Super Epic

I love Metroidvania. Games like Hollow Knight, Metroid Dread and The Ori Games have been a breath of fresh air and inspired me to go back and look at old favorites like past entries in the Metroid franchise. So needless to say I am always on the lookout for new experiences of this type and when I heard about Super Epic I decided that it was an experience that I did not want to miss out on. But is it a good game, or did I experience buyers remorse? Let’s find out. This is the under 10 review of Super Epic.

Corporations have taken over the world and are manipulating the population using technology. The anthropomorphic citizens of the world are enslaved by their phones. RegentCorp seems like an unstoppable world power whose ambition is to control every aspect of the population's lives and make as much money as possible in the process. You play as Tan Tan the heroic Racoon and his noble llama steed as the infiltrate RegentCorp headquarters and try to stop their maniacal machinations. The story is a satire of the video game industry and corporate greed in general. It is written with a deep respect for media from the 80’s and 90’s even outside of the classic games of our youth containing many humorous references to that time period. Think Ready Player One but with cute animals and a more sinister overtone. This seriously bleak reality is kept light with the witty dialogue and clever references. The game does not take itself too seriously and the meta commentary and fourth wall breaks are abundant. But personally it comes across as a little heavy handed at times. The narrative is not the main focus of the experience, it feels sort of like set dressing more than anything. However, what is here gets a little tiring, at least to me personally, by the end. I am not saying I did not like it, just that it seemed to overstay its welcome and get a little to Meta at times. My favorite elements of the story where not the satire but the nostalgic homages scattered throughout the story and the environments. In short it was often not the plot driving me forward in the game but rather a sense of discovery. I wanted to find all the little references in the game.

This excellent presentation and attention to detail is very rewarding. Each area of the map feels unique; the music for the most part is filled with jamming tunes that I am still humming a few days later. I like the designs of characters and the theming at play in each of their designs. The llama steals the show and its animations and movements are absolutely perfect. The game is bright and colorful with wonderful details. I am not sure what exactly they were shooting for with the presentation. It thankfully does not look like a flash game, but it's not really 16 bit either. It kind of reminded me of something you might have expected from a 32 bit 2d game. This often unexplored look is great and serves the game well in my opinion. Your equipment is actually reflected on your characters which is always a nice touch that I enjoy. The map is bright and contains a lot of useful information. There are some things that I wish the map did display. For instance there should be a hidden item or panel in the game that reveals the location of all the cameras on the map. This would help the player immensely in achieving the best ending in the game. But the menus are very clean and stylized. One presentation issue that became apparent on my PS4 was a lot of screen tearing, which seemed especially bad in the lower area of the map, i.e. the dungeons. It became so bad at one point that I considered restarting the game to see if it would improve.

I mentioned earlier that I enjoyed the music of the game especially early on in the game. This is essential in any Metroidvania as the core mechanic of backtracking means that you will often pass through areas you have seen before. A good soundscape can keep you engaged or help you look forward to revisiting areas just to hear the tracks. Sound design in general is good. There is no voice acting but that is fine, it tends to fall in line with the more classic aesthetic they were going for. I found the sound enhanced the experience making the game even more enjoyable.

A common complaint I have with Metroidvanias is when they attach too many actions to too many buttons on the controller. Super Epics controls are just about right. Varied enough to be satisfying but not overwhelming. The movement can feel a little more stilted sometimes than I personally like but I am pretty spoiled by Dread’s incredibly smooth movement and control. The super jump ability is a little inconsistent to pull off and I sort of wish they had implemented it differently but it is fine. The best part of the control though is the combat. Juggling combos are the bread and butter of the gameplay loop. Timing your combos and pulling off huge combos is very satisfying and I found myself still beating on enemies long after they went down just because it was fun. You can tell this was a design choice on day one as there are even achievements tied to combo counts and a combo meter keeps track of them in real time.

The map is kind of a mess. I can't really explain it but it feels put together in a non traditional fashion for Metroidvanias. For example, I would often find myself coming to a fork in the road ahead and instinctively would go in a certain direction. But it would either lead to some dead end or into an area that I was underpowered for. Again I can't really explain it but I just never really could get used to it. It almost felt like the map was designed to subvert other Metroidvania map conventions. The map felt too big in that there were often long stretches leading to dead ends. Often there would be some treasure but I felt less inclined to explore some areas when the journey to said treasure felt like it took too long. As I said before, backtracking is just a part of the Metroidvania gameplay loop, but the quick travel mechanic, ie the elevators, felt oddly placed to me. Often when I needed to use one I was often almost as far away from one as I was my objective. This becomes overapparent when you discover that the game has multiple endings. One of them is tied to map completion in a way where you have to destroy all the cameras in the game. But if you finish the game and then go back hunting for the camera’s you don't really have a good way, without a guide, of keeping track of where you may have missed a camera. You cannot always destroy them as you go either as some are unreachable without the high jump which you get very late into the game. One highlight for me of the design though was the qr codes you could scan and interact with the game on your phone. With these “apps” you could mine for in-game currency or play mini games to unlock certain doors that led to treasure. One of the codes refused to work with my phone however, meaning there is one part of the map I can not access. I tried it with other phones in my household but it never worked. The mechanics of this game are sound and the environments are full of surprises and easter eggs to find. This kept me going often when I felt like putting the game down because of some of its more tedious elements.

Look I know it may seem like I am coming down hard on this game but the truth is I did really enjoy it right up to the point where I beat it and got the bad ending. To get the better endings you need to uncover all the game's secrets, which as a concept is fine. But in execution but the time I unlocked the second ending, I was no longer really having fun with the game. I held on and searched the map for cameras I had missed. I went down to the area where the camera feeds are displayed and there were five screens still showing. I searched the whole map and found an area where there were six cameras I had missed. I went back to the monitor room and only one of the TV’s was now blank. So I caved in and went looking for a guide. But I could not really find a good one online. I did find a map of the cameras but found out that it was not 100% accurate. This combined with no real way for me to check to see what cameras I was even missing and I decided enough was enough. To be clear, I loved this game all the way up to the point where I beat it for the first time. It was not perfect or anything but it was a tight enjoyable experience. But as soon as that cutscene played the “bad ending” I immediately was questioning if I wanted to continue playing. I do not have buyers remorse or anything but I will not be “completing” the game on this save file. Now that I know that you need all the cameras I think it would be easier to start over and I am just not ready to do that. Worth a purchase and a play but it needs a bit more polish in some areas for sure.