Afterimage
Afterimage is a hand-drawn 2D action adventure that emphasizes fast-paced combat with diversified character builds, non-linear levels, and a gripping story set in the ruins of a fantasy world.
Afterimage is a metroidvania, side scroller and 2d platformer game
developed by Aurogon Shanghai
and published by Maximum Entertainment.
Released on April 24th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 11 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 7,381 reviews of which 5,742 were positive and 1,639 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.6 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 9.99€ on Steam and has a 60% discount.
The Steam community has classified Afterimage into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
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Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7 (64bit)
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 | AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630
- DirectX: Version 11
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Not on the level of Hollow Knight, but still a good game. The map is large, locations are not too difficult, there are all sorts of secrets, everything is as it should be. I personally did not have enough strong bosses in this game. 🐨9/10🐨
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A very pretty metroidvania 34 hours for all achievements, but that ignored the Trial of Souls Boss fighting content. The good: Artwork Combat Music The neutral: Story The bad: Pacing Artwork I don't need to say much here. This game is really pretty. Convince yourself by looking at the trailer, it looks beautiful the entire way through. Combat Combat works like most 2d metroidvania's. You have weapons, explicitely melee of course, and you hit stuff before they kill you. You have two weapon slots and there are 8 weapon types, each with a unique moveset. Movesets consist of a normal combo and a number of special attacks. Your two equipped weapons can be switched at will and used interchangably to pull off all sorts of shenanigans. Special attacks are slightly fancier, and were my general go-to over normal attacks. On keyboard at least, some of the controls for special attacks did feel awkward to use. You have a subweapon, using it costs mana, it does magic, and I have no clue where to find an explanation of what some spells do. I used some of them that were self-explanatory on use, but they felt a bit underpowered (especially towards the end, where one of my weapons was draining mana in exchange for more power too). Other equipment does exist too, it does equipment stuff and the effects are interesting enough. Furthermore, you can equip up to x afterimages, which are even more interchangable buffs. Music The music is fitting, definitely one of the better soundtracks out there. Full game voice acting is also good. Story Nothing too special, and quite confusing around the middle. Things become mostly clear in the end though, and it doesn't distract from the gameplay. Pacing Not just the story is a bit weirdly paced, abilities are too. Most of the game, it is unclear where the next item of progression is, and due to enemies having (invisible) levels, areas are obviously meant to be done in a particular order. Most of the time, it is fairly obvious where you can't go and where you can, and if you scout out areas in full you generally find what you need. This does make it feel like stumbling upon a useful thing by accident, which is nice, but can be really frustrating if you think you explored everything. Conclusion Despite the pacing issues, the game is absolutely great. The combat is enjoyable, and there is a lot of it. Experimenting with weapons is fun, and stumbling upon random stuff is really fun too. The developers did a great job.
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I think the game is alright but there are few things you would want to consider. Combat is a bit unusual. Dashing in this game has no invincible frame (not until very very late into the game, like half way through the second last zone) and there is no blocking or parry either. The main way to mitigate damages is to jump over the enemies, which has its own problem because some of the enemies are very tall or hovering in the air. On top of not having an iframe dash is that there is collision damage which is a big nuisance. It was the main source of damage I took during my playthrough because the range of some of the weapon I used is very short so I ended up dashing into enemies, collided and took the damage instead of landing right next to them. These are things that you have to get comfortable with. Otherwise, just don't buy it. There are some really hard platformings which I thoroughly enjoyed. One was the area with one of the end game boss I stumbled upon where I was not supposed to be in because 1. my level was way too low 2. I didn't have the ability to reach there yet in an intended way. So I came up with an overly convoluted way to try and get there and then died to the boss. It was fun though, figuring out the way to make the best use of my limited abilities and squeeze them dry. Other than that are just hard-to-execute jumping. All in all, I give this game thumb up because I like it, thoroughly enjoyed. Do I recommend it? Nah, you wouldn't like it. 4/5
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Two important notes: As of Christmas 2023, the devs are still patching and adding content. Note that many complaints in older reviews (minus contact damage) have been addressed at this point. Also, I strongly recommend downloading demajen's Google Drive map if you get stuck. On that note, the game is ginormous, and will take a completionist, or anyone who wants to see proper endings, around 60 hours or so. Despite some lack of direction and difficulty spikes (the latter of which can be solved by over-leveling and some potions), I loved it. Don't expect much of the story though: the translation isn't the best and some details are only clarified in the very final areas of the game. Since I frequently see questions about being Souls-like, let me clarify a few things. First, as a casual player, I got through the game just fine - even on the Advanced difficulty (there was no Normal when I started). I've no interest in Souls difficulty or banging my head against bosses. Otherwise, similarities are Estus Flask equivalent healing, enemies respawning