Info about Possessor(s):

Official game description:
Possessor(s) is a fast-paced action side scroller with combat inspired by platform fighters, a story told through dangerous characters, set in a deep interconnected world ready for exploration.
Play as Luca, the host, and Rhem, her less-than-cooperative counterpart, as they explore a quarantined city ripped apart and flooded by an interdimensional catastrophe. Their only hope of survival is by learning to co-exist.
A Fractured World
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Possessor(s) takes place across the interconnected sprawl of a destroyed mega-city, from collapsed skyscrapers to an abandoned aquarium, all riddled with secrets. Hauntingly beautiful 3D environments form a stunning backdrop over which hand-drawn and animated characters, and mysterious sci-fi horror action take center stage.
A Complex Narrative
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Choose multiple paths in an open-ended world structure as you look to uncover the truth behind the catastrophe. Meet a cast of engaging characters, each with their own heart-breaking story to follow in the aftermath of the devastation.
A Precision Engagement
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Gameplay is centered around tight, fast-paced platforming with a range of unique movement abilities that extends to its tense, precise, combat. Balance ground and air attacks, replete with combos and juggles as you encounter a variety of deadly enemies and challenging bosses. Find and unlock a wide array of powerful weapons and upgrades to bolster your arsenal and explore previously inaccessible areas.

Release date: 11 Nov, 2025

Categories: Metroidvania, Action Platformer, Souls-like Combat, Exploration, Character Progression, Single-player Story, Juggling & Knockback Combat


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Dynamic & Fluid Combat (weight 0.99): Players consistently praise the combat mechanics for being highly engaging, dynamic, and satisfying, often drawing comparisons to titles like Devil May Cry and Hollow Knight. The smooth execution, responsive controls, and unique mechanics like whip swings contribute to a fun and frantic experience that keeps players hooked.
- Stunning Art & Visuals (weight 0.94): The game's art style, visuals, animations, and character designs receive overwhelming praise. Reviewers highlight the beautiful, unique, and hand-crafted 2D retro style, vibrant colors, striking vistas, and overall gorgeous art direction that makes the world feel like a living painting.
- High Overall Quality & Passion (weight 0.66): Players report strong initial enjoyment and a high perception of quality across the game's various aspects. The evident care and attention to detail, along with a passionate design, make the game feel truly special and exceed expectations.
- Intriguing World, Story & Characters (weight 0.45): The game presents an interesting world with an intriguing, dramatic, and often cryptic story that unfolds gradually. Specific characters like Luca and Rhem are highlighted for their appeal, with their relationships adding emotional depth to the narrative.
- Excellent Metroidvania Experience (weight 0.34): Reviewers consistently hail the game as an excellent and challenging Metroidvania. Its unique combat system integrates seamlessly with the genre's formula, providing a fresh and addictive experience that satisfies the 'Metroidvania itch.'
- Smooth Movement & Controls (weight 0.3): The game's movement and controls are widely praised for being exceptionally smooth, snappy, and natural. This fluidity extends to both combat and platforming, making traversal and executing actions feel like a direct extension of the player's thoughts.
- Immersive Atmosphere & Vibes (weight 0.24): Players frequently mention the game's excellent atmosphere and immaculate vibes, contributing to a highly immersive experience. The overall presentation invites relaxation and keeps players deeply engaged throughout their journey.
- Rewarding World Exploration (weight 0.19): Exploration is consistently highlighted as a rewarding aspect, with players discovering numerous hidden secrets, lore details, and valuable goodies. The game's design encourages thorough investigation of its open world.
- Stellar Original Soundtrack (weight 0.14): The game's original soundtrack receives strong positive feedback, with players describing it as ranging from decent to absolutely amazing and top-notch. It significantly enhances the overall aesthetic and player experience.
- Great Value for Price (weight 0.12): Players frequently mention that the game offers excellent value for its price, considering it to be inexpensive. The enjoyable experience provided makes it a worthwhile purchase.

