Grimvalor Review

More and more titles, especially metroidvania’s, are moving from traditional consoles to mobile, a long and continuous emigration of video games that have profoundly marked the gaming landscape in recent years. If the road leading to smartphones and tablets is therefore flourishing, the same unfortunately cannot be said of the “reverse” path, where a mobile game moves to a console like the Nintendo Switch.

This time it is Grimvalor, a metroidvania that has released without too many problems in 2018 as one of the most interesting titles for mobile. However, will the Direlight title have managed to keep its magic that has allowed it to be one of the best experiences on mobile or will the transition to the Nintendo Switch prove to be a failure? Here is my Grimvalor review for Nintendo Switch.

DARK SOULS GRIMVALOR

As mentioned above, Grimvalor is a classic metroidvania. In the role of the usual powerful and anonymous hero we will in fact be called within five different acts to save a world held hostage by a dark and highly inflated evil presence. Even by removing the ability to make attacks from above, with the consequent possibility of opening new gates on the map, the player has practically everything from the start to make their way through the various tunnels.

Exploration in Grimvalor is good and lovers of the genre will therefore not be disappointed. Expecting a sensational plot from a title coming originally from mobile would be wrong, but as mentioned before, Grimvalor manages to not particularly disappoint in this aspect. Grimvalor is in fact based on a game system that really takes a lot from Dark Souls. For example, instead of Dark Souls bonfires, you will get altars in Grimvalor, which has the same function.

The character upgrade system is also very similar to Dark Souls, with players having to spend a currency gained from dying enemies at altars to level up. The fact that players call the game Dark Souls Grimvalor is far too verbose, as it is still a game on its own created by totally different developers, but on the other hand, this way of speaking manages to intrigue new players in Grimvalor’s mission to save the world.

ADRENALINE-FUELED GAMEPLAY

Players who enter in Direlight’s action-RPG will have two different attacks: light and heavy. The light attack can be used without limitations whatsoever, while the heavy attack requires the use of an energy bar. Take note that there are no particular combos or other approaches that you need to use. The golden rule in Grimvalor is to badly spam enemies with light repetitive attacks, and sometimes a few heavy blows to stun them.

This all might seem just too simple, but to enrich the landscape and make everything more dynamic and intriguing, the developers added the dash option. Thanks to this particular synergy between sudden escapes and bursts of shots, Grimvalor therefore equips itself with fast and adrenaline-fueled gameplay which, despite an evident simplicity of the background, works damn well and succeeds without too many problems.

This dynamism can also be found in the exploratory phase, with the anonymous character who, between dash, racing on the walls, and double jump, will move like a crazy splinter between the various game levels, managing to give a pleasant experience even from this point of view. Also noteworthy are the various boss fights, which are divided into two main categories in Grimvalor.

The first, consisting of the more traditional dungeon opponents, and the second composed of a whole series of hunters who will appear during the exploration. The traditional bosses fortunately do not disappoint in terms of variety and dynamism of the clashes, sometimes managing to represent difficult challenges that never fall into frustration in the Metroidvania title.

The only drawback of these battles is found in the difficulty of these opponents, with some bosses who will require to be continuously hammered for several minutes before being defeated. I noticed in my Grimvalor review for Nintendo Switch that the hunters, on the other hand, are nothing but larger and more powerful versions of the basic enemies.

SOMETIMES BAD, SOMETIMES GOOD

Grimvalor is absolutely not without its problems and, indeed, some of them come straight from the mobile version. In fact, the game often does not present fluid animations and sometimes your character looks like a wooden trunk. In some situations, you can’t even hit the enemies, probably due to the 2.5D nature of the title.

I noticed in my Grimvalor review for Nintendo Switch, that the models of the various characters are not the best and unfortunately also the design of the various areas are not positive. It is difficult for the player to distinguish between these various areas as it always seems to be the same from the beginning to the end of the game. The level design is moderate and definitely not the best, but it actually still manages to keep you busy.

If you are one of those players who wants to find all the various treasures and collectibles hidden within the game, then you will enjoy the fact that the longevity of Grimvalor will also increase by several hours. Finally, to make the offer even more attractive in terms of content, is the presence of the New Game + mode, which allows you to replay the title in a much improved and fun way.

CONCLUSION

Taking a game that is meant for mobile devices and launching it on the Nintendo Switch is a huge risk, as various other games tried this before and failed miserably. However, Direlight’s Grimvalor definitely showed that this is possible and succeed way beyond my initial expectations.

Like any game, there were a few problems, for example, with the level designs, models of various characters, and some animations, but these problems were not game breaking issues. Grimvalor is an excellent alternative for lovers of metroidvania!

Do you want to try Direlight’s Grimvalor? What do you think of my Grimvalor review for Nintendo Switch? Make sure you leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Are you a big fan of metroidvania games? Check out our reviews for Shinsekai: Into the Depths, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.