The Japanese indie team CreSpirit has been working on its second work for six years Rabi-Pisces (79% in M! 11/17) worked – YOU once again relies on spicing up the basic Metroidvania concept with 16-bit flair through bullet hell action, but is more sophisticated, more extensive and still more accessible in all respects.
It starts with the still bizarre, but in its own way more mass-appealing world that heroine Tevi explores: Az is populated by humans, beastkin (anthropomorphic animals) and magitech (robot creatures that look like angels or demons) and of course it is to you to protect them from harm. The story is not original, but it lives from humorous characters and all sorts of twists that send you into every corner of the expansive pixel environments. As usual, over time you will learn new skills that make previously inaccessible passages accessible, and the combat system is constantly being expanded: Tevi is quick to strike with her wrench and can learn increasingly powerful combos. And soon two helpers join in, who act as hovering drones and fire shots or activate shields. Over time you will find hundreds of objects and seals that can be combined in almost any way and provide numerous buffs. If you like, you can spend a long time working on your desired constellations, but fortunately it's not absolutely necessary. Bullet Hell mechanics come into play especially when you encounter one of the numerous bosses: They go through several phases and like to unpack increasingly tricky bullet patterns that you have to prepare for – but the action never becomes unfair.
If there's something to complain about, it might be that the paths to the next mission objectives aren't always entirely clear, but exploring and searching the diverse environments is still a joy. Also because the controls are easy to handle and YOU Unlike some colleagues, they always deliver a stable 60 fps on the Switch.