Marko: Beyond Brave Metroidvania Review - Soulsborne Seeker

[@soulsborneseeker]

Will you be giving the game a shot? EDIT 2: So, following Marko: Beyond Brave's rough start, the developer pretty much worked himself to the bone to release several patches to address issues raised by me and the community. Today I decided to do a speed-run of the game and reach the point I had reached before I got hard-locked, and checked specifically to see if the technical issues and bugs I had reported had been, indeed, resolved. Well, I am happy to say that they were. Just to clarify, this refers to the last section of cons I mention in the review, which focuses on bugs and technical issues. I'm also happy to say that I didn't deal with any new bugs, though I still haven't finished the game so I don't know if anything will come up later. The developer is now actively working to fix the map (fog of war and ability to zoom in, I believe) as well as optimize the hitboxes (which remain suspect) and update some animations (I think he will add an animation so that you know whether you're healing or not, but don't quote me on that, I could be misremembering what he said). My gripes with the teleport ability remain (still feels very inconsistent to me, and also the jump still feels hit or miss), as do my issues with the high pricing of items (compared to how quickly you earn coins) and the lack of invincibility frames aside from the ones offered by the dash. I'm also still not a huge fan of all the bosses I have faced, though I enjoyed a couple of them. In general, the things I didn't enjoy gameplay-wise before remained unlikeable to me, but to each their own in that regard. Just wanted to give this update in case anyone feels like giving Marko: Beyond Brave a shot. EDIT: The developer has mentioned that an update has been deployed to fix the majority of the issues I mention in the video, though do keep in mind that I haven't played this updated version yet so I can't verify that said issues have been fixed.

[@samthefireball]

That’s absolutely insane. I read your review; and this video review only scratched the surface of the issues you mentioned in the written one. The dev claiming to have fixed everything in the matter of a few hours is ridiculous. They were also extremely dismissive of another critical review, seemingly burying their heads in the sand after releasing a dumpster fire game

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@samthefireball The video review is a video rendition of the written one :P As for the dev thing, I'll be diving back into the game again to see if the issues have been addressed as they said, though I still see complaints popping up in the Steam discussion forums :(

[@d00mnoodle24]

​@@soulsborneseeker would appreciate a heads up in game lenght if you finish this 😊

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@d00mnoodle24 I'll definitely dive into it within the next couple of months, but from what I've seen, people have mentioned 7-hour playthroughs though the developer said the game has multiple endings and you need more playtime to get them!

[@markobeyondbrave]

Hello everyone! Thank you for the fair review and as always - for playing our game! This is my debut title and in retrospect we see a couple of major mistakes I could have avoided right ouf to the box. I think my biggest failiure was not involving the community with the playtesting more. Its mostly due to anxiety and impostor syndrome on my part. We will know better next time! I have worked super hard and have released about 5-6 patches in the last 24 hours since release. The last being a couple of hours ago. Here is the things have fixed and improved: Bug fixes and changes -Removed wall friction entirely - this makes jumping so much easier -Added jump assist, helping you jump on top of things easier -Rearranged some of the harder platforming in the tutorial section for easier platforming difficulty at the beginning. Some players have struggled unnecessarily there. -Fixed a bug where the Shatter Strike ability would sometimes be disabled when Fast Traveling -Removed the Quit to Menu button on the death screen -Added Zone names in the World Map -Fixed a bug where some boss music would not loop properly -Fixed a bug where one of the Battle Brothers would not attack you in the final phase of the fight -Fixed a bug where Koz’el could be killed without triggering the fight by standing in a specific spot. -Fixed a bug where sometimes you could fall through the world caused by a syntax error causing the game to load to the incorrect location of one of the doors -Increases in size and visual indicators of the stalactites and other debris falling from the top. -Fixed a bug where the buckbean item which is for the health upgrade had a syntax error when you have a certain amount of the herb and it would lower your max health, without updating the HUD. This appeared to make enemies one-shotting you when in fact, the total health was not displayed correctly -The bats now have a smaller, more accurate explosion radius - Fixed the city outskirts bug where you could get hardlocked out of the game Falsely regarded as bugs or missing features: -Map markers are part of the world - they are an in-game item/s -The blacksmith not upgrading your weapon - he asking you to find his wife first 😀 ( Mankrik's wife anyone? ) -Unlimited FPS option - people assumed this would give a better experience on high end machines, when it fact it was aimed for low-end machines that cannot run the game properly at 30fps. Because the hand-drawn animations of characters and Marko himself are with a locked frame rate this would make some things, like the hitstop duration ((when you hit things or when you are being hit) ) visibly longer due to this fact, falsely appearing as lag, when it fact, it isn't. The game animations of the characters are with a set frame rate and the best experienced is at 60fps. Things to address in the patch later today: -Adding additional save slots -Fog of War and Zoom for the quick map -Reworking the hitboxes in a way to make them more accurate and tracing them along the actual animation sprites in order to make them as pixel perfect as possible. -Turning on the Steam achievements - They are retroactive so whatever you already have in the save file will be taken into account the text time you load the game. -We finally have quality translations for the rest of the languages available and will be adding them to the game as well -Improved visuals for the healing mechanics - a visual indication that you are holding the courage button before the healing effect occurs -Adding more indications to the menus - the top tab and the options menu -Removing the unlimited FPS option for now for the time being. -Bats can now cause damage to each other when exploding, triggering a chain reaction. In the longer term: Free DLCs focusing on 3 additional zones Consoles ports in early 2025 Thank you for your patience and support! I am sad for letting everyone down, but I hope we can amend it and I am dedicated to make this the best game it can be! Stay brave!

