Iconoclasts

This game has the best story ever deliaered within the medium. Had this been a movie, it would have become a timeless classic.
Don't let the bright cute graphics fool you. This game is very dark with tragic characters that are so very lifelike, it's amazing it came from the mind of a smalltime solitary developer. Even the antagonists are fascinating.
The gameplay is fun. It plays like a platformer with some Metroidvania ellements. But some of the Metroidvania ellements can be completelty ignored and you can beat the game without fighting any of the optional bosses or collecting the extra curricular upgrade resources.
I think the most compelling character in this game is "Royal". Whe you first meet him, he's in a sad mood, complaining about life, how everyone treats him, and how that creates his role in life. I've never seen a character as... truly... lifelike. I think about this character, from time to time, especially when running into hyper ellite religious individuals. I beat the game years and years ago, and still think about it.
The way Religion seems to work in society, is very much like what's portrayed in this game. I wish I could explain further, but there are some catagorical differences. Religions aren't always a theocratic government bent on punnishing the wicked, but where the similarity resides is in the culture, the role we play, the storys we tell ourselves about the play by play of our lives. Our motives and how it determines our motives, and the legitimacy or maybe lack of legitimacy those stories and motives have on reality.
There's a silent sitori (Zen Bhudist term. Look it up), that's found in this game, and it lingers with you for months after completing it. And it just... becomes a part of you.
The developer even made the music to the game, though I hear he doesn't consider himself a composer. I wouldn't say that the music is masterful, but it's successful at getting you to feel what's intended.
I'd give this game a 10/10

