Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus Metroidvania Review - Soulsborne Seeker

[@soulsborneseeker]

Are you planning on playing Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus?

[@Eternal_Reckoning]

It's going on the wishlist to possibly get at a later date! Great video, as usual.

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@Eternal_Reckoning Sounds like a plan! Thank you for the kind words!

[@BreezyBanter]

I bought this a few days ago and can't wait to play it! I think the art style is just absolutely incredible. Thanks for the review!

[@soulsborneseeker]

You're very welcome! I hope you'll enjoy it, I had a blast with it!

[@Cannotbetamed1]

A platforming focused metroidvania sounds amazing. I will be picking this up soon.

[@soulsborneseeker]

If you enjoy challenging platforming, you'll probably like this one!

[@bensteinhauser784]

Will definitely give this a try once I'm done with Nine Sols.

[@soulsborneseeker]

Hope you have fun with it! I would wish you the same for Nine Sols, but you're probably already having fun with that one :D

[@2dosgames]

Bo's on my backlog. Thanks for the review Soulsborne!

[@soulsborneseeker]

Thanks for watching! Bo is definitely worth your time!

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Great and very detailed review as always! Glad you loved it as well!

[@soulsborneseeker]

Definitely a highlight of the year in the genre for me!

[@salaheddineboukhoulda9348]

currently playing the game, enjoying the experience so far

[@soulsborneseeker]

Glad you're having fun with it!

[@TaschNZ]

Awesome review with all the information I was hoping for. I was so much looking forward to Bo after playing the demo and keeping my fingers crossed for difficulty/accessibility options as my skill level is not good enough at the level it is presented. The game has everything I am looking for in a good MV but for me it will be to hard. Pleased to know so many are enjoying it and you back an 8.5 rating.

[@soulsborneseeker]

Glad you enjoyed the review! Unfortunately there were no accessibility options as of the time of my review. Not sure if they intend to add anything in the future. That being said, I heard there's a thing where, if you die 20 times, you have the option to turn on invincibility mode so that you don't die from damage, though I never saw it and, as far as the person that mentioned it to me, he said you still need to "suffer" the challenging platforming!

[@TaschNZ]

@@soulsborneseeker thank you, I heard that as well but complete invincibility is not what I am looking for. Just wish that added some middle ground. However, so many are enjoying the game there is not really a need to. They can’t please them all

[@d00mnoodle24]

Platformer heavy metroidvania is literally all i need. Ori is my all time favorite game for a reason! I simply cannot wait to play this!

[@soulsborneseeker]

I also love challenging platforming! I think this game will be right up your alley!

[@mondocool9707]

i didn't think about it. i just subscribed 👆🏾

[@soulsborneseeker]

Thank you, much appreciated!

[@zenniste]

I liked it (still haven't finished it because of that giant boss in town), but after playing Prince of Persia the Lost Crown, I feel that the latter is clearly much more creative and polished

[@soulsborneseeker]

Oh, indeed, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is top tier and a clear frontrunner for GOTY 2024 in the genre!

[@cheap8507]

Loving this game! Yes it has familiar elements to ori and HK but to me that's a great thing!

[@soulsborneseeker]

Yup, it draws inspiration from those games but also does its own thing!

[@mrgriboman371]