[@soulsborneseeker]

I'm confident Marko: Beyond Brave will end up being a great turnaround story :D

[@jurtheorc8117]

@markobeyondbrave from a stranger on the internet: Wish you and the other devs a lot of good luck and fun going forward, not just in making this game better as it stands, but to do even better on future projects and enterprises. And furthermore, i wish you all wisdom, strength and skill on managing the things that happen inside and outside one's mind.

[@bravoalley228]

I wish you all the best. I had supported this game via Kickstarter. I had tried the demo and I was not optimistic. It is disappointing for further confirmation. BUT still I wish you all the better and I hope you can learn from it: I can try to sympathise with having imposter syndrome and anxiety.

[@bravoalley228]

Again, I don't really care to comment on your review videos but I am liking your reviews.. I had supported this game via its Kickstarter project. I had tried the demo and I was not optimistic. It is appreciated with your review and the flaws the game has.

[@soulsborneseeker]

It did have a bad start, but the dev patched a lot of the issues, to his credit! I'll dive back into the game at some point, to see how much it has improved.

[@ridleyrage5283]

Hail to you, Soulsbourne seeker! Fantastic, honest review. I was hoping this game would wash out the arcid taste that garbage Slavania game left. This wasnt it. When I first saw the art for this game I was like "oh no...:, it was the first red flag; its got that look that goes between good looking, and cheap. The second, was the jumping. For some reason, jumps for me only got maximum height when you're close to the edge of the platform, if I was in the middle, or closer to a wall, I couldnt clear it. Then there's the issue of hit detection. Ground enemies were fine for the most part, but some flying foes, I swear the hit shouldve connected, and it did not. And THEN, there's the huge, HUGE issue of Marko not having any I-frames, which led me to getting just obliterated when surrounded by foes - something that should be UNacceptable in mvs! That early boss that for you, showed as being 3 ladies dancing while lightning strikes...only the middle lady showed for me. And lastly, after that fight, the ability you get, for me, was bugged. It didnt work at all, and I could keep attempting to pick it up, while it said "ability already obtained. That for me, was the final straw. I'll give the devs some time to fix these bugs and glitches, but this is embarrassing, to release an mv, much less a game, in this condition! Marko: Beyond Broken, is a prime example of how not to rush to release games

[@soulsborneseeker]

I agree, the release was really bad. That being said, the developer has released several patches to fix things. Have a look at my pinned comment.

