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In Itorah, you are the last human and must figure out what happened and how to stop the spreading plague. With your enchanted ax, you must travel the world and save it with the help of Ahui.
Developed by Grimbart Tales
Published by Assemble Entertainment
Gameplay
Itorah is an action platform game from developers Grambart Tales and publishers Assemble Entertainment. Your primary weapon and friend is a sentient ax that helps guide you throughout the game. Throughout the game you collect power-ups to give you different attacks and abilities.
The powerups upgrade and modify your abilities and attacks. Most powerups work in tandem with the game’s progression, allowing you to complete the stage and its boss. As you go through the game, you continually use these abilities, unlocking more of the world and unique items.
The special items you pick up allow you to upgrade your stats or replenish your health. Combined with the tokens you collect from defeating enemies or unlocking a chest, players can either extend their health or stamina with a feather or add a health powerup or increase its power using an echo. Disappointingly there is no way to upgrade your weapon by adding more power or faster swing speed. At times having a faster swing would help with the game’s pace.
Itorah is a beautifully designed game with a balanced use of colors, making each area uniquely themed. The only problem is we saw way too much of it, making it feel highly repetitive. This repetitiveness is similar to the first Assasin’s Creed game, where everything was beautiful but took forever to get to the next part. Including a warp portal or the ability to fast travel from one side of the map to the other would have been welcomed with open arms.
Another standout feature of Itorah was the control layout. Using the Steam controller felt natural, and the button combination easily mapped without having to stop and think about which buttons to press next. The design wasn’t a disadvantage in many fast-paced sections as you don’t need to plan out the button combination.
Final Thoughts
Itorah was a fun game that had a lot of similarities to Castlevania and Metroid. The story was interesting especially having to beat the game to get the full extent of what happened on Nahucan. With the flashbacks added to help move the narrative, the biggest flaw was still on display and forced upon players. Having to cross the massive map multiple times to get from one stage to another took away from the game and its replay value. It would have vastly decreased the repetitive feeling and replay value if quick travel had been added. As one of the achievements is to beat it in less than 5 hours, I don’t see a lot of players going back to get it.
All together, Itorah was a fun game to play. Even with the long trips from one side of the map to the other, the visuals, soundtrack, and game controls kept it entertaining and engaging to complete and finish the game to see how the story ends.
Score: 7
Itorah (PC Review) 19.99
Overall
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Overall Score - 7/10
7/10
Summary
Itorah was a fun game that had a lot of similarities to Castlevania and Metroid. The story was interesting especially having to beat the game to get the full extent of what happened on Nahucan. With the flashbacks added to help move the narrative, the biggest flaw was still on display and forced upon players. Having to cross the massive map multiple times to get from one stage to another took away from the game and its replay value. It would have vastly decreased the repetitive feeling and replay value if quick travel had been added. As one of the achievements is to beat it in less than 5 hours, I don’t see a lot of players going back to get it.
Pros
- Control Layout
- Area Design and Color
Cons
- Long Travel Between Areas
- Replay Value