GRIME

GRIME: A Unique Blend of Metroidvania and Souls-like Games

GRIME is created by combining elements of Metroidvina games and Souls-like games, with its uniqueness of presenting a strange and extraordinary world with an experience full of ambiguities and questions. This game is the first project from the Clover Bite development team that offers us an experience that tries to stand out from similar games. Was the experiment with this mixture successful?

The story puts you in the role of a stone creature who has no idea why it exists or where it comes from. The events gradually introduce you to its origins and role. The story is very limited and is told through some text and some dialogue that doesn’t really tell much, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. The game looks good on a technical level, highlighting its wondrous world in all its details, and a lot of attention is paid to the special effects of the environment, even if some details could have been refined better. On the audio level, the game offers many tunes of a dark nature with a number of epic tunes on many occasions.

A Unique Gaming Experience

The gaming experience mixes elements of Metroidvania games with games similar to the Souls series. As mentioned, you move around a huge and complex map with parts that can only be accessed later in the gameplay experience. At the same time, the focus is on developing certain aspects of your personality to adapt them to your choice of weapons, with the presence of… A special strength meter (representing stamina) that shows the number of attacks and moves that can be performed. The game focuses heavily on the last-minute blocking element (parrying), which partially replenishes the strength meter if the opponent’s attacks are blocked at the right time, and some enemy bosses cannot be defeated if you do not master this mechanic. The ability to block also allows you to absorb enemies, which charges the breath meter, which is a meter through which your life meter can be charged.

A Challenging Journey with Unique Character Development

During your journey, you will encounter a group of more powerful enemies who can be defeated to obtain a special currency for character development. Developing your character is not limited to increasing strength, health and other items. If you absorb a sufficient number of a certain type of enemy, you can develop a special ability based on that enemy, such as: Such as increasing a health bar or additional damage after a last minute block, as well as other abilities that add some additional depth to the development element that serves your play style.

A Mix of Challenges and Limitations

As is usual with Souls-like games, the experience is full of challenges, especially with the focus on timing due to the centrality of the last-minute blocking element, but the game has its biggest problems in this regard as it mixes in between fast-paced ones Metroidvania games in battles and Souls games that limit your steps with a stamina or strength meter. In this case and here you will notice that the difficulty level sometimes becomes tiring when you have to face too many enemies at the same time or when confronting fast bosses, since in these cases it is difficult to repel at the right time, especially with some bosses, that require high precision in timing.

Exploration and Secrets

Unlike other Metroidvania games, you don’t have to revisit any area. The game actually moves linearly between areas. It also offers the ability to move quickly through points that you need to discover, in a very limited way, and these points are very few in the vast game world, killing the excitement of exploration. Often you have to travel long distances to revisit previous areas and discover their secrets, or reach locations equipped with new abilities that you gain from defeating the main bosses.

Secrets and Side Areas

The game features many secrets and side areas to explore, and there are side bosses that can be defeated to develop your breath meter, allowing you to recharge the health meter three times, compared to being able to recharge it once at the start of the experience . As we mentioned earlier, the ability to move quickly is limited throughout the experience and can make a strange decision to provide the ability to fast travel between all save points after defeating the final boss. We couldn’t understand this decision, and we would have preferred it if it had been introduced from the start, instead of the limited fast travel points that were annoyingly scattered around.

A Unique and Challenging Experience

We completed the experience within 16 hours, during which we returned to collect many secrets and confront additional bosses, and it can be said that the game can be completed within 10 to 12 hours if you just focus on the basic missions focused. GRIME mixed Metroidvania games with Souls-like games a good first attempt, but it was… It requires a lot of balancing. It is an experience that offers a strange and interesting world and is aimed at professionals and challenge seekers who may overlook some of the negatives in order to be able to enjoy the rest of the experience. It’s a game where you have to compare the pros and cons to find out if it suits you.