Tevi - Metroidvania Analysis
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- Опубліковано 22 лип 2024
- A Metroidvania AND a Bullet Hell?
The spiritual successor to Rabi-Ribi, Tevi sheds (most) of its predecessor's cringe and goofiness while refining what made that game so great: the combat. But can lightning strike twice?
Intro - 00:00
Spoilers Begin - 28:43
Spoilers End - 33:55
Gameplay Credit:
Bai Gaming - / @baigaming
SomeMugGaming - / @somemuggaming - Ігри
Spot on as usual,
I was looking forward to Tevi, spent 10 hrs with it, please do a review on lone fungus, steam deck is a must have for all metroidvania fans
Extremely solid review. I agree with most of your points here, even as someone who loved Tevi. I guess this game was made for me, as I also loved Rabi.
However, I find myself disagreeing with some of your points. I did mind the one-way streets but the ability to drop platforms actually gave way to some puzzles, and after playing tons of platforming games it's not like they can always drop through them.
As for the ability gating and linearity, yeah, it's slow. There were times where I really wanted a double jump to get out of some sections. And that actually brings me to the platforming, completely subjective, but as someone who loves platforming over combat, I actually didnt mind the lack of platforming challenges and adored the emphasis on battles.
As for the story. Its a mess but to me it was a charming mess. Except for the final boss, that was a wtf moment. Slight correction on my part but when you say "The devs brought that over from Rabi" it implies the writers from Rabi were the same as Tevi. That is not correct. The writer from that game did not have substantial input in Tevi's story,(apart from bringing over the bunny aesthetic). In fact, they're different writing and localization teams.
Potions and sigils: sigils are great, and yeah potions can get a bit boring, but i didn't mind them as much due to how useful they are.
As some last notes, I saw your post saying you were playing on the Switch. That version is really behind the current Steam build. The devs have done an incredible job addressing issues with the game, buffing late game bosses, adding new sigils, removing some conditions to unlock the custom modes and even giving more incentives to do challenges and explore the map. I've seen rooms change to avoid softlocks, or even the godsend to allow you to Free Roam the game before playing story mode, which completely addresses the story and exploration hurdles. Up to a recent build, Free Roam was only available as a new file option after beating the game once, now, you can start the game in that mode from initial bootup and it
1. Removes all cutscenes and dialogue.
2. Rearranges abilities and their map positions to allow for a different flow
3. Gives back all the game hidden tech from Rabi which people loved.
4. Rearranges some rooms to allow for more sequence breaking and also removes all story gating. Your only objective is "Collect X number of gears then head for the final boss". Nothing more, nothing less
In fact, the circus and coliseum you were talking about are coming in free DLC as a boss rush mode for the coliseum and something else for the circus.
I felt like that last part is something I really needed to say because while watching your video I thought "yeah thats fair but they kinda adressed that in a new patch".
All in all though, I can't disagree with your conclusion, this is a niche game. The bullet hell can be frustrating, even hardcore Tevi fans struggle with the story, so that's a hurdle, and not everyone will be okay with anime, but man... I think this being such a niche game is what actually makes it great. It's something different from the usual MV experience and that's why I love this game so much and will probably play it for years to come.
PD: Also the map is getting even more QoL features next patch! No news if we will be allowed to pin directly from that screen though. Youre one of the only people ive actually seen praising the map, some really dont like it lol
Agreeing about platforms not being something you can drop through. This makes them the equivalent of pitfall blocks but for one-way streets going up instead of going down. It's actually how the majority of Metroidvanias I've played work, it's also how freakin' Mario works, and I think the exceptions are the ones that took more inspiration from Kirby in their platforming and tbh I don't really care which way a game is designed as long as they use their design smartly. And like you said, they used the platforms for puzzles, so I think it worked pretty all right in TEVI.
21:00 omg this was such a big annoyance for me too! Most of the cross bomb puzzles were easy for me, but when I first messed one up out of sheer carelessness and found out I couldn't simply leave the room and come back to reset the puzzle, I was frustrated. And then there was one puzzle in particular that was actually difficult to figure out, and I had to reset that thing so many times! Very annoying. Arguably the worst part of this game's obligatory "bomb puzzles for a pickup" that every Metroidvania with bombs has. They really should just patch this, it should be easy. They already patched some other map problems that were too annoying even for veteran players. I'll take your idea to the discord server as a suggestion.
This is a really well written review. Of course UA-cam waits to show it to me right after it goes off sale.
Running into those one way streets early is why I sought out and am watching this video with the game idle in the background. They're absolutely driving me nuts.
💀
The Colosseum is used for boss rush which is an upcoming update.
There is also free roam mode which foregoes the entire story and opens up the entire map to you from the get go, and also introduces hidden tech moves that allows for much more creative exploration.
A lot of the bomb blocks puzzle issues were addressed in patches as well, usually leaving the room and re-entering will reset those blocks.
