Summum Aeterna, a prequel to 2022’s Aeterna Noctis, riffs on a Useless Cells-style style fusion, mixing roguelite components into the powerful Metroidvania construction of its predecessor for a sport that doesn’t pull its punches. The consequence feels tough across the edges nevertheless it’s arduous to disclaim that the gameplay feels fairly nice.
Enemies hit arduous, incessantly gang up on you, and can virtually assuredly ship you again to the hub dozens of instances earlier than you handle to efficiently full a run. And whereas Summum Aeterna primarily calls for dexterous expertise to beat its hardest challenges, you do have one thing to indicate for every failed run. You, in fact, lose a lot of the upgrades you snagged whereas out and about, however each run will see you gaining forex and crafting supplies which you can then reinvest into issues like higher stats and beginning weapons. This meta-progression system thus ensures that you simply’ll at all times be making progress, even once you lose time after time.
In an attention-grabbing departure from comparable video games, Summum Aeterna additionally introduces a cool seed system for producing the world you run via every time. Earlier than venturing out, you should first create the world by inserting a seed in a machine that may generate it for you. Every seed is exclusive, spawns you in a unique beginning biome, and can have optimistic and destructive modifiers that’ll change issues like enemy well being and the drop price of sure rewards. Selecting the correct seed is thus as a lot part of one’s technique as deciding on a construct, and we appreciated how this positively impacts run range.
Controls are easy and responsive, whereas weapon sorts really feel genuinely distinct from one another and provide attention-grabbing twists on fight. A sword might be thrown and both shortly recalled or teleported elsewhere. The scythe, alternatively, builds up Injury-over-Time debuffs on enemies with every hit which you’ll then set off abruptly. Second-to-moment gameplay feels snappy and interesting, which inspires you to dare to attempt once more.
The visuals really feel like a cross between the illustrious Castlevania: Symphony of the Night time and, of all issues, Little one of Gentle. Whether or not you’re exploring the shadowy reaches of a familiar-looking Gothic citadel or the brilliant canal-bordered streets of a Venice-esque village, all environments function a painterly, hand-drawn fashion that looks like an ideal match for the considerably dreamlike tone of Summum Aeterna.
Sadly, Summum Aeterna feels relatively poor on the efficiency aspect of issues. Fortunately the body drops right here or there don’t have an effect on issues an excessive amount of, however loading instances might be fairly lengthy and we had a number of cases the place the sport outright crashed, ending promising runs and erasing some hard-won progress. Hopefully patches are forthcoming, because it looks like this might be a wonderful addition to any roguelike fan’s Swap library with a bit of bit extra elbow grease.
Launch instability points apart, it could be a bit spinoff, however Summum Aeterna finally ticks sufficient packing containers to be value your whereas. Easy fight, powerful issue, and an attention-grabbing seed system all come collectively to make this one value investigating.