Summum Aeterna, a prequel to 2022’s Aeterna Noctis, riffs on a Dead Cells-style style fusion, mixing roguelite components into the robust Metroidvania construction of its predecessor for a sport that doesn’t pull its punches. The outcome feels tough across the edges but it surely’s exhausting to disclaim that the gameplay feels fairly nice.
Enemies hit exhausting, regularly gang up on you, and can nearly assuredly ship you again to the hub dozens of occasions earlier than you handle to efficiently full a run. And whereas Summum Aeterna primarily calls for dexterous abilities to beat its hardest challenges, you do have one thing to point out for every failed run. You, after all, lose many of the upgrades you snagged whereas out and about, however each run will see you gaining foreign money and crafting supplies which you could then reinvest into issues like higher stats and beginning weapons. This meta-progression system thus ensures that you just’ll at all times be making progress, even whenever you lose time after time.
In an attention-grabbing departure from comparable video games, Summum Aeterna additionally introduces a cool seed system for producing the world you run by every time. Before venturing out, you could first create the world by putting a seed in a machine that can generate it for you. Each seed is exclusive, spawns you in a distinct beginning biome, and can have constructive and detrimental modifiers that’ll change issues like enemy well being and the drop fee of sure rewards. Picking the correct seed is thus as a lot part of one’s technique as deciding on a construct, and we appreciated how this positively impacts run variety.
Controls are easy and responsive, whereas weapon varieties really feel genuinely distinct from one another and supply attention-grabbing twists on fight. A sword will be thrown and both shortly recalled or teleported elsewhere. The scythe, then again, builds up Damage-over-Time debuffs on enemies with every hit which you’ll be able to then set off suddenly. Moment-to-moment gameplay feels snappy and fascinating, which inspires you to dare to strive once more.
The visuals really feel like a cross between the illustrious Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and, of all issues, Child of Light. Whether you’re exploring the shadowy reaches of a familiar-looking Gothic fort or the brilliant canal-bordered streets of a Venice-esque village, all environments characteristic a painterly, hand-drawn model that seems like an ideal match for the considerably dreamlike tone of Summum Aeterna.
Unfortunately, Summum Aeterna feels slightly poor on the efficiency aspect of issues. Luckily the body drops right here or there don’t have an effect on issues an excessive amount of, however loading occasions will be fairly lengthy and we had a couple of cases the place the sport outright crashed, ending promising runs and erasing some hard-won progress. Hopefully patches are forthcoming, because it seems like this may very well be a wonderful addition to any roguelike fan’s Switch library with a little bit bit extra elbow grease.
Launch instability points apart, it could be a bit spinoff, however Summum Aeterna in the end ticks sufficient containers to be value your whereas. Smooth fight, robust issue, and an attention-grabbing seed system all come collectively to make this one value investigating.
