Eternal Daughter (PC, 2002)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-7 Control-6 Challenge-8 Story-6.5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-9 Fun-6 Originality-4.5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Metroidvania/Platform Adventure-style gameplay (Symphony of the Night, Monster World, etc.)
Mini-bosses
Decent art direction and decent-good animation overall (your avatar looks sort of wooden though)
Decent dialogue
Some sequence breaking possible (can use a trick with the dash (dash off a ledge then keep holding the direction you dashed in) to gain more movement speed and reach some areas and items ahead of time however the harsh difficulty makes it hard to use fully)
NPC encounters during exploration (for example Gideon plays hide and seek with you)
Pretty good variation
Wall jumping and double jumping
Decent bosses
Borrows the projectile weapons as platforms from Quackshot (mojack) and an evolving flying familiar from Monster World 3-4 (grabs enemy drops and placed consumables through walls+attacks enemies occasionally, allows temporary flight when near the finale)
Various hidden items
+/-
Midi music (doesn't smoothly transition when moving between areas, sounds pretty good overall considering what it is but some instruments sound cheap or wonky)
Save points which also heal you (kinda far between them considering the difficulty in the beginning, three slots)
Mostly linear structure ("you aren't strong enough" - trial in mines, a couple of minor and optional hidden areas - one of them is a developer's room, can do a couple of bosses in either order)
Borrows pretty heavily from Symphony of the Night (controls, abilities (slide, sub weapons), enemies, HUD, etc.)
Can't jump down through platforms that you can jump up through
If you mash the attack button too fast then attack are canceled - have to find the rhythm to it
Even small enemies are generally not stunned when hit
Can't crawl (get a slide ability some ways into it)
Very obvious final fantasy references in some of the music
No shops or exp point leveling
No inventory items (such as potions), Automatic travel segment with the griffon, can't read the message boards in the mines, theatrical tone to the dialogue, bittersweet ending
-
No maps (final area is a maze, some areas look a bit samey)
Some control issues (picking controller with F8 didn't work so had to use keyboard w/ joytokey mapping to a controller, can't move between screens while charging, jump height control isn't that good - default lowest height is too high, charge attack is canceled when jumping or falling, can't duck while charging, can't cancel out of an attack with a backwards dash - have to wait for the animation to finish before it registers and it's a bit longer than it looks like, can't jump or attack to cancel a backwards dash, automatic running trigger after a few steps - makes certain platforming and jumping over certain enemies more tricky than it should be when you can't start running immediately, can't remap dashing and sub weapon use to their own buttons instead of button combos (since both are mapped to pressing up you'll easily perform a backdash by accident), can't attack during a crouching animation (nor when standing up again) - the input doesn't register until the animation is finished, kind of unforgiving hit detection - as soon as the edge of your avatar's sprite touches an enemy you get hit, overly tight camera when jumping, can't build forward momentum underwater like you can on the surface)
Starts off really hard after you escape the slave camp (short invincibility time+low health+enemies doing 2+ damage, no drops from the constantly respawning fodder enemies in the first few areas, sometimes no drops from several tougher enemies in a row, mini-bosses placed kinda far from save points and no health drop from the first one (frog archer), attack range is shorter than in Castlevania before upgrading it a couple of times with the scrolls, etc.) - actually gets a bit easier overall in the late game
Trial & error (underwater bats in the mines, leaps of faith - can't look up/down, fake mushroom springs which are mimic enemies - the tell is too vague, the invincibility time for enemies is sometimes longer than how fast you can attack, your oxygen is too low to get to the item in the first water pool you come across, the dagger just passes through certain enemies (mines), )
Difficulty spikes (drill walker boss, bats that do 3 damage in the mines)
Short pause in the gameplay when tracks loop or change (from the get item jingle back to the area bgm for example, can screw you over while exploring at low health)
Overly harsh difficulty gating for alternate paths
Backtracking (for upgrades, for mojack ammo and to progress at times) - can't teleport
Enemies keep dropping items that you have a full stock of
Sometimes unfitting music (too calm when you break out of the slave camp, too happy in the ice cave and doesn't change when meeting the elder in there, etc.)
A few pointless dead ends that can only be reached later on
Notes:
-Had to use a steam app to get full screen support
Bugs:
-Game can get stuck playing a rockman enemy sfx and start lagging like crazy
-Can't alt+tab properly as the game's window is always on top
-Jump+attack at the same time can be used for rapid fire charge attacks
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-9 Fun-6 Originality-4.5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Metroidvania/Platform Adventure-style gameplay (Symphony of the Night, Monster World, etc.)
