The game’Death Yeogak’, inspired by traditional Korean folk tales such as the story of Princess Bari, was first released in 2016. At the time of its first announcement, the genre was a turn-based RPG, but immediately after the successful tumble buck crowdfunding and achieved Steam Green Light, it suddenly turned to a metrovania 2D action game. A situation where the sponsor may feel betrayed. With the addition of personnel change and delayed release, the anxiety of the fans only grew.
The only way to reverse the mood was to create a game with high quality. The full version of the death angle that was played prior to the release contained the joy created by the harmony of Korean tradition and modernity, and the fun comparable to that of Metrovania masterpieces such as Duck or Hollow Knight. The’compulsion’ of the developer Rootless Studio’s game completion was expressed in a positive direction.
Duck in America, Bari in Korea
The plot of the story of death is that the protagonist,’Areum’, wanders alive through the underworld to find the soul of his deceased father. Although it is best known that he obtained the motif from the story of Princess Bari, Shim Cheongjeon reminds me of the scene that he acquires in the middle of the sea to go to the underworld. It’s been a long time since the living set foot in the underworld, and the inhabitants of the underworld are surprised whenever they see the beauty, but they are generally favorable. However, at times, a huge conspiracy surrounding the power of the underworld is wriggling, so you will experience all sorts of beautiful torments.
Anyway, with half the favors of the underworld and half of the work, Arum, who became a grim reaper similar to a contract job, runs around the underworld. However, this place of underworld is quite attractive than I thought, so I even thought of wanting to live. The high and pointed mountains are beautiful, and the large, tile-topped hanok is antique. In addition, modern civilizations are also accepted without reluctance, so the convenience of life is also at a decent level. Isn’t this a true’fusion’ of the past and present?
Since Beautiful came down to the underworld to find his father, he cannot stay in one place. You have to explore the underworld, which is intricately entangled up, down, left and right. The basics of the metrovania genre are to break through traps and discover new areas and hidden places by using their skills and various objects, and the angle of death is faithful to this. The pleasure is indescribable when you learn new skills such as sticking to the wall, dash, and double jump through places you couldn’t go to on your first visit, or when you find a hidden room by chance. However, the exception is when a powerful boss comes out of a hidden room.
The difficulty of being speechless and the difficulty of’easy’ is beneficial for mental health.
The worldview of the story of death, where traditional folklore and modern culture are harmonized, reminds us of the popular webtoon’With God’. The graphic is also like a webtoon, so it gives a familiar feeling. And thanks to the colorful backgrounds and objects, you can feel richly the’joy of exploration’, which is the basis of the metrovania genre. I played for hours after the game started, but I didn’t feel bored.
However, in terms of difficulty, people will have different likes and dislikes. First of all, the beautiful, stylish action that is not like a newcomer and a temporary grim reaper is definitely favorable. At first, you can only wield the sickle you received from the grim reaper’Seol’, but the more you progress the game, the more you will get weapons with different methods of use such as swords, bows, and bats. In addition, it is necessary to combine various transformations and mobile devices to easily defeat enemies.
Early enemies look like a round ball, so it’s just as tricky as those who roll and attack, but it’s not difficult because most of them are stiff and unilaterally hit when attacked. However, as the progress progresses, enemies that cut twice, stiffen immunity, and even self-destruct in wide-area attacks appear, making it difficult to attack. The key is to learn different patterns for each enemy, then dodge at the right time and use the weapon that suits the situation. If you don’t know, you have to beat it with your body.
Even so, it is enough for normal enemies to find destruction once or twice, but bosses with a lot of stamina and various attack patterns have to attack many times so that the muscles of both hands hurt. The first boss that brings frustration to the player is Seocheon Flower Field’s’Go Gwan Face’. It is basic to attack with thorns rising from the ground like StarCraft’s hell of thorns (Lulker), and suddenly stretch out your hand to stab or even launch a barrage attack. Moving on to Phase 2, the player’s mind is confused by using the two techniques in succession with a slight time difference.
There is also a chase with giant bosses that are common in existing Metrovania genre games such as ducks and goblins. It is the scene of being chased by the’bulgasari’, which is considered the strongest ghost in Korean traditional folklore. With a pinched hand, it goes straight into the starfish’s camouflage, but in an urgent situation, you have to use all the skills you have, such as changing weapons, pushing objects after transforming into two giants, rolling, jumping, dashing, sticking to the wall, and so on. In addition, there is no intermediate storage point, so if you are not confident in the manipulation, you have to repeat it to a level where the body can respond by itself.
If you are a 2D side-scrolling action game enthusiast who enjoyed the Hollow Knight and Duck series, you will be able to enjoy the degree of death. However, those who are simply attracted to the world view, or who start dying out of curiosity about domestic indie games, recommend the’easy’ difficulty level. As the reporter played death, one button fell off as to how much he overworked the keyboard. For reference, the meeting with the dignitaries was completed in an hour and a half, and the starfish tagging was completed in an hour. As an excuse, there was an error in not recognizing the trigger button operation on the gamepad (based on the 2nd generation of the Xbox Elite Pad and the Xbox One pad), so I played with a keyboard I didn’t use well. This kind of gamepad input error needs improvement.
A fundamental game that is different from the development mission of’rootless’
The metrovania genre has a long history, and even now, new works are steadily appearing centering on indie games. There is no need to go back to the distant past, and as you can find games that are evaluated as masterpieces or masterpieces such as the Duck Series, Hollow Knight, and Blood Stained up close, it was inevitable that these games were reminiscent of them during their death. Of course, there will be individual differences in appreciation for this part as well.
What is clear is that the charm of metrovanian genre masterpieces, such as the pleasure of map exploration and tense action, is melted into the death angle. Here, the proper combination of Korean traditional folklore and contemporary culture is the unique personality of death, which is difficult to see in overseas games. The developer Rootless Studio has the meaning of’without roots’, but it is a fundamental game that has created an original worldview while faithful to the basics of the genre.
