may instead give you a Curse/Disease, which can only be removed at altars or with consumables.
Despite losing everything upon death and starting back at the shelter, there are several forms of permanent progress in the game. Tablets, once found and activated, increase one of your character's attributes. Corrupted Faith, obtained by killing enemies, can be spent to unlock blessings for you to start your run with. The blacksmith at the shelter serves as a repository for a few specific equipment you may find in your journey and he will forge those for you at no cost, allowing you not to start a run empty-handed. Some rooms contain statues that, if activated, will allow you to teleport back to them from the shelter. And finally, if you carry a gemstone, also freely obtained from the blacksmith, defeated bosses will not respawn during your run.
The player must progress in the game through the use of both permanent and temporary upgrades, equipment, and buffs. As previously said, the game can be pretty difficult, especially in the early stages with a non-upgraded character and limited gear, although in my opinion it never comes close to reaching the levels of difficulty you'd get in a Souls game. It's quite fair most of the time, with traps that can be seen and avoided, generous amounts of invincibility frames, and enemy movesets with a lot of wind-up. Dealing with groups is rare and only two bosses require doing so, but the more limited 2D plane makes it less of a problem.
There is not a whole lot of depth to the combat, with generally only one attack button and one combo, but the whole ritual of dodging, blocking, managing your stamina and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike still worked well for me here. Unfortunately, the "lose everything upon death" system does mean I spent the vast majority of the game with the same gear from the blacksmith. I enjoyed the weapon I ended up sticking with since it had great reach and respectable damage, but the lack of gear customization and permanence gives a blandness to the entire system.
Again, the game is meant to be kind of a rogue-like. It expects you to die, start somewhat anew, then attempt another run aiming to reach the next point of progress, obtaining boosts and better equipment along the way. But I'm not entirely sure how much of this system I ended up making use of. I rarely switched to a newfound weapon since it would almost never be a straight up improvement over the one I used, having a better attribute but being worse in others. I did switch to different armors and trinkets since those were more often objectively better, and these little boosts, coupled with blessings and efficient consumable usage, obviously represent a better shot at reaching a point of progress.
However, a good amount of the bosses I defeated were done straight after teleporting from a statue, which meant I beat them with starting gear from the forge and whatever permanent upgrades I had at the time. A long, fruitful run increases your chance of beating a boss in the first attempt, sure, but that can be offset by the fact you don't know the boss' capabilities. Ultimately, there is a good chance you will die at least once during a boss, especially if you haven't been exploring and activating tablets, and then you'll have to decide between teleporting from a statue and minimizing the time it takes to reach the boss again or go for a longer run to try and get to the boss better equipped. In my particular experience, the permanent upgrades, default equipment and just good ol' practice were enough for me to attempt bosses again right away and find success, so this aspect of the rogue-like portion of the game didn't really do much for me.
Then there's the game world being divided into rooms and the fact you can only ever go forward. That, too, plays into the whole rogue-like idea of doing "runs" but is yet another system I'm not sure benefited the game ultimately. Visiting desired rooms can be a problem since the game map doesn't make it very clear which exit leads into which room and there are plenty of room layouts with broken ladders and holes that cannot be climbed back, forcing you to take a specific exit if you fall down. This eventually turns exploring into somewhat of a chore, especially if you're looking for tablets, which are often very well hidden.
Furthermore, the game could have used more polish. There are a few bugs here and there and some aspects of the game look amateurish, such as the writing for the dialogue and notes and the way they're presented during gameplay. It's difficult to pick up desired items when they're bundled up together on the ground. By far the worst offender here, however, was my inability to use a wired Xbox 360 controller; it just wouldn't work correctly and I had to use Steam's own controller configuration, a confusing process that wouldn't be available if you bought the game elsewhere. This problem seems to be somewhat widespread, judging by the forums, and I ended up playing with mouse and keyboard and found the game was well designed for it, but still, the issue is there.
And finally, the plot. It again borrows from Dark Souls with its vague storytelling, but it's not well done. By the end of the game, I knew almost nothing about the temple, the main character, her goal, anything. This method of storytelling is tricky, something even the Souls series doesn't always pull off, and here, it only suggests the developers themselves didn't really know what the plot and lore of their game are. A shame, since the premise of the game is one that usually attracts me greatly.
Yet, none of these problems prevented me from enjoying the game as its positives outweigh its negatives for me. The pixel art looks absolutely fantastic and gives the game excellent visual identity. Bosses look really epic and the hand-drawn animations are fluid. The soundtrack fits the game perfectly, with tracks that range from haunting and oppressive to beautiful and melancholic. The controls are tight, responsive; I never felt like I had to fight them in order to play properly, and the game felt particularly fair to me. Although somewhat simple, combat is still fast-paced and feels satisfying, especially against bosses. Exploring, despite being cumbersome, is a completionist pursuit that pays off in the long run.
All in all, although very far from a perfect game, Dark Devotion still managed to provide me with a great time and a unique experience compared to what I'm used to. Recommended!