Common complaints:
- Tedious Backtracking & Saving (weight 0.69): Fast travel is severely limited, often restricted to specific 'subway stations' rather than save points, forcing players to re-traverse large areas. Sparse save point distribution means dying after long exploration sessions results in significant lost progress and tedious re-exploration.
- Generic & Bland Game World (weight 0.61): Many players found the overall game experience mediocre, boring, and lacking a unique identity or vision. This extends to bland environments, a severe lack of monster variety, and dull passive upgrades, contributing to a sense of emptiness and a forced playtime experience.
- Unresponsive & Repetitive Combat (weight 0.57): Combat is described as generic, stiff, and lacking variety, leading to boredom. Players also experience issues with unresponsive controls, inconsistent hit detection, and unfair combat scenarios due to severe knockbacks, stunlocks, and a lack of invincibility frames.
- Frustrating Map & Navigation (weight 0.55): Players report that the in-game map is crude, lacks detail, and makes navigation difficult, especially with confusing colors and unmarked hidden areas. This often leads to extensive, unwanted backtracking and makes exploration feel like a chore.
- Clunky Movement & Platforming (weight 0.49): Core movement and platforming abilities, including wall runs, wall jumps, and the whip grapple, are frequently cited as imprecise, unreliable, and frustrating. Players report difficulty with activation, inconsistent mechanics, and inconvenient keybinds, hindering fluid traversal in a Metroidvania-style game.
- Uneven Difficulty Curve (weight 0.46): Players note a poorly defined difficulty curve, sometimes feeling excessively difficult akin to Souls-likes, while other times finding late-game elements or bosses too easy. This inconsistency, coupled with frustrating 'corpse runs,' creates an unbalanced experience.
- Unclear Item & Upgrade Use (weight 0.37): Players are confused by the purpose and application of many collected items, especially health and other stat upgrades. This lack of clarity prevents them from feeling stronger or understanding progression, even after many hours of gameplay.
- Weak Story & Presentation (weight 0.19): The game's story and dialogue are described as bland, stiff, and sometimes out of order, often interrupting gameplay flow. General lack of polish, such as slide-show style cutscenes, further detracts from player engagement with the narrative.
- Unfavorable HLD Comparisons (weight 0.05): The game struggles to differentiate itself and live up to the high standards set by Hyper Light Drifter, leading to unavoidable and often negative comparisons from players who feel it fails to replicate that quality.

Gameplay feedback:
- Souls-like Metroidvania Core (weight 0.39): The game is identified as a side-scrolling Metroidvania with strong Souls-like elements, including parrying, stagger, aerial combos, and 'corpse run' mechanics where players lose currency upon death but can retrieve it. Checkpoints restore health and enemies reset, reinforcing the genre's challenging loop.
- Varied Movement Abilities (weight 0.22): Players have access to diverse movement and traversal abilities like ground pound, slide break, wall run, underwater dash, and air dash. The level design often involves significant verticality, sometimes requiring long falls down shafts.
- Adjustable Difficulty Settings (weight 0.22): Player feedback on difficulty is mixed, with some finding it challenging and others not, but the game offers difficulty settings. Even on normal, button mashing is not effective, suggesting thoughtful combat. Checkpoints are well-distributed to manage the challenge.
- Diverse Combat & Progression (weight 0.14): The game features multiple main weapon types with distinct characteristics, a sub-weapon system, and passive abilities for character strengthening. Players collect Chroma Gems to expand weapon slots, indicating a progression system centered around combat customization.
- Basic Early Combat (weight 0.07): Combat starts simply, with players having access to only basic tools. This suggests a gradual introduction of mechanics and abilities over time, expanding combat complexity later.
- Controller Highly Recommended (weight 0.05): Many players recommend using a controller for the best gameplay experience. This suggests that the game's controls or mechanics are optimized for gamepad input over keyboard and mouse.
- Fast Travel System Present (weight 0.05): The game includes subway stations that serve as fast travel points. This allows players to quickly navigate between regions, reducing the burden of backtracking.
- Exaggerated Platforming Controls (weight 0.04): The platforming is described as an 'exaggerated button exercise.' This implies that it might require precise, possibly repetitive, inputs or have a distinct, demanding feel.

Performance notes:
- Demanding Hardware Requirements (weight 0.18): Players report the game has very high system requirements, making it unsuitable for portable devices and requiring high-end GPUs like a 1080ti for 1080p 60fps. Poor optimization is noted as a contributing factor to these demands.
- Critical Launch & Crash Bugs (weight 0.12): Some players are currently unable to launch the game past the main menu, indicating critical software bugs that prevent access. There is also a report of at least one hard crash occurring during gameplay.
- Past Bug Fixes Implemented (weight 0.05): A recent patch has reportedly improved critical bugs, suggesting a developer effort to address stability issues. This indicates that some initial severe problems have been, or are being, resolved.

Recommendations:
- Highly recommended for genre fans (weight 0.41): Many players enthusiastically recommend the game, especially to fans of Metroidvania or Metroid-lite titles. They highlight its positive aspects, such as dynamic combat, strong story, and stunning visuals, often rating it highly and considering it good value.
- Moderate or mixed reception (weight 0.13): Some feedback indicates a more neutral or moderate view, with ratings around 6/10 or being described as merely 'adequate.' There's also conflicting sentiment, with some changing their initial positive review to negative, suggesting the game might not universally resonate or maintain its appeal.
- Desire for longer demo (weight 0.04): One reviewer indicated they would not have purchased the game if a longer demo had been available. This suggests that the current demo might not adequately represent the full game experience or address potential buyers' concerns.
- Encourage developer support (weight 0.04): One piece of feedback explicitly encourages players who enjoy the game to support the developer, Heart Machine. This indicates a positive relationship between some players and the development studio.

