A Stylish Throwback with Friction
Shadow of the Orient is a game that absolutely nails the old school feeling it is trying to invoke, for better and worse.
The opening sequence sets up the cast for the game, with an evil army capturing children and the hero, Xiaolang, our protagonist, setting out to fight them.
The pixel graphics are well crafted and create a beautiful world, animations are fluid, and the controls are nice and tight. These are all big positives for the game and made me optimistic when I first booted up Shadow of the Orient. However, there were some cracks in the formula, and they appear fairly quickly into the game.
Challenging Combat and Tedious Loot
Self-described as a game with challenging yet rewarding combat, Shadow of the Orient leans more towards the former than the latter. Most enemies dash towards you when they attack, and there is no block or dodge mechanic readily available to you at the start of the game.
This resulted in many of my first enemy encounters being trial and error. Facing an enemy head on usually results in at least one hit of damage. Enemies do patrol areas, so waiting for them to turn around does allow for a sneak attack where they can be hit a few times without taking any damage. This works, but does slow the gameplay down quite a bit, and in many cases it’s easier just to avoid enemies.
Combat encounters can be made easier by backing out to the main menu and buying weapons or abilities with the gems that are scattered around each level. There are several types, and certain items and abilities can only be bought with specific gems. This feels needlessly complicated, as it makes looting feel more tedious than rewarding. In the end, it’s hard to engage with the shop and as a result, buying upgrades isn’t something I focused on during my playthrough.
Secrets and Checkpoints
For players more inclined to engage with the shop, there are “secrets” hidden throughout the game; false walls, chests, and the kidnapped children are scattered throughout each level. Reaching a child or finding a chest’s key and unlocking it are the fastest ways to gain gems for unlockables. Both the children and the chests serve as platforming and combat challenges, that can easily be ignored. In fact, the best way to determine the fastest course through a level is to ignore the path with a chest or child on it. Avoiding them would often lead to the next checkpoint.
Speaking of, Shadow of the Orient is generous with its checkpoint system. Throughout each level are banners that serve as your checkpoints. You’ll need them too, as every attack or trap will do one point of damage, and Xiaolang starts with five hit points. There also is no life limit, which means as long as a checkpoint is reached then no level progress is lost.
Awkward Acrobatics: Jumping and Climbing Quirks
Which is great because some of the gameplay and combat mechanics are frustrating to say the least. As already mentioned, most combat encounters, especially at the start, will result in at least one point of damage. Platforming also has some quirks though. While the controls are tight, there are some oddities with how jumping works. Xiaolang does have a double jump ability, which is great for navigating. However, falling off an edge without jumping will prevent any jumping at all.
Another oddity is that when climbing on walls, jumping does not work unless completely still. This is frustrating because it feels like jumping inputs are inconsistent when climbing walls. The frustration is compounded when enemies or environmental hazards are present, because there is also no aerial recovery. Getting hit means falling down to the ground.
Old-School Friction: Intended Hardship or Design Flaw?
Once I figured out why my jumps weren’t responding the way I expected them to, I was able to adjust and Shadow of the Orient started to make a lot more sense. However, it was still a bit more awkward than I would’ve preferred.
That being said, this is very much an old school platformer. Many older games often had mechanics that caused some friction and I definitely got a similar feeling from Shadow of the Orient. This may be a bit generous, but it feels like some level of friction is intended by the developers, and while the gameplay is challenging it doesn’t ever feel outright unfair. It is tough, bordering on frustrating at times, but the generous checkpoint system kept me from ever wanting to pull my hair out.
One design choice that I am a huge fan of is in the mixed up level sequence. The game consists of three main areas, each with five levels, individually themed with their own art style and music. One level might be in the forest and the next in a cave. I really appreciated that these levels were intermingled in each area, instead of one area being the forest section and one area being a cave section, and so on. It keeps the game from feeling overly repetitive.
Straightforward Showdowns: Boss Battles and Endgame
At the end of each stage is a boss fight. Fairly straightforward, each one comes with a few attacks to dodge, and a large life bar at the top of the screen. Their health is based on segments, so a hit will always do a set amount of damage. This means you don’t need to grind for weapons in the shop, which keeps them from feeling frustrating. They are, however, relatively forgettable encounters, but the final fight did take me a few tries to get through. Again, the checkpointing is very generous, so losing against a boss simply means restarting from the beginning of the fight.
A Challenging but Divisive Retro Platformer
If choosing to focus on just completing the game, Shadow of the Orient has about a two hour run time. Choosing to explore and rescue the children throughout can increase that playtime by another hour or two. It’s a decent length, especially for the price point, but the style of gameplay is only going to appeal to certain gamers.
If you are a fan of really fluid movement and combat in your platformers, then it’s going to straddle the line, frustrating more than fun. But on the flip, should you be after an old school platformer, one that has some friction in its gameplay mechanics, then Shadow of the Orient is a steal.
Links
Kick! Punch! Dash! Shadow of the Orient Arrives on Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch – https://www.thexboxhub.com/kick-punch-dash-shadow-of-the-orient-arrives-on-xbox-playstation-and-nintendo-switch/
Buy Shadow of the Orient on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/shadow-of-the-orient/9nvzt2mp05p0
