Afterimage

Afterimage is a classic role-playing game featuring meticulously crafted landscapes across more than 15 distinct regions and unique character designs. Players select their characters and face off against epic bosses. The game offers a robust dynamic combat system involving over 170 types of enemies; players must master various weapons, each featuring unique combos and upgrade paths. A compelling narrative drives the game's progression, while a thematic soundtrack enhances the immersive experience.

Features

A Vast, Seamless World: Explore the interconnected world of Engardin, featuring over 15 distinct and meticulously designed environments, including towering volcanoes, frozen peaks, and deep underwater ruins.

Deep RPG Customization: Tailor your combat style with a massive talent tree and diverse equipment. Whether you prefer brute force or agile maneuvers, the game allows for unique character builds.

Breathtaking Hand-Drawn Art: Experience a world brought to life with stunning 2D hand-drawn visuals and fluid animations that make every frame look like a work of art.

Epic Boss Encounters: Face off against over 170 varieties of enemies and dozens of massive, challenging bosses, each requiring unique strategies and quick reflexes to defeat.

Dynamic Combat System: Master various weapon classes, including swords, dual blades, scythes, and whips, each with their own distinct move sets and upgrade paths.

Rich Lore and Narrative: Uncover the hidden history of Engardin through environmental storytelling, hidden documents, and interactions with a diverse cast of characters.

Advantages and disadvantages

Pros

Stunning hand-drawn visuals with distinctive, interconnected biomes and detailed animations

Engaging fantasy lore with a branching storyline and multiple endings

Deep RPG systems, including stat upgrades, skill unlocks, and a wide range of weapons, armor, and equipment

Large variety of enemies and challenging boss fights that reward pattern recognition and quick reflexes

Cons

Magic is tied to limited resources, making spell-focused or ranged builds feel restricted compared to melee

No on-screen mini map, which makes navigating the large interconnected world more cumbersome

Game guide

The Homecoming

Interacting with the device in the middle of the room and selecting Investigate this ancient device will trigger a boss encounter against Guider, the Shadow Moon. Defeating them will grant the ending and the Homecoming achievement.

The Cradle

Interacting with the device in the middle of the room and inserting one or two Memory Shards will trigger a boss encounter against Guider, the Shadow Moon, similar to the Homecoming ending. Defeating them will grant the ending and the Cradle achievement.

The Essential

Interacting with the device in the middle of the room and inserting three Memory Shards will trigger a boss encounter against Guider, the Shadow Moon, similar to the Homecoming ending. In addition, after beating Guider, the player will be forced into a harder boss fight with another Renee. Defeating them will grant the ending and the Essential achievement.

User comments

I bought this game on both PS5 & PS4 the views in the game & graphics are beautiful. Whoever drew the art work for this is truly awesome, and now it's on mobile and you can't argue with £5.99 a must get. If you haven't bought the physical deluxe version with the art work and the soundtrack why not!? It's awesome. the music is nice to listen to and is a must for any gamers soundtrack collection. A must buy both on mobile, PC and Console but if you buy the console version buy the physical version.

I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far. Definitely one of the best metroidvania games available on mobile. Lovely locations I've come across and the voice acting has been top notch. I use a cheap offbrand controller and it works just fine with it. Only issues are some background textures flicker for me which can be distracting. I assume that's more of a 'my end' thing for having a 4 year old phone, cant dock a star for that as the game itself is really good.

The best thing about Afterimage is its Gameplay Loop. I enter the world, "expand" the world I've discovered, plant tags on the map for those events I can't do just yet, for those routes that are blocked for the time being. I defeat bosses and unlock dynamic abilities, which help me "unblock" some of what I couldn't do before. Pretty much that, but it's a great game in other ways too.

Summarize

Overall, Afterimage immerses you into an action-packed platformer with perilous, yet gorgeous biomes inhabited by hundreds of distinct enemies and a comprehensive RPG system that lets you create the build of your dreams. It’s important to remember that this title has an unreliable magic system and lacks an on-screen mini-map. If you think you can stomach these flaws, this game is worth a try.