Treasures of the Aegean

This is a really neat little game. I wouldn't call it a metroidvania; it's really more a platformer puzzler with a time loop mechanic. You run through a massive, open environment within a time limit, solving small puzzles and navigation challenges. Any items you collect either permanently add to your time limit, or add to some of the game's lore. You're working towards solving some of the game's biggest puzzles, and the final challenge is to unlock them all in the same run.

Graphics-wise the game is modest, but the environment design is pleasant. The character portraits are clearly hand-drawn and nice, though they aren't very consistent. Your main character, Marie, can look like a different person from panel to panel.

The only other criticism I have is the game's English translation has some occasional issues. Nothing that would stop you from playing through it though.

Overall just a really neat idea for a game that is well-executed and doesn't last longer than it feels like it should. I beat it in about 6 hours with only a few optional collectibles missed.

Treasures of the Aegean is a stylish and thoughtfully designed 2D action-adventure that combines fluid parkour movement, open-ended exploration, and a narrative built around mystery and repetition. Developed and published by Undercoders, the game places players on a remote volcanic island inspired by ancient Greek and Minoan history, where time itself is unstable. You take control of Marie Taylor, an agile explorer skilled in free-running, alongside her partner James Andrew, whose role as a researcher and narrator helps frame the unfolding mystery. Together, they seek to uncover the truth behind a lost civilization and the strange temporal anomaly trapping the island in an endless cycle.
The game’s structure revolves around a time loop that resets the island after a limited period, encouraging players to treat each run as a scouting expedition rather than a complete journey. At first, this constraint can feel restrictive, but it quickly becomes clear that repetition is part of the design rather than a punishment. Each loop allows you to explore further, uncover new relics, and piece together fragments of the island’s past. Discovering treasures permanently extends future runs, creating a steady sense of progression and mastery. Over time, familiar routes become second nature, and the island begins to feel less like an obstacle and more like a carefully learned space shaped by your growing knowledge.
Movement is one of the game’s strongest elements and serves as the backbone of exploration. Marie’s parkour abilities make traversal feel fast, smooth, and satisfying, allowing players to sprint across rooftops, climb cliffs, leap over gaps, and chain movements together with a natural sense of flow. The island is designed to reward momentum, with multiple paths, shortcuts, and hidden areas that become easier to access as you improve your understanding of the terrain. This emphasis on mobility keeps exploration engaging even when revisiting locations, as the joy comes not only from discovery but from how efficiently and creatively you move through the world.
Visually, Treasures of the Aegean stands out with a hand-drawn art style inspired by European comic books. Characters, environments, and story sequences are rendered with expressive lines and bold colors that give the game a strong visual identity. Narrative moments are often presented through stylized comic panels, reinforcing the sense that you are uncovering a living graphic novel rather than watching traditional cutscenes. The island itself feels vibrant and cohesive, with ruins, cliffs, and coastal vistas that reflect both beauty and decay. Accompanied by a subtle, atmospheric soundtrack, the presentation helps ground the mystery and maintain a sense of wonder throughout the experience.
Puzzle solving and exploration are closely intertwined. Many challenges require observation, memory, and deduction across multiple loops, encouraging players to connect clues found in different areas or runs. Rather than relying on strict progression gates, the game allows a fair amount of freedom in how objectives are approached, giving it a light metroidvania flavor without rigid structure. Some puzzles are intuitive and rewarding, while others may feel vague or require trial and error, particularly when the time loop forces players to repeat travel to reach a solution. Still, the satisfaction of unraveling the island’s secrets generally outweighs moments of confusion.
Combat exists but is not the primary focus. Hostile mercenaries patrol parts of the island, adding tension and forcing players to stay alert, but encounters are designed to complement exploration rather than dominate it. Avoidance, timing, and smart movement are often more effective than direct confrontation, aligning combat with the game’s parkour-driven philosophy. This keeps the pace focused on traversal and discovery, ensuring that combat never distracts from the core experience.
Overall, Treasures of the Aegean is a distinctive and ambitious adventure that rewards curiosity, patience, and mastery of movement. Its time-loop structure, while potentially repetitive for some players, is carefully integrated into both narrative and progression, making each return to the island feel purposeful. The combination of fluid platforming, striking visual style, and a slowly unfolding historical mystery creates an experience that feels cohesive and memorable. For players who enjoy exploration-focused games with a strong sense of place and a willingness to engage with repetition as part of discovery, Treasures of the Aegean offers a rich and rewarding journey through a beautifully imagined world.
Rating: 7/10

