Noreya: The gold project is a 2D pixel-art Dark Fantasy MetroidVania filled with uninspired gameplay and an even worse upgrade system.
Hours of my life went into the promises of this game yet not once did I feel fulfilled. From the surface, it may have the skin of something beautiful but deep within, there lives something that feels thrown together at the last minute.
From the get-go, I could tell things were not going to be all that dandy but with a forced smile on my face, I started this game hoping for the best.
Going in, I did not know anything about Noreya: The Gold Project except for 3 things:
- It’s a MetroidVania
- It’s pixel art
- There is a massive upgrade system
I will get into the upgrade system in a bit, first I have something to get off my chest
Another MetroidVania
The gameplay of Noreya: the Gold Project is nothing to argue about. You have your standard MetroidVania affair of hack-and-slash combat and a large explorable world.
There is a good vs Bad dilemma where you just choose if you want to side with angelic beings or demons. The Steam page did say that your choices will determine what gameplay points and endings you get but I did not care enough to check. It must be true, I guess.
I will say that I was caught a little off guard when the enemies did not react to my hits. They do get hit and eventually die but their visuals and physical reactions don’t indicate that to you.
Speaking of Visuals…
There are two major gripes with the way the game is shown on the screen. While the Pixel Art is quite nicely done, there is no care given to highlighting objects of interest. I cannot count how many times I died in this game because I was jumping up a platform and got struck by a spike, thinking it was a part of the background.
The second and the most horrific gripe with the screen is the camera. Noreya: The Gold Project is designed to keep the player at the centre of the screen.
Meaning that every time you move, it moves. Sometimes it will zoom in and other times it will zoom out so far Noreya would be nothing more than a pixel on the screen. You can imagine how puke-inducing it was for me.
When I first launched this game, I sat from a distance to play in complete comfort but the visual chaos soon had me leaning a few inches away from the screen with reading glasses on.
And I don’t think that is the type of immersion you desire as a gamer but what do I know.
It’s A MetroidVania Plot
The dark fantasy begins when a group of people seemingly having an outing get attacked by this spirit-thingy. They attack, kill or kidnap all of the people except for one person who is Noreya.
She is touched by one of the spirits and her entire body turns charcoal black which is then the way she stays throughout the game.
This entire scene is played out in a beautiful hand-drawn slideshow-esque animation which I quite liked.
It seems a lot of effort has gone into making this game look good. The weird camera and some objects being hard to differentiate from the background aside, Noreya: The Gold Project is a gorgeous piece of art.
Sadly, this is a video game and not a piece in a gallery.
System From Hell
The last thing promised was a large and expansive upgrade tree. A whole three of them. Too bad, 90% of the fruit on this tree is bland pudding.
Like seriously, why do games feel the need to do this?
- One more heart
- 2 percent less damage.
- Second attack hurts more than the first one
- A Bloody third attack that hurts more than the first 2.
(Only one of those examples is fake.)
I remember Prototype, DMC, Cuphead, Doom Eternal, and Hollow Knight. Games where upgrades meant something more than Filler.
Am I foolish to expect something better from this dark fantasy?
Is it set in stone to add features to a game just because they sound cool only to deliver the most generic and lazy ideas after it?
You tell me Dreamirl!
Just take it away
I really wanted to love you Noreya: The Gold Project but it just never clicked. I would say that maybe it’s not for me but I cannot really lie like that.
There are far better MetroidVania options and around the same price as you that would greatly satisfy my itch. As for the question of who I should recommend this to. All I can say is that if you are a fan of the Guacamelee games then you will be heavily disappointed by this mess.
