Valdis Story: Abyssal City is a 2D Metroidvania-style game developed by EndlessFluff Games. Taking control of one of four distinct characters you explore the sunken city of Sitheil, besieged by both angels and demons, as you uncover the truth behind the war on the surface.
Unlike most Metroidvania-style games, Valdis Story places extra emphasis on combat, to the point of almost being more of a brawler than anything; there’re a variety of weapons for each of the playable characters, numerous magic spells, skill cancels, parry mechanics, and even a letter-graded ranking system for the boss fights. There are also a number of RPG elements within the game, from exp.-based leveling to the construction of distinct character builds through equippable armor and accessories. To the point that, despite a single playthrough being unlikely to be longer than 5-or-so hours, you can easily put several dozen hours into the game just from trying out varying playstyles. On top of that there are even two alternate play modes, a score-attack permadeath mode and a boss-rush arena mode. The game’s chock-full of content if you’re into multiple playthroughs, is what I’m saying.
This let’s play will be focusing on two of the playable characters - Reina Gaius and Vladyn - with a full playthrough of each. I may also show off the arena mode although I do not gurantee that. If you’re interested in seeing a playthrough of Wyatt’s campaign I recommend checking out D_W’s excellent LP.
I think I’ve seen this game before, but only part of Scowl Boy’s story. It’s a pretty cool Metroidvania… Brawler… Brawlervania, even with a few tough sections here and there.
You’re one for one on an all ASS Rank run. Fingers crossed you can keep it up for the whole game.
I’ve played this a long time ago, and I came out of it not really liking it. Most of problems I have with this game are small things like bosses summoning minions and making the screen really busy. (It also had some serious framerate problems back then; but it looks like that might have been patched out.)
On top of that, I find the color palette for most areas and characters to be too… bright? Like, the first area had a bight orange floor, the background had some pretty saturated blues, and the boss was bright red and blue. It kinda makes it tough to focus on important stuff, Nothing really pops out because there aren’t enough muted colors to help highlight what you should be focusing on. (Note: I am not a artist/art director, so what I said might just be my own personal problem.)
I ended up not finishing a playthrough as Wyatt, but seeing some Reina gameplay maybe she’s more my style?
I wanted to like this game, and played a bit of ScowlyMan, but the absolutely punishing poison mechanics and the use of a barter system in place of a standard currency just caused the game to grind to a complete stop and I stalled out in the Gardens.
Yeah, the game definitely has an issue with having too many things be on screen at a single time in some of its fights. There’s one boss in particular that’s especially egregious in this regard.
Art-wise I’m find with the game. I’ve never had issue with telling something apart from the background but I can see why you would.
Reina does play fairly distinctly from Wyatt so it’s not the worst idea to see if you take to her more. As I discussed in the video she does have a somewhat rougher start since she can’t guard break from the get-go, but she gets really strong really quick, and is a lot more fun if you prefer playing as a more agile character.
Yeah poison (and status effects in general in this game) is the worst. Dunno when you last played, but at some point they added a new mechanic (that I’ll mention more explicitly in the future) where you can buy elixirs that prevent some statuses like those. Definitely worth doing if you’re going into an area that features that, even if you have to spend a bit of time grinding the materials for them (the lack of a unified currency is definitely one of my sticking points too, so many times have I had to backtrack to X area for some materials because I forgot I needed them for an item I wanted to buy).
I wish you luck and look forward to seeing how you do. I managed to get through to just past the engineering area as wyatt, but between the platforming and the lightning gimmicks I couldn’t progress further
It turns out that all you need to do that is good artistic chops (even if the character designs can be a bit iffy the environment art is fantastic, and I’ll fight anyone that disagrees).
Also, it’s update time! We pick up that most useful of Metroidvania upgrades and slaughter a few bosses.
I got a little behind on videos but I’m gonna say Reize is more annoying because his creator has a whole public list of artists he’s blacklisted and will never ever ever commission.
I honestly never knew you could spare disthan as I promptly just killed him as Wyatt. Mostly under the kill future threat now thinking. I do look forward to seeing the engineer’s palace.
Oh yeah, no. Apparently this is just what he does. Lord knows where he gets the money for it but I’m pretty sure this and Shovel Knight aren’t the only games he’s backed highly enough to get Reize squeazelled into them.
Oh that was satisfying to see someone run through the engineer’s palace easily. I probably got zapped with enough volts to power frankenstein for a few years while going through as wyatt. The boss at the end probably started tally marks from the amount of times they killed me.
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