[@markobeyondbrave]

Hey there! The Samodivas are actually 3 different fights, the one in the video is with all 3 of them. You fought only the first one.The ability you picked up requires courage to perform for both throwing and teleporting. :) We are adding a skill page so you can check how to perform the abilities after you pick them up too. Hope you give it another shot;)

[@DaCaptainDerpy]

I actually helped provide voice effects for Urgl! While I see the games is buggy, I thank you still for checking it out. Hopefully Bobby and the others can fix this game

[@soulsborneseeker]

There's an awesome experience hiding under all those issues, so I'm truly looking forward to playing the solid game I know Marko: Beyond Brave to actually be!

[@DaCaptainDerpy]

@@soulsborneseeker Yeah I do hope they fix it by 2025 since they plan on putting it on consoles as well

[@samthefireball]

@@DaCaptainDerpy please ask them to bare minimum fix the map, that seems to be the worst implemented map imaginable. That alone would make it at least playable for me

[@DaCaptainDerpy]

@@samthefireball They have a discord, X, and official KZbin Channe!

[@4asovoi]

I've played for like 3 hours, I've really enjoyed it, and I've encountered zero of the problems you listed. The platforming is annoying here and there but it's not that bad. I haven't got that far in the story though so I'm very optimistic that the devs will fix issues and that would be a great game to play overall. The art style and the music are freaking great :)

[@soulsborneseeker]

That would be because the developer has been releasing patches to fix the issues, which I'm glad have made the game better! I'll be revisiting it soon, since I do want to play it as it is meant to be played.

[@rezos666]

Hi! How did you manage to open the Door that's missing doorknobs in the castle? I thought the hint was "thirteen" so I only lightened 13 chandeliers xD But before going mad... will it be another bug maybe... The previous boss that teletransport did some sort of casting but no animation came as an attack so I just simply hit him... The version I played is somewhat updated (without the "Enhanced" FPS option and just 30 and 60)

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@rezos666 Unfortunately I haven't revisited the game yet after my first revisit, so I haven't gotten to that part yet!

[@4asovoi]

@@rezos666I haven't gotten to that part yet. It may be after the vampire boss which I still haven't beaten because I'm not used to Souls-like games and it takes so much time :D

[@GamingwithJoy15]

Wow, I really dodged a bullet there. I also got the opportunity to get a free key for this game through a website, but I was too late with my response. 😅 I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, but I appreciate your honesty and that you actually took the time to show footage of all these bugs and glitches. Hopefully the next game you are going to review will live up to your expectations again! Great review!

[@soulsborneseeker]

Ahahahahaha, hey, you know what they say, some games will be good, others not so much! It comes with the game reviewer territory, as you know too well by now :D That being said, this was really unfortunate since I can see that there is a good game somewhere in there :( I just hope the developers bring it to light somehow!

[@DoubleJumpGR]

Great review as always mate! The game's art and folklore seemed really intriguing to me, so I gave its demo a chance, but ended up disappointed. Lack of sound effects during movement and combat, floaty character and questionable hitboxes were apparent from the start, but I wanted to finish the demo before I came into a verdict. Shortly after the first boss though, I walked through a wall and accidentally fell out of bounds, and then got trapped into oblivion, exactly the same way it happened to you in the video. That's when I said enough and never finished the demo.. All those things are fixable though, I hope the dev gets them done right, because, with those problems and bugs fixed, it could become a decent game..

[@soulsborneseeker]

Yes, that's what I'm hoping for as well, this can turn into a solid experience with proper fixes!

[@markobeyondbrave]

Hey hey. The demo we had up was from gamescom last year. The game is pretty different and with all the patches and improvmenets in the last coulple of days too

[@DoubleJumpGR]

@@markobeyondbrave Ah ok, didn't know that, that's why I only spoke about the demo and not the final game itself. Congrats for the game and for the new patches and updates as well, I will surely give the game a shot in the near future because, even from its demo, I acknowledge its potential and love its art style and lore!

[@wahidovich2021]

don't people test their own game before publishing? anyway, thanks for sharing your review, need more like this.