A time loop game in a 2D exploration platformer shell. The movement feels good, allowing you to build momentum when you find the right line, and you're rewarded for navigating the environment swiftly by being able to get more out of each loop. I liked bringing everything together in the end. A pleasant surprise.

Writing this as the credits roll, after 100% and letting the game idle for a couple hours by accident.
This is a weird game to evaluate, but without burying the lede, I really enjoyed this one. I 100% would not describe this as a metroidvania, and I think the game would be more interesting and easier to pitch if it wasn't marketed as one. I might be more inclined to refer to it as a metroidbrania, though. (I know a lot of people find that genre name obnoxious. Whatever, lol)
The base price on this one is kind of crazy, too. I try not to harp too much on nebulous value debates in my Steam reviews, but 20 euros for this game is rough. The game is only generously 6 hours long to 100% without a guide, and there isn't actually even 6 hours worth of unique, quality content. The game loop, which I'll get to, kind of intentionally causes a bunch of backtracking. And that's fine! But if you take away a lot of the random meandering through areas you've already cleared out, the game is probably closer to 4 hours, and of those 4 hours, maybe 30 minutes are a story that doesn't really go anywhere or have anything interesting to say.
For 5 euros though, it's still easily worth it.
I also did really enjoy the gameplay loop overall. It's extremely novel, and one of my favorite implementations of a timeloop in a game off the top of my head.
My main issue with it is that the majority of the exploration just... isn't worth it. You honestly have more than enough time to finish the game even without picking up any collectables other than what you happen to come across, you get no real reward for finishing the prophecy or the treasure log, and the "powers" that are the meat and potatoes of the optional content are absolutely, completely, worthless.
The lion's share of the optional content "challenges" boil down to "see the object and jump over to its ledge." This is okay, again, the game isn't exactly long. It's hard to say it really overstays its welcome, but you're looking at a game with a really strange make-up of content.
The game, when doing nothing other than running around finding what you need to finish the game, is probably 2 hours long, and is maybe 6 hours long to 100%. This means that's 2/3 of the content in an already short game is optional, and of that optional content, maybe 80% of it is wholly uninteresting, and 100% of it is unrewarding. Meh.
I'm being really rough on the game, but it's more from a place of love than hate. I really did like the experience overall. The novelty of the setting and gameplay premise are more than worth the price of admission when on sale. It's a cute experience I'll probably find myself thinking about off and on for a while. It just feels like the game was designed as a metroidvania, but only superficially. I wonder if the game would have been a better, more focused experience if the map size and collectable count were slashed in half, with more interesting gameplay variety and reward systems in the remaining content.
The comic book art style is really nice, too. One of my favorite aesthetics. Unfortunately, a lot of the actual animations are... stiff, to say the least. But all of the actual cutscenes are gorgeous.
P.S. I understand that French is the native language, but the English store page could have used a lot of work, and I know I'm a hater, but if I didn't see this recommended on Reddit, I probably would have been pushed away by all the random typos and grammatical errors. Non-lineal is not the word you were going for, that would be non-linear.

If you like time loop games and info-based progression, this one's a no brainer. Undercoders has quietly been trucking along making cool little hidden gems and this is probably their best work. Excellent feel to the movement and a large island to run around on and explore.