2024 really seems to be the year of metroidvanias similar to how 2023 was the year of soulsikes. We got a handful of new titles and some of which have set new heights for what metroidvanias can be. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown proved that smaller, more focused projects are a great thing for Ubisoft rather than crank out a new open world sandbox every six months. Nine Sols to Sekiro is what Hollow Knight is to Dark Souls in that it converted the well designed formula into a 2D plane. Within the exact same time span we got Bo: Path of The Teal Lotus, another artistic Japanese culture inspired game. Then the popular youtuber, videogamedunkey, helped publish the critically acclaimed Animal Well which is appearing to be one of the best indie games of the year. The list of metroidvanias to play doesn’t stop and I’m always down for another. It’s one of my favorite genres. I’ve made that clear several times in the past, and I haven’t played one that I disliked besides Salt and Sacrifice. I plan to play Nine Sols when it gets ported to consoles, and while writing this review they announced ports to consoles in a month or so. While we wait let’s talk about another indie metroidvania I’ve played during that waiting time, Ultros. What happens when Metroid is on acid.
Kinda getting tired of saying "this is game of choice on acid," but it's a pretty funny comparison to use. The game was developed by indie studio Hardoque and published by Kepler Interactive who’ve also helped with the publishing of Scorn, Pacific Drive, and Tchia. I didn’t know anything about Ultros until two weeks ago. In fact, I do not recollect seeing any pictures or clips of it online, and I’m someone who likes to pay attention to obscure titles popping up in the indie space. I learned about Ultros in a recent video by Nerrel who strongly recommended it, and upon looking at the art style I said “Huh, that looks like something I would really enjoy.” Lead artist behind Ultros is Niklas Akerblad who did the cover for both Hotline Miami games. He’s been making art before Hotline Miami, but it was the first game’s cover art that got his name out there. One of the most iconic indie games and cover arts out there, but you can’t let one piece of work define you for the rest of your life. No, Akerblad decided to help Hardoque with their new game and create what is one of the most trippiest and stylized games of the year. Drawing up a world inspired by works of H.P Lovecraft and Sonic for some reason. Which is convenient I bring this up, because considering the last game we reviewed.
Ultros released earlier this year and hasn’t received much fanfare. There is an accolades trailer showing all the positive reviews for the game, but it’s mainly from lesser known outlets. I have not seen people praise Ultros in the same way as Nine Sols or Animal Well. The game currently has less than four hundred reviews on Steam and sits with an average of 7/10. An alright score for the most part, but I personally find that criminal. Ultros is great. Scratch that thought. I think it’s one of the best metroidvanias I’ve played this year alongside The Lost Crown, and is another one of my personal game of the year contenders. It has some of the most interesting ideas I’ve seen from one of these games, and the fact no one is talking about what is another innovator for the metroidvania genre is sad. Ultros is a masterful experience. I don’t think it’s going to click for everyone, but that’s what makes art so special. Understanding what it’s trying to do and being thrilled for when every component clicks in your head. Today we’re gonna be talking about why I love Ultros and why it utterly deserves your attention.
Story
You awaken on the surface of a desolate planet, or what you think is one. No memory of how you got there and what you are doing there in the first place. Plantlife is growing everywhere and it seems to have been growing there for quite some time. What you're actually standing on is an abandoned ship. Drifting into the cosmic vacuum of space and collecting rust. Wild life has now claimed this vessel and ferocious alien life roams around it. Attacking anyone that walks in their way. You begin navigating the vessel and trying to unravel what is going on. You pick up a blade lodged into a corpse, but the phantom of the corpse then appears. He tells you to make way to a very specific room on the ship, and upon getting there you find a body encased behind glass. The body is kept alive with machinery surrounding it, and you are instructed to break apart this machine and cut off life support. You do so and are transported to a mysterious plane. There you gain a vision of what seems to be the past and are given an ancient relic.
