Afterimage Review - Gaming with Joy

[@dane4652]

Just ran into your channel. I have to say...I enjoy your calm and concise style of reviewing. You are able to say much with few words. A great quality. Subscribed.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate your compliment! I always try my best to write short but detailed enough scripts, so it's nice it's getting noticed and it's really great to hear you enjoy this style of reviewing. Thanks for your subscription!

[@dane4652]

So I finished afterimage today. Got 2 endings. The map is the most massive I've seen in any metroidvania. I never got lost, just kept exploring. I even liked the potion travel as it's a mechanic that gets you deeply weighing your choices on how to backtrack. The controls are great also. However, I seemed to have reached then end without knowing so. There sre still areas left. Probably my second favorite metroidvania after hollow knight

[@MugenLord_inNeonLights]

The Boss fights looks visually great.Also the backgrounds looks great.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

The visuals are amazing indeed, it's for sure the most beautiful game of 2023 I have played so far!

[@soulsborneseeker]

I'm several hours into the game and, while I'm enjoying it, it feels massive! Loving the visuals and it seems to have an interesting variety in terms of equipment and talents. Overall, having fun so far! Great review!

[@GamingwithJoy15]

That's really nice, I hope you will keep having fun the whole way through. Let me know what your thoughts are after finishing this game, I really would like to know!

[@justavian]

Well, despite your warnings, i think i should probably get this one. I appreciate that they at least appear to have given you ways to mark the map. I'm usually too lazy to grab a piece of paper and a pencil when i'm playing a game, so i'm inevitably going to get lost if i don't have a way to mark things in game. I appreciate your channel. Your videos are very consistent. Keep up the good work!

[@GamingwithJoy15]

You should definitely give this game a try! This review is a bit outdated, so take my complaints with a grain of salt, please. 😅 Thank you so much, I really appreciate your encouraging words!

[@craigwilks2202]

I'm near end game right now, and so far I'm very pleased with my purchase with some flaws and all. The biggest issue I have so far was my beginning to mig game moments where I came to a dead end not sure what to do, and with that I wasn't engaged with the story anymore. It wasn't until much discovery that I understand the flow of the objective. Is it a masterpiece? NO, but I appreciate the hard work that was put into this game, it's massive, the art is freaking stunning and some aspects of the gameplay is actually deep (the spell mechanics can use some tweaking). The beginning to mid game: 6.5/10 Mid near end game: 8.75/10

[@GamingwithJoy15]

I totally agree with you! The developers are already trying to patch some things, so hopefully the lack of direction in this game will be gone soon. For example you will get the fast travel ability when you reach Resting Town already, so that's a great update for sure. I really hope it will get more positive reviews after a few updates and patches, it's not perfect, but it's for sure a breathtaking experience that metroidvania lovers really should give a try!

[@craigwilks2202]

@@GamingwithJoy15 Its just very sad that it's getting review bombed by the community, which we're all entitled to our opinion but I never understood this notion that playing a game of this magnitude for an 1hr and some change qualifies for low ball, I can go on and about tons of other games but that's a whole entire different discussion for another day. For example, in a steam post someone felt that Ender Lilies is vastly better game because of.... the story and its dark theme. While I absolutely love EL for my own personal reasons, Afterimage imo does EVERYTHING better except story telling and too many progression gaps.

[@savagebeast2538]

How do I get the guy that sells potions to go back to resting town? I finished his quest, and he still hasn’t gone back there.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Which one do you mean? The guy with the big snail or the mushroom girl?

[@craigwilks2202]

I think it's the emerald falls location, can't remember but I would say either go back to that exact location to see if he's there or exit out the game and reload.

[@OperationPhantom]

Thanks for the honest review! The developers did patch the game a few times now and I will try it out.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

It's my pleasure! I hope you will enjoy!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

Hey, new to the channel, i enjoyed this review. I've been really into this game recently though im apparently not that far based on the map. Im really enjoying exploring the world.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Welcome, I'm glad to have you and thank you for your kind words. Your channel is great as well and I really hope this game will be enjoyable the whole way through for you!

[@tzzeek]

Great review, i was about to buy it, good thing i watched this first, saved me 15 bucks.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

I still recommend it though and some issues I have been talking about in this review are already patched, so I really hope you are still going to give it a chance.

[@dragoonseye76]

I’m absolutely loving this game right now. It has a huge map

[@GamingwithJoy15]

I'm glad you are enjoying it so much, thanks for sharing!