at save points, dropping recoverable XP on death, reading death markers, items with vague descriptions, lots of unlockable shortcuts, and a few bosses that will roflstomp you, regenerate their health, or spaz out when they're about to die. The Good +Proper Metroidvania. Very open world as game progresses. +Devs keep releasing content +Gorgeous +Lots of detailed enemy types and almost no reskins +Relaxing music +Detailed animations +Lots of weapon variety +Higher level enemies have a mark over their head +Some minor puzzle platforming +Two difficulties (Advanced is default) +Boss rush mode with two additional playable characters +Shortcuts unlocked as you progress +Map pretty detailed and tracks area completion %'s +Map allows 500 markers with many icons to choose from +Save areas indicated by sight and sound from distance +Voice acting isn't too bad for a non-English dev +Secrets everywhere, and almost always hinted at +Item available to help find missing treasure +Can respec with a consumable +Bestiary with drop listings unlocked early on +Can go elsewhere and level up if you meet a tough enemy +No squeaky anime girl shouting on every action +Ability to play two saves at once near end game is neat +You can find all ten endings in a single playthrough +I'd guess 25-70 hours, depending on completionism and guide use YMMV ~Story makes very little sense until you after finish 6/10 endings ~Endings are all underwhelming, however ~Characters don't have much personality ~Game can have some spikes in difficulty ~Enemies telegraph almost all moves, but some give next to no time to react ~Boss levels sometimes much higher than zone they're in ~Some precise platforming, though none were rage-inducing ~Boss rooms not marked, but can usually be predicted by architecture ~Death penalty is pretty light ~Game's huge. Like, really big. ~Could have used a target dummy in town ~Most endings are underwhelming, at best ~You'll need a guide to see everything The Bad -Seven unskippable splash screens -Contact damage and no iframes on normal dodge ability -Few iframes after damage and zero if touching spikes -Iframe dodge not earned til late game -Enemy attacks frequently unavoidable due to AoE or cramped quarters -Hard to tell what talents are available at a glance -Translation and typos need work -Quest objectives can be very vague or even misleading -Often no way to repeat questgiver dialog -Contact damage and no iframes on normal dodge ability -Large number of mechanics etc that aren't explained -No way to track duration of food buffs -Most fast travel requires a consumable -Can use (i.e., waste) potions when full on HP/MP -Final area of game not worth exploring -Have I mentioned contact damage? With things like books or rabbits? Played on: i7-14700, RTX3060, 32GB DDR5-6000 @ 1920x1080 Using PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller for Xbox Series X|S Advanced difficulty
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I just completed this game in ~45 hours, less than two weeks after I bought it. Of course, part of that is having more time around the holidays, part of it is the convenience of playing stuff on the Steam Deck, but it also shows that the game really was motivating me to keep going. This is not something that too many single-player games manage to do these days, at least not consistently for this amount of time. Afterimage is basically just a massive, mostly very well-executed Metroidvania. A standout quality of the game are the graphics and the variety on display. There are lots of areas in the game and they all have fundamentally distinct and beautiful graphics, and there's also a huge variety of enemies. Both the basic and advanced movement and combat mechanics are also great, and everything flows and controls well. The variety extends to these gameplay aspects as well, with lots of different weapons and spells with unique movesets and even an array of special moves. There are also tons of build options, between the talent tree, "afterimage" system, and various equipment with special effects that benefit different playstyles. Level and world design are also overall very good, with lots of different progression routes and a staggering amount of hidden paths and secrets. The game claims to be non-linear, and I've rarely seen this being as accurate in a Metroidvania as it is for this game. From my perspective at least, there are really only two aspects which keep this from being an absolute classic greatest-of-all-time entry in the genre: translation and balance. Regarding the former, the main story dialogue translation is acceptable and sometimes even quite nice (note: I didn't play with English VA so I can't judge that). Sadly, all other text which is never spoken (i.e. item descriptions, quest log entries, and a lot more) is absolutely terrible in terms of translation quality, on the level that it is sometimes even hard to decipher the meaning. Balance is more difficult to judge, and I personally am not too hard on the game regarding that. It is a Metroidvania that leans more heavily into the "RPG" aspect, in the tradition of Igavanias, and these games have a hard time being balanced simply by design. For me, as someone that like to explore everything and find all secrets as early as possible, given the ability to use various items in battle there were really only 2 or 3 fights in the game that presented any difficulty. This is mostly just a bit of a shame because the game has a huge amount of bosses with great design and interesting movesets, and I was able to facetank 75%+ of them on the first try. Overall, if the idea of exploring a beautiful Metroidvania where you place literally 100+ map markers for things to return to later with new skills and then slowly work through them appeals to you, and if you can deal with some bad translation and balancing issues, then I can recommend Afterimage wholeheartedly. If any of the developers/publishers read this: spend some money on getting a higher-quality English translation. Your game deserves it.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 19 November 2024 20:12 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 23 December 2024 05:39 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 20:24 |
| Steam reviews | 21 December 2024 20:04 |
Online players
116
Developer
Aurogon Shanghai
Publisher
Maximum Entertainment
Release
24 Apr 2023
Platforms
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