This relic allows you to get further into the vessel, and eventually you walk into a large room. This room contains a large contraption, one bigger than the life support for the body earlier. The relic makes contact with the machine and soon appears a figure. A red hooded woman appears before you. Yelling at you at what you have done. She says the relic was supposed to belong to her and by destroying the body from earlier we have brought ruin to the cycle. However, the cycle isn’t completely ruined and this woman activates the machine. We are sucked in and within a new realm meet a demon. This woman is named Qualia and she’s trying to protect a being by the name of Ultros. She states that when Ultros is awakened it’ll bring destruction, and the only way to prevent that is to fuel a cycle that restarts time again and again. You are then knocked out unconscious and awaken back to where you were earlier. You run back to the room you were once in and reacquire the relic. The phantom reappears and states there are seven more ancient bodies throughout the ship. Each one being guarded by Qualia or some other mutated atrocity aboard the ship. The phantom tells us the only way to truly break the cycle is to destroy these seven bodies, obtain the lost functionality of the relic, and confront both Qualia and Ultros. You will be reliving the same process again and again, but nothing will stop you from uncovering and trying to find a way off the ship. You pick up your blade and make way for what lies ahead.
Gameplay
In Ultros you’ll explore a vast interconnected world, fight enemies, locate the seven bodies you have to destroy, and unlock new tools that allow you to explore more of the world. The combat is fairly straightforward. Attack enemies when they are vulnerable, and dodge away when they’re getting ready to hit you. Sometimes they’ll have a protective barrier so you'll break through it with a charged attack. Other times you are just gonna have to slide underneath them and strike a couple times from behind. There’s even a follow-up critical hit if you slide behind them just after they attack. The combat is straightforward, but there’s a bit of room for expression as you unlock new attacks throughout your journey. Like a flip kick, midair dive kick, and much more. You will take damage during fights and there’s two ways of getting lost health back. Either resting in pods which are this game’s form of checkpoints, or eating food. Which brings me onto one of the most unique mechanics on Ultros. Food is gained from either killing enemies or picking them off of trees. Consuming food restores health, but you also gain nutrients. There are four different types of nutrients in this game and if you have enough you can unlock new skills and perks with them. More attack damage, more health, different attacks like the ones mentioned earlier, memory of where certain things are in the world, and much more. This brings up consideration of whether to eat food for better skills, or save it up just in case you get thrown into a difficult fight. Skills are unlocked through a skill tree, so you’ll have to unlock certain skills before obtaining others. Occasionally you’ll pick up an item that allows you to remember skills.
Remember how I said you’re stuck in a time loop? Well everytime you destroy one of the seven bodies you need to find you’ll make way back to a specific room where Ultros is activated and the cycle repeats. You lose all your abilities besides the ones you assign memory points to. That’s why it’s important to know what you want for future cycles, or to go explore for more memory points. If you’re smart enough you’ll probably spend memory points on skills you unlock later on, so you don’t have to go through a whole skill tree to get them back. Another mechanic is the seeds. You’ll pick up seeds and can plant them in one of several planting spots in the world. These plants grow quickly, bear fruit, and possess different traits. Some have vines you can swing, some create platforms, and others produce liquid. Seeds are one use, so be careful where you use them. There’s several different biomes in this game and each of them have their own gimmicks you have to work around. A water area where you have to juggle around a ball you can teleport to so you can get around. A distillery where you ascend use falling liquid streams. Areas full of plants you have to cut through. Some of these areas you may not be able to enter immediately, so that’s why it’s important to locate those bodies, smash them, and unlock new functionalities for the relic you carry. At the end of each area there’s usually a boss that stands between you and the body. Beat them using the knowledge you’ve obtained and you progress forward. Outside of that there’s not much else to say. Let’s just hope you can break the cycle.