Unfortunately I bounced away hard from this game. And I really don’t know why. Everything — and I mean everything — is more than average from your standard, 2D platformer slop that floods Steam right now. The controls are tight and responsive, the graphics are gorgeous, the story is intriguing and well written… And yet, something fell off.
Okay, let’s start from the beginning, shall we? First of all, if you are looking for a full fledged metroidvania, you will experience a little let down. Iconoclast is very, very lite in this department. Look at abilities our heroine can unlock — through story progression you can find two upgrades for your gun and two upgrades for your wrench… and nothing more. No dash, no glide, no wall jump, no different weapon type. Nothing, Zero, zip, nada. In some cases you can combine your abilities — like electrifying your grenades by using your wrench — but this is used mostly to solve puzzles and unlocking the chests rather than for actual combat. The only way you can develop your character is by equipping tweaks — little technical do-dats that can slightly change behaviour of our heroine or her weapon; for example, you can run a little faster, spin your wrench longer or extend her breath under water. They are not crucial to progression and their impact on gameplay is so insignificant, that you can ignore them completely and still win the game. More to this — they can brake. If you get hit even one time, they will be unusable until you kill enough enemies or use meditation tweak. The most important one — double jump — can only be obtained after defeating a hidden boss, with which you gain access to around ¾ of the game. Yeah, you read it correctly — one of the most crucial mechanics in other platformer games here is a side content, which can break when you get hit. Another important tweak is immunity to damage — it breaks without you losing health — and only because of challenge mode, where you die from one hit.
No better is with levels. They all are very straightforward, limited with exploration. You basically travel from one big set piece and puzzle through corridors and rooms only from time to time occupied by enemies. What is more important, the exploration is pointless, since your only reward is finding a chest that contains upgrade materials for tweaks. They are especially pointless in NG+, if you collected all the tweaks in normal playthrough.
All of the above is subjective. You can still enjoy Iconoclast without metroidvania mechanics. Hell, I didn’t mind this very casual approach to genre, well aside all those hooplas I was forced to endure to get double jump. No, I have different problem, that can be described in one word:
Gimmicks.
This game is full of them. It focuses more on puzzles than exploration and combat. It’s room after room of environmental puzzles, puzzles where you need your tools, timed puzzles and jumping puzzles. Hell, even enemies and big chunks of bosses — not all, mind you — are built around gimmicks. There are monsters that can only be damaged in specific ways, using specific tools, or even some of them cannot be damaged at all, only avoided entirely. No better is with some bosses — it’s like a mechanical dance, where your moves are calculated, so just wait until a window of opportunity for dealing some damage appears. The only redeeming quality of this is that they all are unique — you cannot just spam bullets and avoid their attack, because all of them have different quirks and ideas built into fight. One of the bosses is this giant reactor that you need to take down with the help of your companion, another is a centipede-like train that you fight in a big rounded area… The creativity of this encounter shines at every step, even if sometimes they are hit or miss, like with Mother boss fight; avoid her 4 or 5 attacks just to have one opportunity to strike and do some damage. Repeat through 3 phases. Riveting gameplay.
But there is another, big shade to all of this. Because of all of these puzzles and gimmicks thrown constantly at you, at some point the game just becomes a chore. And I know, it’s built on a premise that our main heroine is a mechanic, so we mostly fix things, but good God, I just want some time to shoot things, especially after I spend 15 minutes on one puzzle room, just to travel two empty screen forward just for ANOTHER puzzle room. This is especially frustrating if you take into consideration that this game doesn't have a checkpoint system, only manual saves and autosaves before bosses, so if you waste time on a puzzle, and then go and die in the next room, you need to do the entire puzzle AGAIN. At some point I just gave up and started save-scumming — after solving the puzzle I just run back to the save station to store my progress. Over, and over again.
Well, maybe something about the story… Don’t get fooled by bright, colorful graphics, cute looking characters and joyful music. After a speedy introduction that sets false expectations of quirky action oriented, lighthearted story, the game suddenly has a very dark turn into more serious territory. People dying here horrible deaths, losing families, limbs, LITERALLY MELTING before our eyes. The Game does not shy to ask profound questions about purpose, destiny, faith or religion — and without this condescending, patronizing tone of “religion le bad and thats it”. It is a heavy story-oriented experience, albeit not without flaws. This game makes the mistake of not establishing proper world building at the beginning, nor spending some time on plot to breath, grow and focus on details and nuances, so for some time you are really confused about what is going on here. Plus you're introduced to many characters at once, and several of them are just nothing but fillers, that you really feel like on some wild rolecoster, constantly pushed forward without understanding who all of those people are and what they are doing.
Finally, something about challenge mode. When I die, the devil will probably drag me to hell and torture me for eternity by forcing me play ♥♥♥♥ like this. ONE HIT GAMEPLAY. You die from one hit. Good luck beating the entire game like that. Yes, you can use immunity to do damage tweak, stack them up to three times, so you can have three hits before dying, BUT! There are sections in this game where you play different characters. And tweaks DO NOT TRANSFER TO THEM. All Mina’s sections were pure nightmares. No better with some bosses. It took me more than 100 times (yes, ONE HUNDRED) to finally beat the second boss fight with Agent Black. Play this mode only if you really want achievement or love to suffer.
Now. It's over. Go home or something.

Iconoclasts
Screw-loose adventures
In Iconoclasts you play as Robin, a young mechanic armed with nothing more than her wrench, standing against a world ruled by a religious authority that insists on conformity. When you think about it, it is a striking image: a heroine defined not by a sword or gun, but by the tools of repair. Iconoclasts wants you to believe that fixing is as heroic as fighting, and that rebellion can be quiet, stubborn, and deeply human.
The Metroidvania genre has always been about exploration, the joy of discovering what lies behind the locked door, the satisfaction of returning stronger to places once forbidding. Iconoclasts enters this tradition with ambition. It wants to be both a puzzle-platformer and a moral fable, a story about faith and individuality told through the rhythms of combat and discovery. Yet, where Hollow Knight finds poetry in silence and Blasphemous in suffering, Iconoclasts too often feels burdened by its own sermon.
The craftsmanship is undeniable. The pixel art is bright, painterly, and full of personality. Characters are quirky, their dialogue earnest (although I will admit clunky). The puzzles, many built around Robin’s wrench, are clever, and the game’s systems function with competence. But the combat is stiff, the exploration linear, and the story, though ambitious, is delivered with a heavy hand. The result is a game that feels polished but restrained, unwilling to let its mechanics breathe with the freedom the genre demands.
What Iconoclasts attempts is admirable: a fusion of narrative depth with mechanical invention. But the balance fees really off. The story slows the pace, the puzzles interrupt the flow, and the exploration never achieves the intoxicating rhythm that defines the best of its peers. It is a lecture disguised as an adventure, and while the lecture has merit, the adventure suffers.
As a gamer I always like my reviews to pose the question of whether the game is worth the price of admission, and more importantly, the demand on your time? At its best, Iconoclasts is a curiosity, a thoughtful experiment in indie design, a game that wants to say something meaningful about belief and individuality. At its worst, it is a reminder that ambition alone does not guarantee transcendence. For players seeking tight mechanics and exhilarating exploration, there are better choices. For those curious about narrative ambition in games, it offers moments worth experiencing, though not enough to demand your precious hours. Not a waste, but not essential. A game that fixes, but never quite builds.
One word or phrase to sum up the experience
Clever in places but too heavy-handed to truly captivate.
Performance/Bug related incidents
I had zero issue while playing the game.
Similar to games
Axiom Verge, Blasphemous, Hollow Knight
Rating
★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Let's go, in-and-out, twenty minutes adventure
>proceeds to be brutally traumatized by a 15 hour long gut-wrenching tale of religious fanaticism, surveillance state, class segregation, climatic disaster, violence and oppresion, body disfigurement, cosmic horror and existentialism. Oh, and cute, colorful spritework too.