Platforming is the best part of the game, didn't have such a good challenge in a while. Bosses on the other hand... I hated every single one of them, except for maybe Asahi (who's basically a platforming segment). And Tengu, cause it was actually good. Jumping around a boss, trying to stay in the air, which is the only way to deal with them without wasting 3 hours, is sometimes really frustrating, since all bosses have some kind of attack that's impossible to react to, you just have to remember they're gonna do it. Also I'd want to point out some other cons: Everytime you buy something at shops, you automatically exit the shop, so you have to enter again if you want to buy something else. Really poor metroidvania element. I feel like this game would've only gained from removing the "open" map, which is in fact very linear in progression, due to the skills you have to acquire. At one point in the game, if you decide to go to one location first, then after some time there will appear a character who just openly tells you something like: "you should go the other way first" The video's author pointed out some hidden save points. I double that, and add that at least one of them was hidden behind an additional platforming challenge (somewhere in the ice caverns). That's a terrible game design decision, because you just rob those, who are not willing to take the risk, of an additional save point, while they're the ones who actually need it the most. Excessive amounts of borrowings from other games. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently bad with taking a cool mechanic from a cool game and adding it to your own game. But you must understand why it's cool in the first place. Recharging your jump after hitting something, like in the messenger? Yes, that's great and fits Bō. Adding blocks that go in the direction you hit them from, like in Celeste? Absolute garbage, it doesn't fit the flow of the game and how the character is controlled. Often you will find yourself trying to jump off of those blocks, land a hit and dash back to them, just to fall into the pit (which, by the way, sends you to the beginning of a room, and not on the latest safe place. Though sometimes it does... IDK how it works, but it works badly). In short: it's just frustrating and not fun in the slightest, unlike the blocks from Celeste where dash = hit. Omamori (aka HK amulets) are mostly useless. Actually the same thing applies here. Many of them are direct copies of HK amulets, but either don't make much difference (like a longer attack range) or just bad design (like attracting currency, why not make it the default behavior?) or completely useless (like increasing your damage at 1 HP. It's useless cause: first: you're practically dead, as it's really easy to get hit, second: melee attack is not your main source of damage anyway, it's the spells. Though I'm not sure if it increases your spell damage, as far as I remember - it doesn't. If it does then it's slightly better). Many of the omamori I have never even worn, exactly because they are useless. Increasing your HP by one? Slightly increasing the amount of tea (heal resource, like HK soul) you can carry? While no enemy will let you make more than one sip, and you get +1 to tea for every hit anyway? Are you kidding me? And if I started talking a bit about spells... Have you watched someone playing this game? Especially doing boss rushes? There's one interesting thing about it, they all use the fire spell. Because it's basically the most useful one, as it apparently deals the most damage. And nothing but the amount of damage really matters with the spells, so it makes every other spell in the game useless garbage. They're not used as a part of metroidvania exploration, nor do they have interesting effects, they just... Hit Currency is also a bit broken. At the end of the game you WON'T have enough to buy everything, so you basically have to farm, if you want to get 100%. It was the first time since 2008 prince of Persia, when I felt like I want to just cheat the money, which is a really bad sign. And let's talk a bit about the camera. How can you possibly mess up a camera in a 2D platformer? Well... Turns out you can. Sometimes the camera gets locked in a certain position, with your character standing, for example, at the rightmost part of the screen. And you don't see what's to the right! An enemy? A pit? Who knows. Even worse when such lock happens to the downside direction. You basically jump into an abyss of unknown, and hope that you will be able to react to whatever is waiting for you there. A bit unrelated to the game design, but I just can't not to mention it. The writing. It, if I'm being concise, just sucks. It feels like every character we're talking to is plaing a role in a theatre performance. Which is not bad on its own, but the game isn't sure what it wants to be. A hyperbolized funny performance or a serious drama with moral conflicts and complex characters. And it ends up being neither. And of course, a character you knew for barely half an hour, starts a tragic, poetic monologue, before dying in the most stupid way possible. Ok, what the writer expects me to feel at this moment? It also doesn't help, that story-wise the game is basically a little tale that could fit in 2 pages at most, but acts like it's a whole novel, Asahi being a peak of this. When you make an "unexpected" twist after a couple of hours (story-wise it's just 3-4 dialogues) it just doesn't work. And the last two things, that are just so bad, that no amount of adjustment can potentially fix them, and to be honest, they should've been just scrapped during playtests. It's Gashadokuro (the big skeleton boss) and THE BAT. While Gashadokuro is collectively considered the worst boss by anyone who played the game, the bat isn't getting the hatred it deserves, for some reason. It breaks the flow with stopping the time, it's not fun to use, it's hard to use, especially on a gamepad, it doesn't fit the platforming for the same time-stopping reason, it doesn't fit the combat cause just hitting the enemy to charge your spell is much more preferable, it should have been just deleted from the game altogether. The only good thing about the bat is that its use gets pretty rare after the first two locations (apparently the developers themselves understand that it sucks) Overall I think this game needed more playtests and polishing. If it wasn't for genuinely creative and fairly challenging platforming sections, I wouldn't have played it till the end probably

