LogFAQs > #973904907

Ghost 1.0 (Steam)

Geez, I don't know what to make of this game. It has some of the best presentation I've ever seen in a Metroidvania title. I'm not sure I can remember any other MV with full voice acting this high quality. It even has a somewhat interesting plot, though there's a fair amount of cringe too (why are characters in this sci-fi cyberpunk future still referencing movies from the 70s and 80s...?) It's got a weird control scheme but I don't think I'd recommend remapping it much because it works; even if jump on LB feels like a weird choice it's pretty necessary since you'll be using your right thumb on RS to aim.

The issue is that it's a rogue-lite and that whole conceit feels pretty half-baked.

So basically, throughout the game are places where you trigger an alarm - some are mandatory, others completely optional - which will lock you in the room and force you to survive waves of enemies until your mission control can override the alarm. Each time you survive an alarm, the alarm levels up and increases the difficulty of the next alarm, up to level 20. If you die, you lose all non-permanent upgrades but the alarm de-levels to 1. The problem is that the best source of gear is from surviving alarms, so anytime you die, you're heavily incentivized to go and grind alarms 1-8ish to reequip. Which is a huge time sink, and for what...? To be back to essentially where you were before?

It feels like a rogue-lite system built forcibly on top of an existing MV game, rather than an actual synthesis of the two. A Robot Named Fight works as a rogue-vania because it gives you an entirely new map when you die, so getting upgrades again feels natural rather than feeling like a complete stop to your momentum. I think I'd have enjoyed Ghost 1.0 more just playing it on classic mode instead of survival, especially because the game doesn't auto-save when you die so you can just reload your save to avoid taking a death, and it feels VERY TEMPTING TO DO THAT compared to grinding for 20 minutes before you can make progress again.

Overall, good game but it could've been a GREAT game if it really got its systems all working together.