I completed this game 100% on switch, some people believe it is too hard, due to the rogue like aspects, but playing it again on PC is giving me flashbacks: getting boss weapons (which are mostly the only permanent weapons), running through areas with little to no health, is exactly the rush that I loved and still love about this game. I might lose everything but the weapon, however I learnt and now, you cannot beat me.

So, this was the first time I've played a rogue/souls-like game. I've always been an RPG fan where you collect items and save your progress, but I had an itch for a darker Metroidvania after playing Blasphemous and this game was recommended to me. I'll be honest, it took an hour or so for me to warm up to this game; once I did though, I was hooked. It's merciless in the beginning and feels unfair, but once you get the hang of it, it's actually not super difficult. I've never played a Souls-like before and I didn't struggle too much with this game, so I'm not sure why others complain about the difficulty. Losing gear on death is aggravating at the beginning, but it freshens up the gameplay. You experiment with different items and weapons on each run based on what you find, and you have to use different strategies for each type of enemy. There's actually three main areas the map is divided into, and as you progress to the next area, a new entrance is formed in the starting area, so you're spared the pain of always starting at the very beginning. There's also teleportation altars that can be activated in every few rooms or so so you're not forced to retrace your entire route.
The weapons in this game are one of the highlighting features. You can hold two sets of weapons, and there's so many different playstyles you can choose. Am I going to go with the two-handed claws and opt for close range? Combo a mace with a toxic spell? Or maybe opt for the big-ass scythe that has a high miss chance but ridiculous damage and crits? (It's always the scythe) No two runs are the same, so as you follow the same route, it's a new, fresh experience. Your base stats can also be upgraded via artifacts found throughout the map, so you have a feeling of progression when you're forced to re-tread the same areas.
One of the controversial features that makes this game unique is the inability to jump. I was perturbed at the beginning because you can't retrace your steps when you fall to a different platform, and to go back and explore that other room you have to retrace your steps from the beginning. At first it seems stupid, but honestly, I feels like it freshens up the game's formula. You're forced to be more thoughtful when exploring, and by removing this feature, it adds to the game by changing your focus to the combat and exploration instead of hopping around. I've played so many 2D platformers, it's refreshing to have a formula that deemphasizes jumping so you can focus on the other components. Sure, this game has it's flaws, and you can look at some of the salty reviews to see those, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a different flavor of Metroidvania or rogue-lite.

This game combines elements of Souls-likes, Rogue-lites and Metroidvanias for a unique and enjoyable experience. As you unlock new gear and blessings, you'll become excited to start each new run trying new combinations to get you through the various environments and bosses, all the while coveting your faith points to spend them on altars for new gear and blessings, cure curses or diseases, and open up new pathways to new areas or loot.