Glad I waited to play then. :)
I largely agree with your criticisms, especially the ones about movement and exploration. It's impossible not to compare this game to Rabi-Ribi in both gameplay and in story/presentation. The fact that the devs removed movement tech from Rabi-Ribi intentionally BUT THEN GIVE IT BACK TO YOU IN A POST-CLEAR GAME MODE frustrated the hell out of me! It was much less fun to move around because of this. Also agree about the overuse of pitfalls and other troll level design elements, it was very frustrating. A little bit of trolling is obligatory for the genre, I mean even Metroid does it, but this game did it about 10x as often as it should have. I think you're a bit harsh on the plot-not everything they set up was for a narrative payoff, some of it was just exposition for the setting and that's fine-but overall I agree that they dropped a lot of plot threads. The whole thing with Sable's sister is a plot thread that they didn't quite drop, because everything you do from that point is either in service of finding a way to help her, or is an urgent interruption that still loosely relates to the overarching goal, but because of the way the game ends, it's basically implicit that the way they chose to resolve that plot thread was to say "they never found a cure and she died." Other plot threads, though, definitely did get dropped, and they did have the problem of characters just popping in and out all the time and some of their motivations and actions not making sense. And you're right that you'll be terribly confused and not sure what to do were it not for map markers if you don't actually pay attention to all the dialogue; tbh, Rabi-Ribi had the same problem, but it was worse because even after paying attention, it didn't make sense. Nonetheless, I enjoyed its vignettes well enough. The entire forest village arc was great, the moral complexity of the bandits making it so that the game doesn't just have cartoonish villains on the level of Team Rocket, and the way that every government has some sort of flaw or hypocrisy (except for the empress I guess, I wish she would have been treated as a flawed character too, but anime has a problem with upholding monarchy so why should I be surprised...) all were enjoyable. I also liked the character banter. Tevi was extremely likable, and besides the fact that she seemed to rebound from her friend Greasetrap dying a little too quickly, also extremely relatable. BTW, she's not Tahlia's and Charon's daughter, she's their granddaughter. It kind of makes you wonder how old she is, since it's apparently been just barely over 30 years since her mother was born, but... I digress. I don't think you should be so hesitant to recommend this game to people unless they like the genre niches. I would definitely not recommend this game to people who don't like any of the three of metroidvanias, bullet hells, and anime. But I think if someone was a fan of two our of three, it's probably worth recommending. I mean, at the easier difficulties, the bullet hell elements just don't really exist, and trolly level designs aside, at lower difficulties, going for lots of pickups isn't necessary, so someone who doesn't like metroidvania-style level design can probably just go through this mostly-linearly. Maybe once the sour taste of the plot leaves your mouth, you might warm up to this a bit more and be more willing to recommend it. That, or if they shell out the money for more VA so they can just fix the ending, lol.
And the fact Free Roam was patched to be available since the start of the game kind of solves it, not completely but hey, it's something. Also, I'd say the trolling isn't as bad as Metroid, because while this game has it in spades for some reason, I still won't forget the sand pits in Super and how frustrating they were to navigate. Seriously. Why
I haven't really played the predecessor so maybe I should have done some more research but finding the game really boring
Despite the pretty backgrounds the biomes are all incredibly dull. If you greyed out the backdrops and muted the music you would find it very hard to distinguish between most areas.
I don't feel the sigils or potions feel like a good reward for exploring.
Combat is okay and the bosses are fun. There's some good music but ultimately £30 feels too steep for what you are getting.
@@OB-um3ql well did you finish the game?
sounds like you didn't get much stuff, by the end tevi becomes a destruction machine
Hot take: Tevi feels more like a linear action JRPG than it feels like a metroidvania. Have you ever seen that meme on which the Joker says: - to me crazy frog is just a normal frog? I think that, to JRPG enjoyers such as myself, sometimes a bad story is just a story. Tevi is structured kind of like Dragon Quest. It uses "monster of the week" episodes while teasing you about an overarching narrative. The writing has its chops, it can be charming, it can be cute. But, mostly, the metroidvania framework is used to tell the story. Sometimes an episode takes you to 3-4 different biomes, and they get progressively more serious and menacing. Everything looks uber cute, like this is Maple Story on steroids, ready to shake your money out of your wallet and throw you some stat-boosting pay-to-win skins. It ultimately feels like Mana Khemia, or some Atelier game, but structured as a 2D game instead.
Is Tevi a game for sickos? I wonder, as I see a young looking girl wearing a bikini-like outfit, framed like she is ready to suffer some kind of assault. I found that first scene so unnecessary! And then her adoptive father, who is weirdly attracted to bunnies, laces Tevi up in bunny parafernalia? Damn, that is weird. But the game dabbles in fetishes like a kid dabbles its feet in the water of a pool. It never goes full pervert mode, like Rabi-Ribi does.