Started this game because the visuals were gorgeous, stayed because the story completely hooked me. The gameplay is fun, but the narrative was so intriguing that I couldn’t put it down. Loved it.

Banging game. Couple of spoilers in the review though.
All of the art is incredibly detailed, enemy designs are excellent. The bosses and story are intertwined and serve as a consistent pleasure to play through.
I appreciate the narrative in its ability to not retreat into an entirely happy ending. The surprisingly dark content isn't brushed aside, characters don't just forget the bad stuff which happens to them. It's the key competent aspect. The characters act like arrogant, selfish prats. They have good reason to. Every character is a victim of some aspect of their lives, it varies but none of them see it in each other. They don't relent in their ideals and it feels amazing to watch.
The villains are all victims. The heroes are all victims. The game doesn't pretend otherwise and doesn't force you into moral choices on it. Its the theme of 'You can't save everyone, but it wasn't your responsibility in the first place. You have to try though.'. Being a victim doesn't mean you can't be a terrible terrible person, it just contextualises things.
This is probably the most prominent examples in the game. If you haven't played, please don't open this spoiler tag.
Royal's death on the moon was incredibly effective. Having been able to save almost everyone, to have been saving him through the whole game. Then to be utterly hopeless in helping him as he once again throws a tantrum... all for nothing really. The implications around his death, what the Starworm did to his mind. It was amazing. He didn't have to lash out at it, but it showed that he couldn't change, even if he really really did want to.
Agent Blacks final fight is one of the most memorable I've done. She's relentless and it perfectly closes off her character. She was a victim. She was cultivated into being this angry, volatile beast in the end, and you can't help her.
Beating her, her coming back as the Ivory beast. To then beating her again, where she clings on with what little she has as the Ivory Crawler... It was honestly amazing alongside the OST
I really do recommend it. It's cheap, a labour of love from Joakim Sandberg. My main pain is that I can't go into it blind again. It's truly a torture...
If you already have it, buy it for a friend. Treat yourself!

I really, really love Iconoclasts. It is such a well-crafted game and is a truly fun experience in terms of story and gameplay. And man, is it a hell of a story. This is one of those games I recommend players go in blind into, as much of the enjoyment comes from figuring out the puzzles (within both the narrative and gameplay) on your own. For fans of classic metroid, and for fans of any puzzle games, this is definitely one I would recommend picking up. Also I think it is best to try this game on a more difficult setting, as figuring out the bosses across multiple encounters really sold me when I first tried it. Also be warned that this game has profound emotion in its narrative, there are definitely moments that have stuck with me for years after, which I still think about in moments of contemplation. For pursuers of secrets there are definitely many to uncover, secrets laden into the story and world, and hidden mechanics within the gameplay as well, there is much to uncover behind its mechanics (haha!). It is games like these that give me hope for the future, and the developer Joakim Sandberg did a fantastic job, especially considering he somehow developed all this game on his own, definitely give it a chance, I promise you will find it interesting!