[@soulsborneseeker]

Yeah, this needed more quality testing prior to release :(

[@HighFiveGhost50]

I just don’t understand why devs continue to release broken down games. It doesn’t matter if you eventually get things ironed out, the damage done can’t be fixed. All that work to release it too early and ruin a potentially good thing. It is mind boggling to continue to see this process over and over.

[@soulsborneseeker]

Yes, it is always best to delay a bit until you release a solid product, since doing otherwise can result in buyers losing trust. Also, developers need to always make sure their game is playtested extensively!

[@DISCO-munication]

Good review. I haven't played it myself yet - saw the reviews and decided to wait for some time, for the bugs to be ironed out. Not to slander a game from my own country but judging by the screenshots and the trailer, it looks rather cheapish to me, like a janky flash game from the early 2000's... 😥😥 Backgrounds look like speedpaint, player character's animation is choppy and missing a lot of in-between frames, I like the music though. I'll try it out at some point, just not feeling super hyped about it especially with my ever-growing MV backlog... ://

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@DISCO-munication Yes, bugs aside, the overall gameplay didn't manage to win me over, unfortunately 😕 I'll still go back and finish it in a few weeks, once more patches have come out, just to have the full picture.

[@colin._..]

3:56 the fast travelling seems completely ripped out of hollow knight’s stag stations, so it‘s not original at all

[@markobeyondbrave]

The dev here. The fast travel is right out of the most popular bulgarian fairy tale called "The three brothers and the Golden Apple" where the hero rides a Ram / Goat between the different worlds. So its ripped out of that.

[@soulsborneseeker]

The originality I mention came from the fitting theme based on the game's folklore aspect!

[@rezos666]

Metroidvanias...the MECA of originality... jajajaj dude common! it's not here where you should lash out that type of complaints

[@DavidLink05]

looks like the spongy bosses in the demo still follow up in full game to bad am going to pass better play castlevania

[@soulsborneseeker]

Yes, I very much didn't enjoy the bosses, aside from two of them.

[@jaysonabayan8705]

i played this game for fcking 2 hours and i fcking hated it. i was stuck in the monster that throws bat for 15 minutes fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@jaysonabayan8705 yeah, that one's a bit tricky, I took it down with the lance but you need to get the timing right so that the bats don't block your throw!

[@markobeyondbrave]

That bat now dies in 1 hit with the lance because people kept complaining about him. Why did no one think about his bat family?:(

[@megaaan523]

Wow, really, they are creating a game set in Slavic mythology, so the price in some Slavic countries such as Poland is 10/15% higher than in the USA or EU, this is already a higher level of greed

[@soulsborneseeker]

I'm not very familiar with Steam's regional pricing thing, I'm afraid, but I do know said system has made many games quite expensive in certain countries :(

[@megaaan523]

@@soulsborneseeker True, Poland often suffers in this way, but when it happens, responsible companies usually react, e.g. The price of Hades II was overpriced at the premiere and its creators quickly lowered it

[@HighFiveGhost50]

@@megaaan523is 10 to 15% on a $20 game a big enough deal to complain about? It’s extra work the devs have to do, only to have them lose a few bucks. It isn’t their fault.

[@megaaan523]

@@HighFiveGhost50 Of course it is XD paying 15% more for anything, without ANY reason, no matter if it is bread, game or a car is bad

[@samthefireball]

Wow the red flags never stopped :/

[@soulsborneseeker]

It looks like certain issues that had been raised in the discussion forums of Steam weren't properly addressed, and then I came across new ones as well. Let's see if they end up fixing things.

[@DaCaptainDerpy]

@@soulsborneseeker Can you share a link to the Steam forums? I never actually saw those myself and want to see them

[@soulsborneseeker]

@@DaCaptainDerpy sure thing, here you go: steamcommunity.com/app/1186470/discussions/

[@DaCaptainDerpy]

@@soulsborneseeker Thanks. Also, weird request but is there a way to see the credits or only after you beat the game? I kinda want to make sure I'm credited properly

[@soulsborneseeker]

​@@DaCaptainDerpy I can't see a "Credits" option in the main menu or the "Options" menu, I'm afraid!