[@d00mnoodle24]

I just beat this game yesterday spread across 46 hours and 6 days... It's insane how HUGE this game is... But i'm very happy to say that i absolutely LOVED IT! Easily one of my top 10 metroidvania's. I loved the exploration and level design. The movement was smooth and the platforming fun. Combat was amazing, especially the dual daggers and scythe! I liked the bosses but regular enemies were more fun to me. Their attacks felt better telegraphed and fair. Visuals are gorgeous and so is the soundtrack. I'll be listening to this one a LOT moving forward. Only grievances i have is that the endings were a bit too much work to achieve, a lack of better fast travel near the end and the overal inconsistent story. Minor gripes really. I don't even mind the occasional fps drop because i had no bugs or crashes. I think i'd give this game a 9/10 at least. Had story been better and pacing of movement upgrades spread out more i'd even give it a 9,5 or a perfect 10. It's a shame that your initial experience was much worse than mine but that's the risk of playing games close to launch. Often they're already patched by the time i play them, such as 9 years of shadows which i'm gonna start playing after this comment 😊 i actually found the game to be really easy for the longest time. The areas that wooped my ass i stayed away from until later when i was stronger. Some of the later bosses made me lower the difficulty though (this was added in the most recent patch) but i played like 90% of the game on the launch difficulty. Now that it's all patched up i actually think it's one of the best MV's around. Easily top 10!

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Top 10 metroidvanias of all time?! Wow, that's awesome! I also really enjoyed the combat, the level design had some creativity here and there, but the combat really was the highlight for me. I'm hesitant to go for short range weapons when there is contact damage, but the dual daggers where really fun indeed, so I understand you would go for them. I sadly can't say I remember a lot of this game's soundtrack, but I'm happy you really liked it and listen to it often. Yeah the convoluted story and how it's presented to you is a bit of a pitty, but thankfully it doesn't really harm the overall experience. I guess that's fair, I think I would give it a solid 8, but it's really nice to hear you like it so much and I appreciate how passionate you are about it! Yeah it's a shame indeed, but believe me, if it wasn't for the patches, it would have ended up almost at the bottom of this list 😅 Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I love it when you are so positive about a game, even if I'm less excited about it. I hope to see many more of these positive comments in 2024! ☺

[@agentsmith5959]

I purchased the map that is huge now I'm enjoying this game

[@GamingwithJoy15]

That's really nice, I'm glad you are enjoying it so much!

[@R3GARnator]

This game seems intriguing, thanks for the good review. I see this as a diamond in the rough and will wishlist it for a discount.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

You're very welcome! I hope you are going to enjoy it when you have the chance to play it!

[@Sandboxcode]

Game looks so pretty I hope the devs can address some of your concerns! Thanks for the review

[@GamingwithJoy15]

That would be really nice, they have patched a few things already, so the developers are doing a great job. You're very welcome!

[@luckbfern]

I’m really happy with this game and your review, positive and negative, feel spot on. Still satisfying, even with its flaws.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

That's really nice to hear, thank you for the compliment!

[@arthurjellybeanmorgan2160]

Hi , I hope you doing well , another compelling and marvelous review ! I was wondering , how do you feel about the apotheon, I really have a hard time to decide whether to buy it or not , can I get some advice from you ? Also your passion on the metroidvania genre is astonishing ! I really enjoy your videos,they’re all hidden gems !

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Hey, I'm a bit sick at the moment, but hopefully I will feel better soon again! How are you doing? Thank you so much, luckily I have played Apotheon in the past and I must say I really enjoyed the visuals and the art style, but the gameplay and the combat was a bit slow and generic. I would recommend to try it out when it's like 50% off, but not at full price sadly. Haha thanks, it's my favourite genre without a doubt, so I'm glad there are still so many upcoming and already released metroidvanias out there waiting for me, I hope I can try them all out eventually! Thanks for your kind words and your support, I really appreciate it!

[@arthurjellybeanmorgan2160]

@@GamingwithJoy15 I’m doing well, thank you ! I also really appreciate this genre,Sotn and blasphemous are my favorite! Thanks for ur suggestions, i will think about it. I really admire your enthusiasm , your works deserve to be applause by everyone who loves metroidvania!

[@trik6727]

I'll probably pass on this for now but in the future i just may give it a try. Great review as usual

[@GamingwithJoy15]

I understand, I really hope you will give it a try when it's fully patched. Thank you so much, trik!