Mini-bosses
Decent art direction and decent-good animation overall (your avatar looks sort of wooden though)
Decent dialogue
Some sequence breaking possible (can use a trick with the dash (dash off a ledge then keep holding the direction you dashed in) to gain more movement speed and reach some areas and items ahead of time however the harsh difficulty makes it hard to use fully)
NPC encounters during exploration (for example Gideon plays hide and seek with you)
Pretty good variation
Wall jumping and double jumping
Decent bosses
Borrows the projectile weapons as platforms from Quackshot (mojack) and an evolving flying familiar from Monster World 3-4 (grabs enemy drops and placed consumables through walls+attacks enemies occasionally, allows temporary flight when near the finale)
Various hidden items
+/-
Midi music (doesn't smoothly transition when moving between areas, sounds pretty good overall considering what it is but some instruments sound cheap or wonky)
Save points which also heal you (kinda far between them considering the difficulty in the beginning, three slots)
Mostly linear structure ("you aren't strong enough" - trial in mines, a couple of minor and optional hidden areas - one of them is a developer's room, can do a couple of bosses in either order)
Borrows pretty heavily from Symphony of the Night (controls, abilities (slide, sub weapons), enemies, HUD, etc.)
Can't jump down through platforms that you can jump up through
If you mash the attack button too fast then attack are canceled - have to find the rhythm to it
Even small enemies are generally not stunned when hit
Can't crawl (get a slide ability some ways into it)
Very obvious final fantasy references in some of the music
No shops or exp point leveling
No inventory items (such as potions), Automatic travel segment with the griffon, can't read the message boards in the mines, theatrical tone to the dialogue, bittersweet ending
-
No maps (final area is a maze, some areas look a bit samey)
Some control issues (picking controller with F8 didn't work so had to use keyboard w/ joytokey mapping to a controller, can't move between screens while charging, jump height control isn't that good - default lowest height is too high, charge attack is canceled when jumping or falling, can't duck while charging, can't cancel out of an attack with a backwards dash - have to wait for the animation to finish before it registers and it's a bit longer than it looks like, can't jump or attack to cancel a backwards dash, automatic running trigger after a few steps - makes certain platforming and jumping over certain enemies more tricky than it should be when you can't start running immediately, can't remap dashing and sub weapon use to their own buttons instead of button combos (since both are mapped to pressing up you'll easily perform a backdash by accident), can't attack during a crouching animation (nor when standing up again) - the input doesn't register until the animation is finished, kind of unforgiving hit detection - as soon as the edge of your avatar's sprite touches an enemy you get hit, overly tight camera when jumping, can't build forward momentum underwater like you can on the surface)
Starts off really hard after you escape the slave camp (short invincibility time+low health+enemies doing 2+ damage, no drops from the constantly respawning fodder enemies in the first few areas, sometimes no drops from several tougher enemies in a row, mini-bosses placed kinda far from save points and no health drop from the first one (frog archer), attack range is shorter than in Castlevania before upgrading it a couple of times with the scrolls, etc.) - actually gets a bit easier overall in the late game
Trial & error (underwater bats in the mines, leaps of faith - can't look up/down, fake mushroom springs which are mimic enemies - the tell is too vague, the invincibility time for enemies is sometimes longer than how fast you can attack, your oxygen is too low to get to the item in the first water pool you come across, the dagger just passes through certain enemies (mines), )
Difficulty spikes (drill walker boss, bats that do 3 damage in the mines)
Short pause in the gameplay when tracks loop or change (from the get item jingle back to the area bgm for example, can screw you over while exploring at low health)
Overly harsh difficulty gating for alternate paths
Backtracking (for upgrades, for mojack ammo and to progress at times) - can't teleport
Enemies keep dropping items that you have a full stock of
Sometimes unfitting music (too calm when you break out of the slave camp, too happy in the ice cave and doesn't change when meeting the elder in there, etc.)
A few pointless dead ends that can only be reached later on
Notes:
-Had to use a steam app to get full screen support
Bugs:
-Game can get stuck playing a rockman enemy sfx and start lagging like crazy
-Can't alt+tab properly as the game's window is always on top
-Jump+attack at the same time can be used for rapid fire charge attacks