Zapling Bygone Review Summary

An excellent Metroidvania with a pleasant soundtrack and tight controls, but weak combat, frustrating map navigation, and technical bugs and crashes hold it back.

Excellent Metroidvania Experience: Players consistently praise the game as a cool, simple, and highly enjoyable Metroidvania that is a hidden gem. It is short yet satisfying, with excellent execution and pure Metroidvania elements.

Pleasant Soundtrack and Music: The soundtrack and music receive positive remarks, described as okay, amazing, neat, great, and insanely good. Music enhances the overall experience.

Responsive and Tight Controls: The controls are frequently described as good, nice, tight, and responsive. Many reviewers find them intuitive and enjoyable.

Great Pixel Art Graphics: The pixel art graphics are widely praised as great, quite nice, awesome, and very good. The visual style is a standout feature.

Satisfying Movement Mechanics: Movement is frequently described as very satisfying and enjoyable, with tight and responsive controls from the beginning. The first movement ability unlocks early and makes movement a joy.

Map causes navigation frustration: Multiple clusters describe the map as unhelpful: it doesn't distinguish visited from unvisited areas, lacks markers for collectibles, and gives poor direction, forcing tedious backtracking. Reviewers frequently mention aimless wandering, lack of completion tracking, and being unable to mark their own points of interest.

Technical bugs and crashes: Numerous reports of crashes, softlocks, game-breaking bugs, and glitches requiring restarts, including issues with collection completion, D-Pad unresponsiveness, and frequent crashes becoming worse over time. Some bugs remain unpatched despite being reported years ago.

Combat is weak and unsatisfactory: Combat is described as dull, weak, and poorly designed, with issues like enemies having more range than the player, bouncing projectiles, contact damage causing double hits, and boss fights that are either trivial or overly punishing. Many feel the melee focus and lack of options make combat unengaging.

Skull and mutation system underdeveloped: Skulls are criticized for feeling cosmetic and samey, with slot limitations making most not worth using and almost no impact on gameplay beyond mutation slots. Mutations similarly feel bland, restricted, and often have drawbacks that outweigh their benefits.

Difficulty is unbalanced: The difficulty is criticized for being either too easy or too hard for the wrong reasons, with precision platforming, punishing combat, and bosses that are either simple or unfairly challenging. Some updates nerfed challenging aspects excessively.

Skull system for abilities: Players equip skulls that provide unique abilities, cosmetic looks, and upgrade slots. Skulls can be customized with charms, add-ons, and skill pieces, and are obtained from bosses or found in the world.

Challenging boss fights: Boss battles are a central focus, featuring telegraphed attacks, varied patterns, and high difficulty. Many bosses grant new abilities or skulls upon defeat, making them key progression milestones.

Metroidvania with ability gating: The game features a Metroidvania structure with non-linear exploration and ability gating, requiring players to revisit areas with new abilities. Multiple interconnected areas encourage backtracking and discovery.

Exploration-focused open world: The game emphasizes open exploration in a non-linear world, with optional precision platforming challenges that reward thorough exploration. The environment is designed for players to discover secrets and upgrades.

Movement abilities for traversal: Players gain abilities such as double jump, dash, wall climbing, and ceiling climbing to navigate the world. These abilities are often acquired by defeating bosses.

Lag on first boot: Some players notice a small lag when first booting up the game. However, others report a 30-second stutter on initial load, indicating inconsistent first-time performance.

Frame drops while moving: Players experience frame drops when moving, which can disrupt gameplay flow. This is a common performance issue that affects smooth movement.

Abnormally slow walking speed: A bug causes the walking speed to be weirdly slow, hindering player movement. This can make traversal feel tedious.

Camera shake during attacks: The camera shakes during attacks, which some players find disorienting or uncomfortable. This may detract from combat precision.

Strange lag in areas: Players encounter strange lag in certain areas of the game, which can break immersion. The specific triggers are unclear but noticeable.

Metroidvania fans will enjoy: Players who like the metroidvania genre generally have a good time despite some flaws. The game appeals to fans of exploration and challenging bosses.

Sale price strongly advised: Many reviewers recommend waiting for a discount rather than paying full price. The game offers better value when purchased on sale.

Not recommended due to flaws: Several reviewers cite numerous shortcomings, lack of polish, and missing content. These issues outweigh the positives for them.

Worth trying despite reservations: Some reviewers suggest giving the game a chance, even if they have mixed feelings. It can be enjoyable if you have the time.

Good but not outstanding: Some reviewers find the game enjoyable but not particularly memorable. It is seen as average or meh.

Community fair range: $8.00 - $12.00.

Game completion: 9.0h.

Story completion: 6.0h.

Endgame: 1.9h.

Player reports describe an unrewarding early loop of rats and plants, and some report no truly fun moments at all; positive notes about upgrades and the grappling hook lack timing and do not establish a clear point where enjoyment begins.

Friction: First hour limited to simple, unrewarding enemies such as rats and plants; Early gameplay described as boring for the first 10 minutes; No exciting or intuitive feedback after discovering the first boss; Unclear exploration and progression; tedious to figure out where to go; Optional upgrades often not worth their slots.

Metroidvania Genre Devotee: Non-linear exploration, seeking tough skill-based combat and boss-pattern learning, comparing structure to Metroid and Castlevania classics. Motivation: To experience a new skill-based, challenging Metroidvania that rewards exploration and combat mastery in the tradition of genre classics. Stance: buy.

First-Time Genre Newcomer: Casual, guided exploration with straightforward combat, enjoying accessible mechanics and pixel art without seeking hardcore challenge. Motivation: To get an easy, welcoming introduction to Metroidvania games with simple controls and approachable design. Stance: buy.

Value-Conscious Skeptic: Completion-style playthrough focused on content length and value, skeptical of replay and extra modes. Motivation: To get enough content and polish to justify the price, weighing short runtime and rough edges against cost. Stance: deep sale.

Short Metroidvania length: Many reviewers note the game is relatively short for the genre, with playtimes ranging from about 3 to 10 hours depending on completion. First playthroughs often clear in an afternoon, with 100% taking somewhat longer.

Heavily compared to Hollow Knight: Reviewers frequently compare the game to Hollow Knight, especially its charm and healing systems, calling it derivative or 'Hollow Knight at home.' The notch system is seen as restrictive compared to Hollow Knight's more experimental charm system.

Compared to other Metroidvanias: Reviewers compare the game to various titles including Carrion, Ender Lilies, Blasphemous, Sheepo, and Mysteries Under Lake Ophelia. It is often placed in the same space as other short indie Metroidvanias.

Made by solo developer: Multiple reviewers mention the game was developed by a solo developer. One clarification notes it was made by three people, and the developer is seen as early in their career and caring about their work.

Map and progression issues: Some reviewers find the map unfriendly or small, with fixed rather than open-ended design. Upgrades must be obtained in a certain order to progress, and there are reports of players getting stuck in the same area.