Have you ever come across a game where you just have to beat it? Perhaps not because you are enjoying the story or the gameplay, but because you have to prove you can after seeing the game over screen for the hundredth time. It becomes your challenge and something others may never know about, but in that moment of time it’s important to you. I’ve played a few games like that but Xtal Sword’s Eryi’s Action may have taken the top spot for most frustrating. And addictive.
Eryi’s Action is a trapformer, a type of platformer which is designed to be as brutally hard and unfair as possible. In essence every one of Eryi’s actions has an unfair and unequal reaction Looking at the art style and hearing the kind of catchy tunes playing you’ll easily be fooled into thinking the game is a simple, 2D platformer inspired by the likes of Mario and Rayman. However what you find is gameplay inspired by the likes of Demon’s Souls and one of my other gaming Everests, Ghouls & Ghosts.
Even before you start the first level, the game is out to get you as you try to exit Eryi’s house, where traps await. Once you navigate this small stepping stone you can then begin the adventure. Much of the game is about trial, error and remembering what ended you before. There’s no way you’ll navigate any level without losing lives as each step is perilous, as the majority of traps are hidden from view. It’s hard not to laugh at some of the more absurd traps that end your run because even though you’re expecting something you don’t expect what is actually placed in front of you. The screenshot above shows my lives count just before I reached the end of the game, and yes that is a minus sign in front of the number.
However there is a point where the traps go from being quite funny to being a cause of frustration as failure comes again and again. It’s not enough to know where the traps are and how they’re triggered if you can’t get the timing right, which is crucial. While navigating the traps you may have a split second before hearing the game over tune again. Eryi’s Action only real forgiveness granted to players are the save points in levels, helping to break them up a bit.
Levels have two save points essentially breaking each stage up into three or four separate puzzles which require a lot of patience, and generate a lot of swearing. Do you know how many times I’ve sworn at a fairy looking for a watermelon? Before Eryi’s Action the answer would probably have been zero but after my time with the game that figure has easily ascended into the thousands. And that’s just from the standard levels before boss battles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET_miTlIqNk
The boss fights have to be commended for spanning different genres from classic RPGs to shoot-em-ups. They’re brilliantly executed and offer more humour but are just as tough, if not tougher than the standard platform levels. The majority of these test your reactionary skills to see how quickly you attack and dodge, as well as think of your strategy, and all require luck.
Eryi’s Action is one of those games that starts off charming and funny, but quickly turns into something where you just need one more go because this time you know you’ll get past that trap. It also becomes a cause of some very inventive swearing outbursts because you know you cleared that jump. If you’re looking for a game that will test your reaction skills, test your puzzle solving skills, and test your patience then Eryi’s Action is for you. If you feel that a game that is intentionally designed to hamper your every movement will really annoy you then stay away.