Thoughts
Ultros is a masterpiece. It’s not too long of a metroidvania, but every aspect of it is so well made or thought out that I honestly can’t feel anything but amazed. Impressed at what this dev studio managed to do and why they haven’t been further recognized for it. There are flaws sure, but the pros outweigh the cons to such a high degree. The progression system could’ve been something really annoying, but they designed around it and made it actually pretty smart. A good player would spend memory points on skills they need. Ones that they don’t want to spend time trying to unlock again or open the path to other skills they want. They could consider spending memory points on skills that cost too much, or cost too little so they can save up for ones that cost tons of nutrients to unlock. Memory skills are well hidden, but I won’t say you have too little of them by the end. I had enough by the endgame, and while the game can be challenging at times it’s not to an abysmal degree. Combat is fantastic even though it’s slower compared to most metroidvanias. You can be canceled out of your charge attack, healing items can be knocked out of your hands, and there’s a bit of jank to it. Yet it all still feels rather well to play. Attacks may be sluggish, but they have weight and impact. You really feel it when you clash your blade against an enemy and see the blood and flesh lodge out of them. Heavy attacks feel visceral and there’s the satisfying feeling of when you finally bring them down and watch them fall apart before you. The game does enough to make you switch up your approach with the 2nd boss in particular teaching you to always vary attacks instead of sticking to the same strategy.
The game is pretty open when it comes to the order of areas you tackle. I’d say it’s the closest we have been to the style of exploration in Hollow Knight or Vigil: The Longest Night. Some areas of course can’t be accessed until you get a specific tool, but I still like the freedom on offer. The game just says, “Right go wherever you want,” when told to find the seven remaining bodies and I just went off. I explored, got stronger, and never felt lost. Partially because the game marks the spots you have to go to on the map, but also because corners of the world you haven’t explored are marked with purple edges signaling maybe you should check it out. Movement is great and reminds me very much of Super Metroid. I like how you have to build up speed with consistent running and you can use this speed to gain extra momentum and higher jumping. Or should I say flipping as your character rolls into the air leaving sparkles behind. I love how varied each of the areas are even when the entire game takes place on a ship. From industrial hallways, high tech labyrinths, wildlife, caverns, and more. I love how said areas aren’t too long and should take I’d say about thirty to forty minutes to finish up and move on. I really liked the boss design as they test what you’ve learned in an area and apply the mechanics to the boss. I love the seed mechanic even though I stopped using it halfway through. How if you plant a tree bearing fruit early on it will give you double fruit on future cycles. That or saving your seeds up to create branches or vines you may need to access areas you can’t reach through normal means.
I don’t want to ramble on about the core gameplay forever, because Ultros is made up of many other halves. Main selling point for a lot of people is going to be the art direction. No matter how grotesque the creature designs are and grim the narrative is all I can feel is charmed. The world is colorful, brimming with detail, and looks like you’re staring at stained glass at times. I’m pretty sure that is the look they were going for, and I’m surprised the game runs this well. Animation is slick, the sound design is great, and I gotta give credit to the person who did the soundtrack. A good soundtrack to me is one that connects you to the world, and Ultros is great at that. Knowing how to make you feel alone, feel on the edge, and get ready for a ferocious foe that stands in your way. The story is one aspect I didn’t pay too much attention to, but I did really like it. There is some nice lore hiding about. One of an ancient race and what they tried to pursue. The main antagonist is someone you have empathy for rather than hate. As they do their best to preserve the peace, but realize everything they do makes it all worse. Realize they’ve been suffering like this for a long time and they just want to rest. Yet, to rest is to wish for the cycle to end and to preserve the peace the cycle must continue. My only complaint about Ultros is the best ending is obtained by going the peaceful route. Which I have no idea how you’re supposed to do without learning you can do that and looking up a guide. The percentage of people who’ve played Ultros is already very low. The number of people who got a good ending is even lower.
Otherwise I don’t have much to complain about with Ultros. It’s more than what I expected and has become one of my favorite games of the year. It’s fun, well designed, artistically stunning, has a good enough narrative and lore, and good enough replay value considering the two endings you can obtain. Took me around six to seven hours to play, and I think that’s a perfect runtime. I strongly recommend Ultros and it’s a shame more people haven’t given it a try. Do yourself a big favor and play Ultros. In the end I am going to have to give Ultros a 9.5/10 for absolutely superb. I feel bad for how many high review scores I’ve been giving out recently, but you know what more people need to know about the good in the world. Seeing how all people can do is complain online and people are being tricked by balding middle aged men who haven’t gone outside in ages. Gaming is still good. Ultros is good. If you want to fight then fight me.
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