[@ridleyrage5283]

Great review, Joy! I agree with you for the most part, my biggest gripe with this game is unclarity of the mainline objectives and direction, I had to restart the whole game to get a better experience, and feel for it. The first time through, I didnt even know how to equip Afterimage passives. There are a few items you can also get the "unintended way", and its not too linear which is good. This one for me, I can recommend, but with a heads-up, so people know what theyre in for. The fact this game was savagely review bombed upon release was sad and eye opening, and made me aware of the possibility that even Blasphemous 2 upon release, could be scored a 5-6/10 on Steam. I overall feel like this game gets too much flak for what seems like minor nitpicks by comparison. I thought Vernal Edge was an overhyped and terrible game much less a metroidvania, and its sitting at a 9/10. That to me is nonsensical. Its been a weird/rough start to the year for metroidvania titles for sure, too many of them are too devisive. For me, easily one of the best mvs yet and a personal favorite that Ive played through multiple times, Lone Fungus, is sadly a forgotten title that no one seems to talk about - albeit, its flaws, as seemingly minor as they appear in that, made me realize that game, I couldnt possibly recommend to my worse enemy's worse enemy. Those are my opinions on the game and the state of mvs as of now, but really, you said it best

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Exactly, I couldn't have said it better myself! If you are experienced at these kinds of games, then this game definitely will satisfy that metroidvania craving. I really think a patch could make this game great and hopefully it will get better ratings than it gets now. I personally really enjoyed Vernal Edge, but it wasn't perfect either. It also had exploration and fast travel problems, so I would probably rate both these games the same for now, but yeah a 9/10 is a bit too high. Lone Fungus has always been on my radar, but I'm planning on playing it eventually. Thanks for mentioning it! I totally agree with you, the metroidvanias that have come out this year so far all had some flaws here and there, so let's hope atleast one of the upcoming metroidvanias will get overwhelmingly positive reviews from everyone!

[@callmedd3494]

Aeterna Noctis is on sale for the Switch right now. Think I'll pick that up instead and pick this up later.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

That sounds like a great plan! I hope you will enjoy Aeterna Noctis!

[@GabrielPerez-yg9bi]

Always when I finish a game, I came here to see your thoughts on it! 😅 And I agree with almost everything. I think of what you said, I add that I missed some QOL stuff on the menu's. Another thing is that the game has some fun hard platform sections, I wish there are more of them. Btw, I got very impressed that you beat Valo at level 43! 😅😅😅 I saw people in reddit (that ended early on the Valo fight by pogo jump) rage-quit this game because of him. I myself had trouble with him too, but I was aware that I wasn't supposed to be there. What helped my experience with this game was the previous background on Aeterna Noctis, so when in exploration, I used a lot of the "exit to main menu" in order to backtrack. Another thing is that I used the enemy book to check enemies level and avoid section that I wasn't supposed to be. I enjoyed this game, but you're right, is a game that we need to be cautious before recommend for someone.

[@GabrielPerez-yg9bi]

Ah, I didn't see the "carnivorous plant platform" in forest section and the mid-game was blocked for me for a long time because of the wall jump. And besides Valo, the later stuff that I had access by pogo jump wasn't that hard. So I was kind of over prepared for the section that was blocked by the wall jump, the game was kind of boring until the very later sections. =/

[@GamingwithJoy15]

That's awesome, I'm glad you agree with almost everything eventhough this review is a bit outdated! 😅 Haha yeah beating Valo at level 43 was one of my most challenging achievements of last year. I'm really glad you had fun with this game and that your knowledge about Aeterna Noctis helped you with the exploration. That's actually really smart, great advice!

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Oh that's a shame though..

[@d00mnoodle24]

Also will you do a review on the last case of benedict fox metroidvania? It also came out just now (for some reason it's been super busy between vernal edge, 9 years of shadows, afterimage and benedict...) It's also got some poor reviews on steam so i'm worried about all the underwhelming metroidvania's i've been looking forward to

[@GamingwithJoy15]

No, probably not. The demo was so disappointing, I didn't like the controls and the combat at all. I also disliked the boss fight in the demo, it felt really glitchy, random and unresponsive. The only thing I enjoyed or atleast found interesting, was the story. But the gameplay didn't manage to win me over sadly.

[@MasPlayEpic]

I just 100% the game and can say they fixed some of the flaws it had. Enemies now have an icon above them to show if you are too underleveled. Making it easier to know which area u should be in. I overall really enjoyed the game. Still some enemies can whoop ur ass even if ur near their level. Valo was very tough and it took me about 15 tries to beat them.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Yeah this review is a bit outdated, but I'm glad you still enjoyed watching it! That's awesome and congratulations on beating Valo! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I appreciate it!

[@bobicrni1284]

Its an amazing game, perfect imo. Miles better than Aeterna.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

This review is a bit outdated because I made this video when the game just got released. I'm glad you enjoy it so much!