[@soulsborneseeker]

That's a very detailed review! I agree that platforming is, without a doubt, the game's main draw! I actually enjoyed the bosses, though I will admit that the skeleton was, without a doubt, the most frustrating one. That being said, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment once I understood how to beat him, though he remained my sourest note of the game. In relation to the Omamoris, I only felt the need to use two of them, one being the basic one you get at the start, which I kept because I got used to it, and then the fire one when I got in trouble with the last boss! As for the bat mechanic, I can't say it ever bothered me, aside from that one campfire side-quest which felt a bit frustrating at times, though I eventually completed it on my eighth or ninth attempt.

[@dpokan]

Thanks for the review. I am still kind of on the fence on whether to buy this game. Have you played Nine Sols? The review of Bo reminded me of that game because it's the complete opposite of Nine Sols. IE, Bo is heavy on platforming and light on battle mechanics, while Nine Sols is heavy on battle mechanics and light on platforming.

[@soulsborneseeker]

Haven't played Nine Sols yet but, as you mentioned, they're opposites in terms of gameplay approach! If you enjoy difficult platforming, you'll probably like this game, though!

[@BillyQuintaine]

This game is really amazing !! GOTY 2024 for now.

[@soulsborneseeker]

I loved it!

[@thatonebanan4]

Recently I played nine sols because I'm in the mood for some metroidvania and it was so good I want more, so here I am. Usually my criteria for a good game is its story and lore (but mainly story) and this is why I put games like hollow knight and undertale up there. I'm considering Bo but am still not sure yet, how would you compare Bo's story to hollow knight just for reference? If you haven't played HK yet, then just give me your opinion on how much punch the story gives! P.S. you should review nine sols too, HK's story doesn't even compare to nine sols' in my opinion

[@soulsborneseeker]

I'd say Bo is much lighter on story and lore than Hollow Knight, at least in terms of what it presents to you, though what's there is quite interesting since it draws inspiration from Japanese myths and legends. I hold Hollow Knight's lore in quite high regard, and it goes much deeper than what Bo features. If you want a more story and lore-oriented MV, Gestalt: Steam & Cinder may fit those criteria, though keep in mind it is quite dialogue heavy and, also, quite easy. As for Nine Sols, a review will definitely be coming within the next couple of months, as well as for Animal Well! I can't wait to play both of them!

[@thatonebanan4]

@@soulsborneseeker alright I'll keep it in mind, thank you for the reply and keep making banger reviews :)

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@thatonebanan4 I'll do my best!

[@E.K.L_yoyan]

Great game! But I still freaking hate the metroidvania stupidly slow unnecessary dramatic healing gimmick puts you into trouble instead of healing you and bo got this shit

[@soulsborneseeker]

I think it's just part of its strategic approach to positioning and timing yourself to not get hit. I didn't mind it, but I can see how it can become frustrating at times!

[@E.K.L_yoyan]

@soulsborneseeker not finish the game yet but me everytime: c'mon bo just sip the freaking tea 😅😅😅

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@E.K.L_yoyan Ahahahaha, it's all about the Zen in times of chaos!

[@slaingirlfound]

Such a good game. First game in a long time where the bosses don’t frustrate me they make me get better at each attempt.

[@soulsborneseeker]

Oh, I had a lot of fun with the bosses as well!