Valfaris: Mecha Therion Review (Xbox Series X)

STAFF REVIEW of Valfaris: Mecha Therion (Xbox Series X)

Tuesday, November 19, 2024.
by Adam Dileva

I quite enjoyed the first Valfaris when I first reviewed it, noting its great pixel art, solid and challenging gameplay, and a truly kickass metal soundtrack that made you want to rock out even when dying repeatedly. The original was a 2D SHMUP (shoot-em-up), and while largely the same in this sequel, Valfaris: Mecha Therion, there’s sections of 2.5D and some improved gameplay elements. If you’re looking for a shmup that’s different than your typical 2D sidescroller, Valfaris: Mecha Therion replaces your normal ship for a dude in a mech suit, all while rocking out to a kick ass metal soundtrack throughout.

Fight through hordes of aliens in a number of different environments as you release countless bullets and take down a near unstoppable army as you hunt for the evil Lord Vroll once again. There’s some minor story elements usually after each chapter to progress the story, but you’re here to blast enemies and listening to metal while doing so, of which it succeeds. Mecha Therion is not only your suit of armor, but your arsenal of varying weapons as well. Able to freely fly around on a 2D landscape, Valfaris pilots his suit to destroy everything in his way. There’s a number of difficulty options, with the easiest and Normal not being too challenging until a pretty large difficulty spike near the end.

Those that want a challenge can test themselves on even harder difficulties. Playing on Normal, the first few Chapters were a breeze without any deaths, but then the difficulty started to spike in the latter half, with the final chapter being a bit frustrating simply because of the checkpoint placements. Early on, there’s plenty of checkpoints where you refill your health and can change/upgrade your weapons, but these start to become spread out further and further the closer you get to finally tracking down Lord Vroll. Early on, checkpoints are placed right before a boss fight, but later it’s moved further back, so a death means a portion of repeated areas once again.

Stage design is done quite well and each environment looks unique from the last. There’s a few sections that turn the game into 2.5D for a short while, and these sections made it quite difficult to really judge enemy distance and your placement. There’s a portion as well where you need to keep up with the slowly moving camera while navigating some tunnels and killing enemies, which the game doesn’t warn you about, so it took a few tries to figure the best strategy to do so. Another part has you moving upwards as you not only navigate between massive rotating blades, but trying to avoid the lasers shooting from some of them as well.

While the game is primarily linear, there are some secrets sections and paths to find if you’re keen or equip a special item to point out where these are. These areas will get you a few extra bonus items that will help you upgrade your weapons quicker. I found a few on my own, but it can be tough to find these passages when you’re so focused on avoiding enemy fire and trying to navigate obstacles.

As you progress you’ll unlock new weapons that you can swap out at any of the checkpoints. You’ll start with a simple blaster and sword, eventually having a variety of different options in your arsenal depending on your preference. I opted to go with the lightning gun that shoots across the whole screen and arcs from enemy to enemy. You also have options for an auxiliary weapon, the default being a lock-on for enemies and projectiles on screen, though I found I didn’t use these very often.

Regular enemies don’t pose much of a threat to you, but later chapters will have enemies that can easily damage you and take much more firepower to destroy. What makes combat interesting is that you have an energy meter that is basically your ammo for your gun. When this is empty you can still shoot, but it is quite weak and basically not worth doing so. You regain energy quite slowly over time, but if you melee and kill enemies, you’ll earn chunks of energy back for doing so. This means you want to use your gun until you’re almost out of energy, then melee a few times to refill. This isn’t too challenging early on, but later you’ll have to strategize what enemies you’ll want to melee and which to avoid due to their attack patterns.

There’s a number of bosses that will test your patience, and while some are more challenging than others, none feel like bullet sponges that most games tend to do. Depending on your weapon upgrades and use of melee to refill your energy, some boss fights can be over quite quick. One fight has you protecting someone behind you as they charge up, so you have to make sure you melee down any projectiles, or even some bosses where you can clash swords briefly and have to button mash to be successful.

Checkpoints not only refill your health, but also where you’ll upgrade your weapons. As you defeat packs of enemies, doing so successfully will earn you Blood Metal, essentially a currency for your upgrades. The first tier or two of upgrades are cheap enough, but eventually you’ll need another currency as well to push the upgrades even further, found throughout the levels sparingly.

The issue comes in where you simply don’t get as much Blood Metal as you like, so you almost must commit early to which weapon you want to stick with and upgrade to max. This means you can’t experiment as much as I’d have liked, as I always chose my more upgraded weapon over a new weapon I just took from a defeated boss but that wasn’t upgraded at all. I was upgrading all the way until the final checkpoint as well. You’ll need to upgrade your main weapon of choice and melee offhand if you want a chance at doing enough damage by the final chapter.

The pixel art once again is fantastic, each biome varying from the previous and new enemies in each new chapter. The only falter here is that enemies and their projectiles can sometimes blend into the background, as I’d usually get hit from something I totally didn’t notice. The few 2.5D sections are neat to do something new, but don’t work all that well when having to avoid and shoot enemies as its rotating.

The OST once again is the standout. The metal soundtrack makes you want to put up the horns and headbang along to some great tunes. If you’re a fan of shmups and want to shoot some aliens to a kick ass metal soundtrack, Valfaris: Mecha Therion is an easy sell.

** Valfaris: Mecha Therion was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 9.0 / 10
Gameplay: 8.5 / 10
Visuals: 9.0 / 10
Sound: 9.5 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Valfaris: Mecha Therion (Xbox Series X)

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