[@saltyzu8412]

Hold your tongue

[@IMRavnos]

2:26 shows me how not perfect it is. Maybe I just enjoy having a clue where to go though so... you know : )

[@bobicrni1284]

Thats only in beginning, later is more fun. Its adventurous to get lost sometimes.@@IMRavnos

[@steamingwillybeaming]

​@@IMRavnosya I could see how it might be too difficult for newb gamers

[@d00mnoodle24]

I listened to this review instead of watching but this worries me. I was RREEAALLLLYYYY looking forward to this one. Hopefully after some patches it will be become a great game. Hopefully it'll have some difficulty options as well because i enjoy a challenge that's fair, like haiku the robot, ori or blasphemous. But overly difficult such as grime isn't fun for me anymore. On that note, how would you compare this games' difficulty to grime, as you have played both?

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Haha fair enough, I did show some footage of late game areas, so I understand! Grime is much harder than this game, if you are able to stay on track the whole way through and don't skip to many enemies, then I'm pretty sure it has a fair difficulty curve. The lack of direction was for me the only reason why I had trouble in this game, I mean I defeated a boss in a level 60 area while I was level 43 haha 😅

[@d00mnoodle24]

@@GamingwithJoy15 fair enough thanks for clarifying

[@James-os9ku]

Good review ; you've confirmed my suspicions on this game , unfortunately . Visually stunning but let down in other departments. Think I'll wait until a price drop until purchasing.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Thanks! That's sounds like a great idea, I think a patch could solve some issues and make it a more enjoyable experience!

[@TimoNaaro]

First of all. Cant you take skill points in any order in this game? Also do you really feel no achiement in games withouth steam achievements.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

You can in the beginning, but eventually you need to be a certain level to be able to unlock more skills, so often I had many talent points to spend, but I couldn't because I wasn't high level enough. I've heard the talent tree got an upgrade in the first patch, so now you will always be able to spend your talent points if you want to upgrade your character. For a game this size and for a game that has sometimes pretty brutal boss fights, I would indeed appreciate some Steam achievements, it also helps with keeping track of everything you have done already. It's just a minor issue, so that's why I only mentioned it quickly in this review.

[@alangardiner6924]

Sounds like a shit show with the aimless wandering around. Aeterna was kind of like that too though and it's my favourite game of last year. I'm from a generation that had brutally difficulty games but I'd say I put 70hrs+ into Aeterna and was really sad when it was over 😂I'm really undecided on this one. I feel I should wait another while.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

If you loved Aeterna Noctis, then I'm pretty sure you will also like this game. Aeterna Noctis' level design was more ambitious and keeping track of everything was a lot easier, but the scope of the map is pretty much the same in both games. The difficulty is also similar, the only thing Afterimage needs, is a waypoint and more map icons. The last patch has fixed a lot of issues I had with this game already, so waiting for a few more patches to come out, isn't a bad idea. I really hope you are going to give it a try eventually!😁

[@alangardiner6924]

@@GamingwithJoy15 I actually bought it for Switch and I'm loving it 😂 it's very good so far and you said it got better towards mid to the end so I should be even happier the farther I go. A lot of the problems you said are fixed alright. I'm just finished with what I can get done in Field of Geo now, I do feel like I should have more abilities by now which will surely give me fast travel. Beautiful looking game though, the music is very similar to Ori I feel.

[@letsgogamerr]

Esse jogo ta lindo demais

[@neerkum5428]

There needs to be a more casual friendly check point system for this massive game

[@JohnSmith-nj4zq]

This game is nothing like Aeterna Noctis. I don't know why you keep comparing them two. This one is closer to SOTN. Aeterna Noctis was more like a Ninja Gaidan game.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

The scope of the map and the overall feel of this game give me Aeterna Noctis vibes, but I also agree SOTN has similar elements. A lot of metroidvania games are inspired by SOTN, so it's no surprise this game is as well.

[@jackfavvv0280]

I like this game for the reasons you didn't. This games doesn't hold your hand. You can got literally anywhere you want. If the enemies are too strong, then that's your cue to turn back and explore another area. I much prefer metroidvania games when it heavily focuses on exploration over platforming. I'm playing it when only the area's name was mentioned and didn't really like how they patch in the level recommendation. My only complaint is the story, it feels like you have zero context to understand anything. And when they try to explain it, you don't have enough info to understand the explanation either.

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Oh that's totally fine, I personally just like a bit of hand-holding, but to each their own. Thanks for sharing your opinion and I'm glad we atleast have the same opinion about how the story is presented to you in this game. 😅