Other player notes:
- Reviewers' Tentative Initial Impressions (weight 0.23): Several reviewers purchased the game with limited pre-release information, planning to provide a more complete review after further playtime. Some expressed being particular about movement mechanics and a wish for voiceovers, indicating areas they'll be closely evaluating.
- Developer History Impacts View (weight 0.2): Player perception of the current game is heavily influenced by the developer's previous titles. While games like Hyperlight Drifter and Solar Ash built anticipation, the mixed reception of Hyper Light Breaker created some initial hesitation among potential buyers.
- High Metroidvania Expectations (weight 0.18): Many players have deep experience with the Metroidvania genre and hold high standards, comparing the game to critically acclaimed titles like Hollow Knight, Ori, and Nine Sols in terms of plot, mechanics, and visual quality. This suggests a discerning audience.
- Minor Usability & Design Points (weight 0.1): Players observed some minor gameplay 'quirks' requiring adjustment and noted frequent save loading. Conversely, the inclusion of important connecting doors was appreciated for preventing tedious backtracking, indicating a positive aspect of level design.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.24): Players feel Satisfaction due to the game's exceptional artistic presentation, including gorgeous visuals, animations, and charming character designs, often complemented by an engaging story and strong atmosphere. The tight, fluid, and dynamic combat, responsive controls, and rewarding Metroidvania exploration mechanics further contribute to a highly positive and polished gameplay experience.
- Frustration (weight 0.12): Frustration primarily stems from poor quality-of-life features such as tedious backtracking, limited fast travel, and distant or problematic save points. Players also experience frustration with unresponsive controls, imprecise combat mechanics, unclear progression, and various technical issues like bugs, crashes, or high resource usage.
- Disappointment (weight 0.12): Disappointment arises when the game fails to meet player expectations, often due to a perceived lack of originality, unique vision, or general polish in core gameplay elements. Specific issues include poor optimization, bland environments, stiff combat, lack of character progression, and the absence of quality-of-life features, ultimately leading to a less engaging or captivating experience than anticipated.
- Excitement (weight 0.09): Excitement is generated by the game's high overall quality, praised for its incredible visuals, engaging combat, and immersive atmosphere that often makes it feel like a masterpiece or a significant comeback for the studio. Players express eagerness to continue playing, finish the game, and explore its depths due to its addictive nature and satisfying discoveries.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.07): Players experience Enjoyment from the game's core gameplay loop, including natural and fluid motion, responsive controls, and satisfying combat. The overall experience is enhanced by engaging exploration, hidden elements, and appealing aesthetics, providing a generally fun Metroidvania experience.
- Joy (weight 0.05): Joy is expressed through an overwhelming positive and fun experience, with players often describing the game as "incredible," "addictive," or "peak gameplay." The engaging and enjoyable combat, along with the game's overall high quality, contributes to a deeply satisfying and entertaining Metroidvania experience.
- Admiration (weight 0.05): Admiration is directed towards the developers, Heart Machine, for their evident passion, artistic vision, and the exceptional care poured into the game's beautiful and unique world. Players appreciate the studio's ability to create stylish, artistically rich games with great attention to detail and sometimes note specific features like accessibility.
- Hope (weight 0.03): Hope is focused on the future improvement and success of the game and the studio, particularly regarding potential quality-of-life enhancements like Steam Deck optimization or map improvements. Players express a desire for Heart Machine to continue thriving and producing great games.
- Engagement (weight 0.03): Engagement stems from the game's ability to captivate players through its intriguing story and interesting characters, often combined with compelling combat mechanics. Players feel quickly hooked and motivated to make progress within the game's world.
- Appreciation (weight 0.02): Appreciation is shown for specific design choices and improvements, such as the melancholic yet colorful worldbuilding, nice character designs, and good music and visuals. Players also appreciate the developers' responsiveness to feedback, like improved controls, and the studio's willingness to explore new creative directions.
- Confusion (weight 0.02): Confusion arises from a lack of clarity in game mechanics, particularly regarding unclear item usage, functions, or map indicators. Disorienting descriptions or a perceived lack of unique features compared to similar games also contribute to player confusion.
- Boredom (weight 0.02): Boredom is a result of the game's perceived lack of originality, engaging qualities, and repetitive gameplay loop. A bland story or uninspired dialogue also contributes to players finding the experience dull.
- Anger (weight 0.02): Anger is triggered by frustrating technical issues like character clipping bugs or severe gameplay flaws such as forced map re-traversal after quitting and lengthy "generational runbacks." This emotion can also stem from a sense of betrayed expectations due to numerous flaws in the game.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance is caused by minor but noticeable irritations, such as a missing in-between animation frame or specific aspects of the main character's dialogue.
- Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation is driven by a prolonged wait for the game's release, fueled by the promise of an exciting and adventurous experience.
- Mild annoyance (weight 0.01): Mild annoyance is experienced due to specific design choices like a "Souls-esque corpse run" mechanic or the presence of small, minor bugs.
- Support (weight 0.01): Support is directed towards the developer, Heart Machine, expressing solidarity and encouragement, particularly in light of any economic challenges they might face.
- Understanding (weight 0.01): Understanding reflects a player's acceptance of minor compromises in the game's polish, acknowledging potential trade-offs or development constraints.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Surprise occurs when players discover unexpected elements in the game, specifically its similarity to soulslike titles, which deviates from their initial expectations.
- Relaxation (weight 0.01): Relaxation is induced by the game's overall atmosphere, creating a calming and enjoyable environment for the player.}