I agree with your criticism for the game. Curiously, Tevi's demo is a heavily curated and edited experience, that aims to give you the full Tevi experience in a 2 hour package. This means that Tevi gets her abilities really fast in the demo. You see a bunch of biomes (at least six, maybe eight), you're double jumping and dashing in no time, and you face a couple of hard bosses (that feel way harder than the normal game's normal difficulty, which really is too easy). The devs might be aware of their game's strengths and weaknesses, because they adressed all of that stuff when deciding what to showcase.
I ultimately agree with your take: this is not a game for everybody, but it is a good game with some amazing stuff peppered in.
Free Roam immediately addresses the so-called issue of "linear action JRPG" and several other criticisms presented in the video, which very recently was made available without restriction.
Also lets be real... 90% of Metroidvanias are actually very linear; Fusion, Guacamelee, even both Ori games. Games like Rabi-Ribi and Hollow Knight are just the extreme rare exception. And again Free Roam existing is a huge luxury that a lot of Metroidvanias wish they had.
@@Darkshad0vwv I mean it in the sense that Tevi's pacing is more similar to stuff like the Trails series.
That’s interesting, bringing up how the demo is much more streamlined than the game. I wonder if anyone felt deceived by the actual games slower pace 🤔
@@MetroidvaniaGuru They actually tell you something on the lines of, dont worry! The full game is long AF, this is just an abridged version so you can experience a lot of content fast!
@@radiobe4179 Solid
I believe the characters are considered 'gijinka', personifications, though not sure the different between it and kenonomimi. Furries might only be a Western thing as they are far more animal in appearance and only one show, Beast Stars, does that. Well, and much older anime with fantasy races that look like animals, but those are called anthropomorphs, which just have the look yet their own race.
I had no idea. I only just learned about Kemonomimi. I had no idea there were so many styles. I just called them all Furries 😆
I agree that storytelling could be better. Long dialogs weren't a problem for me, but plot resolutions and introductions were sometimes all over the place.
One mayor thing I would add to all of this is that English subtitles weren't always accurate with Japanese voice acting and were considerably more plain in comparison, especially sentences with more slang vocabulary or onomatopeyas. There were also no subtitles in boss battles where characters were putting some tauting words towards a protagonist. Without knowing any Japanese many players lose some on the experience playing this game in my opinion.
I'm a hardcore Tevi and Rabi Ribi fun and pretty much agree with this whole thing. I appreciate that you framed a lot of the criticisms as "these may be hurdles for some but can easily be seen as pros for others" as it makes the review more honest and less divisive, and indeed a lot of the things you weren't too keen on are things I quite enjoyed. The story though was indeed by far the worst about it and you nailed what annoyed me about it so much, with the constant picking up of plot points and never resolving them. In fact, did *any* plot points get resolved? I felt like it just kept jumping to new ones every chapter.
Anyways, happy to see some love for the game. Despite your "I'm not entirely sure I'd recommend this", I can tell you really quite enjoyed the game.
Surprised to see you don't have a Rabi Ribi analysis, would absolutely love to see one. Especially with how good Rabi Ribi's exploration is compared to Tevi's.
So, how likely are you to recommend this to a Touhou fan (yes, my fav character is Reisen, hence the Legoshi Beastars pfp) that's played and enjoyed Touhou Luna Nights?
Not played rabbi nor Tevi but great review 👍👍
Charon the best dad ever. The game wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for his immense fuckup.
He is actually the grandpa, but yeah.
So is Cookie Cutter next?
Ori and the Will o the Wisps is a masterpiece 10/10
have u playd
Sundered is a greyt matroidvania
I have. It’s interesting. Love the art style.
ahh so this is what you were doing.
Yup 🙄😒
😂
Dozens of metroidvanias to review , 2 weeks later drops a chibi waifu mv review 😒. Here I am still waiting on Laika
😂
Worldless analysis when
It’s my next one 👍
@@MetroidvaniaGuru lmao I said that mostly as a joke. I didn't expect you to actually reply LOL
Good to know though, I'm looking forward for the video. I played only the demo so far, but I am already in love with the game's combat system.
OFF TOPIC: Games with this style makes me wonder why Wizet don't make a single player game with the maplestory universe (they did for nintendo ds) but in MV format. They got that nice Chibi style characters and npcs going, and Enough bosses and skills to choose from to add in that game. Doesn't have to be a bullet hell but if they do it like Tevi did as something optional they would also reach more audiences. I personally hate the live service, free to play maplestory because of all the pay to win microtransactions it brings.
Ofcourse Wizet can't do this because of obligations to Nexon... 13:24 (Maplestory Mushroom monster xD)
Thanks for the video
I think I am skipping this one
I don't mind animeish artstyle but the enemies and bosses design doesn't look interesting or unique or intimidating, the story being a ton of exposition dump like a modern AAA game and a not good one at that Is a turn off for me,
You've killed the game for me when you have said "one-way-street".
Just watching 22:29 pissed me of.
Yup. I hate em.