Sundered: Eldritch Edition

Such a good game and some of the coolest and most epic boss fights I've seen. Hallow Knights + Super Smash Bros + skill tree = 10/10

TL;DR: It's mid. I'm not disappointed I played it and/or spent money on it, but wait for it to go on sale, and don't expect Hollow Knight or Nine Sols. The story is forgetable, combat is mash-tastic, but the skill tree/perks and boss fights make for a decent experience.

Full review: Overall, I'd say this is mid. It's art style is good, the skill tree is fun, and the perks you get are random, so you have to adjust your playstyle for what you have... until you have most or all of them, and you use one of a few combos that synergize together.

The horizontal movement is very fluid and fun, but vertical is just... sigh. Platforms are usually just at the top of your jump so you default to upslashing all the time to make sure you make the jump. Movement gets better as you gain more abilities, but vertical movement is annoying pretty much everywhere there's not a bunch of walls to wall jump from.

Combat if fun at first because of the fluidity of movement, but after a while it gets stale. I hate horde mechanics and that's what this relies on. The first times you make it through a horde, it's great. They are tough especially early on, but eventually they don't pose a threat and you want to explore, then a horde shows up... then another horde shows up... then another horde shows up... then another horde shows up. Some hordes are literally never-ending. It mostly boils down to mash attack and periodically hit dodge or your "finisher."

The Boss fights are really good though; they are actually unique, epic fights with a good sense of satisfaction when you complete them.

The story is meh. I played through it twice and it's just not gripping in the way Nine Sols or Hollow Knight are. You're in the desert for some reason, get pulled into some other dimension or other. If there's a reason you're in the desert, I didn't retain it after watching the start of the game twice, but I could almost novelize the Hollow Knight or Nine Sols story and lore. Evil thing says they'll help you escape. You collect elder crystals along the way and you can choose to "embrace" (evil) or "resist" (good). As with most binary choice endings, they end up pretty meh. They are significant playwise though as embracing enhances your core abilities, where resisting leaves your core abilities alone, but gives you other benefits instead.

It's not a bad game, but it's a "wait for a sale" and only if you've already played the much better metroidvanias like Hollow Knight and Nine Sols kind of a game.

TL:DR 11hr playtime on Normal Difficulty. Gorgeous game. 9/10. Big recommend to any fans of Metroidvanias who also enjoy Rougelikes.
The game is a mix of Metroidvania and Rougelike. The overall map layout is the same, but many of the rooms are more like zones with the insides of the zones being randomized so while you will always follow the same path through the zones to get back to where you were, the exact path will be different every time. I thought this was a really good way to blend the genres and also addresses some of my complaints about a lot of rougelikes being never ending mazes where a good run is completely RNG based and you can often feel like you are wasting your time. Here in Sundered, every enemy you kill and pot you break drops shards that you can spend between runs on small upgrades to things like your health and damage. Eventually, enough of those small upgrades makes a big difference when you go back through old rooms you've visted before.
The artwork for the game is GORGEOUS everything is hand drawn and really gives off that creepy Lovecraftian vibe. The movement abilities are fun and impactful on exploring the world. The map is well laid out for a Metroidvania with lots of ability check shortcuts and other shortcuts that reward you for exploring everywhere. The combat is fun and has some customization with your upgrades. For instance, I skipped as many of the Ranged Attack nodes on the skill tree as I could, favoring Melee combat. Sometimes, though, the best thing to do is to just run until the monsters stop spawning.
My biggest complaint with the game is the minimalistic approach they took with the story. I felt kind of lost in the beginning not really knowing why I was doing what I was doing. But I suppose that was kind of the point? The game has 3 different endings, something I didn't know when I first started. One where you embrace the darkness and become corrupted, one where you resist the darkness and become a beacon of hope, and the third neutral ending if you didn't go 100% one way or the other. I felt like the game didn't really make it clear in the beginning there were options for this. I ended up going full corruption as I didn't even know that Resisting awarded you with different skill upgrades compared to the corrupted upgrades which they are very up front about.
Overall, I put in just over 11hrs and acheived a 98% completion rating. I thought about going back in to finish that to 100% but then I remembered the things I would need to collect to achieve that were RNG drop dependent and it just killed my desire as I didn't feel like grinding. Overall, I would give the game a 9/10. Big recommend to any fans of Metroidvanias who also enjoy Rougelikes.

Very good game! Its has very fun game play and the story is also really good. It seems like there could be multiple endings but I only did one play through.

In just a short time, Sundered has thrown me into a chaotic, hand-drawn nightmare where the enemies are endless, the upgrades are confusing, and the map hates me more than the monsters do. The combat is thrilling, but every battle feels like I've signed up for a marathon I didn't train for. Dramatic and relentless, it's less about victory and more about screaming, "Please stop spawning!" while embracing my inevitable doom.

I absolutely LOVED this game - I have nothing but good feelings towards it. Its one of those satasfying platformers that really scratched the itch for me on all levels.
The bosses were incredibly fun to fight and look at - its all so beautifully drawn and the animations, movement, combat - everything feels so smooth. You feel powerful, but it isn't easy. I feel like the scaling, perks, it feels well balanced between challenging and fun. Making some places a struggle where the win is that much more satisfying.
I also really enjoyed bits and pieces of the lore - but for me - it was just as confusing as I expected from an eldritch game. I played it blind, not knowing there was 3 endings - so I played it 3 times to perfection - 100% worth it, and I'd do it again.
I will be playing Jotun in the future, and I hope to see more like this in the future from Thunder Lotus Games!
Well done!

I would definitely recommend this overall. The marriage of Metroidvania and Roguelike is done so uniquely in this and the number of ways you can tackle certain situations is extremely unique. The music, although very sparse, is fantastic and sets a perfect tone. The sound design is really excellent and hits the Lovecraft notes really well. The art, as you can easily see in all these screenshots, is unbelievable. This is a very beautiful game that was clearly made with so much love. I also really enjoyed Jotun, but enjoyed that a bit more.
This game is only around 10-12 hours long to complete. I chose not to finish it, not because it was too difficult or anything, but because I got bored and I don't find a need to complete something that's no longer bringing me joy. The penultimate boss wasn't difficult, it was just an absolute slog to fight and after my first attempt I just quit the game from being tired of the samey combat. I tried to return and made it about halfway through the fight with full potions and just said "why am I doing this? I had fun, let me leave this on a high note." So I did. Didn't complete it, but I'd still absolutely recommend this. The combat overstays its welcome but this is well worth the price when it's discounted.