Overall review 7/10
This game is interesting. I'll start off by saying despite the fact it is technically a 'rogue like', you die, you respawn without equipment in the hub, having to leave again, its not really a rogue like. None of the map, bosses, equipment drops and placements are random. So really its just a normal game, with a number of pathways to go through, and a rogue like death system. This means you sometimes don't see pieces of equipment more than once, as you would need to go out of your way to find it, since it only ever appears in one place.
Secondly, despite you lose all your equipment on death, the smithy does end up with quite a stock of equipment to give you by the end of the game. So you never really lose your weapons, as weapons you find sometimes go to the smithy, and you can pick them at the start of the run. This means once you've gotten enough equipment in your smithy, death doesn't mean too much, especially with all the portals littered throughout the map.
My least favourite part of this game are the bosses, this games combat is stamina-centric, meaning you use stamina to attack, dodge, etc. The problem with this is the speed your stamina recovers is too slow. Many bosses have long enough combo chains, that by the time you've finished dodging, you've got no stamina to attack, and have to wait the 4 seconds for your stamina to replenish. 4 seconds isn't too bad? but it can be, as soon as you regain enough stamina to attack, you need to spend it to dodge again. So at certain points, I find in boss fights I just need to run over to one side of the arena, regain my stamina, and return to the fight, which slows the fight down, making it a hassle to fight these bosses. Bosses are also a mixed bag, some of them are poorly designed, some aren't, one of the early bosses I struggle to call a boss fight, as its just a couple of enemies you need to kill. Without decent damage, the fight overwhelms you, and is impossible, with decent equipment, its simple, more of just a quick kill of some enemies, not worth it.
My original review of this game was negative, and the reason for that is the start of this game is not what I would call a light start. This game has an inverse difficulty curve, at least at the beginning. The first room, has a trap directly forward from your spawn, as spike pit, and an enemy that can kill you in a short quick combo. Your weapons do pitiful damage, so killing him is actually not that easy, and after that, you find better equipment at which point the game is easy. This rough start made me quit the game quite a few times, fortunately I did keep playing and get to where it's better. That starting room gives the wrong impression of the game, and is a mistake in design, at least in my opinion.
Another, far less important issue are the breakable walls. Many of the games secrets are hidden behind breakable walls, breakable walls that can only be destroyed with the two-handed mace weapons. That means if you're not running with 1 of the specific classes, you're not going to be actively finding secrets, and when you find these walls (They have a unique texture), you'll have to remember them, and come back later with said mace to unlock them. This could have been easily fixed by just having them require a certain amount of damage to break, not a specific weapon.
Finally, the blessings and curses. During a run of this game, you will get blessings like increase stamina regen, or shields, and curses such as lowered speed and stamina regen. These events are not strictly 'random' as they are triggered by certain events. The problem is, these events are not told to the player, so they do feel random. So sometimes your run will just be massacred by the accumulation of anywhere up to 8 curses, at which point your character is a mess. Inversely you can have a run with 8 blessings, and I guess that just adds to the rogue like elements of the game. The problem is they do feel random, so I'm being punished for seemingly nothing I did wrong, and that isn't great, even just telling you what may curse you would be better, then I would say "Oh, I did X action, and that cursed me, my mistake'.
Somehow, I still enjoyed my time with this game (Past that first section), that being said I am only up to the second world of the game (of which there are 4 I believe). There is enough content here to have a blast. I bought the gave 75% off, and that felt like a pretty good price for it, I would not pay full price, but on sale it was a good purchase.
Once I got used to the games systems and got better at combat, I did begin to enjoy my time, it is far from flawless (If you couldn't tell). I can't exactly name what I find so captivating about this game, but i just love playing it. I am a fan of rogue like games, and so that aspect of the game probably helped, each run I set myself a goal, find this upgrade, defeat this boss. There are enough of these small goals to keep you going, until you run into goals which are just poor bosses that is.
Being a rogue-like there are a number of permanent upgrades. These fall into 1 of two categories- Purchased, and Found (As I will less than appropriately call them). The more simple upgrades being the found, these are gained by finding hidden tablets around the world that grant boosts to Stamina, Damage, Faith or Critical Chance. The second being the Purchased. There are 5 sets of abilities, each with 4 abilities in them (4 of these sets also have a bonus ability gained from a boss). You can have 1 ability from each set active at a time, which goes to you being able to change around your build each run, adding a nice amount of customisation to the game. Some of these abilities seem imbalanced, like the first set having either an extra 0.5 stamina regeneration, or 5% less chance to miss. Take a guess what I would rather have? (It's the stamina regeneration by the way. Whilst missing your strikes (Having them hit for far less damage) is a pain, I would much rather have more stamina regeneration, as stated earlier, Its too low). But overall, these abilities are good, and are a nice thing to have.
Being a game called DARK devotion, much of the game is dark, in fact I played a lot of it on max brightness, at which point it is not dark, sometimes the darkness is good, adding to the feeling of adventure and exploration, other times it just gets in the way, which is why I find it weird there is way to change the settings from within the game (At least not brightness). You change a few things but not all of them, why not?
The blacksmith also seems really arbitrary on whether or not a weapon is going to be available or not. At this point I have 3 different options for swords and greatswords, and only 1 option for daggers and bow. Which obviously I'm never going to pick, as they do pitiful damage when compared to other weapons of higher rarity. Some weapons also need a better description. For much of the early game, it seemed like 1 weapon was the obvious choice. It was a two handed mace which did 4x as much as damage as a regular sword. Then I learnt that another two handed sword I had, since it was a flaming sword, actually hits twice in every hit (Once for physical, again for the fire), and so it was actually better. I did not know it hit twice as it never told me that.
This two handed fire sword comes from a boss, and is available at the smithy. There is another 1 handed fire sword, but it is not available at the smithy, why not? arbitrary. Unfortunately that means I will never use that one handed fire sword, as it is so out of the way of my travel path, I never see it. As said earlier, some of the best, most enjoyable equipment you never use, as its not in the smithy, and item locations are not randomised.
Overall, this game feels as though it was not made to be a rogue-like, but had that gameplay thrown in half way into development, leading to this problem existing.

6.5/10
Average souls-like game.
So, this is a souls-like game with rogue-like elements, and there is NO JUMP here. Therefore you focus more on combat itself and basic movement (and you have to think twice where to drop from platforms, because mostly, there is no return). The absence of jump is not a bad thing. I got used to it, but still, you expect the jump ability to be present in this game genre.
You can get some stat upgrades (dmg, crit etc.), and you can unlock perks to give you some abilities. Stats upgrades (which you find by exploring th world) are important, but perks (which are purchased) are somehow redundant (read: not game changing).
Including all things mentioned above, game focuses on simplified combat with no verticality. Which may be good thing or a bad one. Depends.
I liked the level art along with music. Simple sounds could be better.
Average boss fights. I had the feeling that half of all bosses were there just to increase the difficulty. But this may be just my feeling.
I played with controller, so having to attack with R2 instead of X was strange, but I got used to it.
Overall, it´s a good game, but it fails on trying to be too different.