Be sure to check out my review of Alwa's Awakening.
Alwa’s Legacy is a throwback to a bygone era when games were simpler and depended on solid, inviting gameplay above anything else. There is nothing flashy about the game, but it plays well and has enough upgrades, widely dispersed, to consistently maintain player engagement for the ten hours the game should take to beat.
This was an interesting game to play right after finishing Aeterna Noctis, as it is a stark contrast to the dreary, melancholic world of Aeterna. In Alwa, every area is bursting with colorful detail, cutesy sprites, and even some enemies are so laughably adorable they don’t even seem threatening.
There is one area for potential issues that should be mentioned early in the review. While not quite a soft lock, it straddles that line and requires precision movements to get out of the jam. It is possible to create a difficult situation for yourself in the upper levels of Sylvan Temple, where it’s possible to raise the water levels high enough to make it challenging to get out, if needed. There are posts on several sites talking about this, so be aware and traverse carefully in that dungeon, which is likely the second one you’ll come across.
Otherwise, dungeons are fun to explore, large but not so much to be overwhelming, intuitive but still requiring some thought. I enjoyed the time mechanic in the third dungeon, and it was a simple but effective way for past changes to impact present obstacles. The fourth dungeon had one of the better implementations of upside-down platforming seen in some games, though be aware of a second entrance for that particular dungeon. Platforming can be mildly challenging, but with care, usually fine to overcome. Three different skills can be upgraded: A green block, a blue bubble, and a lightning bolt. Furthermore, it is possible to combine two of these to find new uses and uncover even more undiscovered locations. Some secrets hide in plain sight, while others are well hidden, requiring a keen eye.
Bosses are also rough, at first, but with pattern recognition, they can usually be dispatched of, sometimes without being hit once. Some of the mini bosses posed more of a risk and annoyance, interestingly enough. Otherwise, bosses require just 8 hits while you start with 3 HP. By finding 4 petals, you can upgrade HP to a maximum of 6 (12 total petals).
Upgrading HP is slightly roundabout, as even after finding four petals, you need to return to a specific residence to give the citizen his petals, rather than just an automatic health upgrade. The petals are often hidden in plain sight but require various levels of ingenuity to grab.
Another inconvenience from something that is supposed to be convenient, in most games anyway, is warping, which is not immediately available. You have to find green drops, sometimes well hidden, and decide which save point to attach them to to allow warping. So, strategic placement is paramount to truly saving time, as some save points are as few as two screens apart. This isn’t a large world, but there are 45 save points!
There’s an acceptable level of enemy variety, and most are easy to dispose of. However, an annoying, unreachable gun that fires homing bullets can become quite vexing. One particular instance tasks you with moving a block while occasionally jumping back to avoid a randomly ejecting spear. All the while, you must also dodge homing missiles and contend with spearmen in hit-and-run fashion.
While Alwa’s Legacy boasts the polished look of an SNES game, or ’90s graphics smoothed over with modern technology, its sound design often doesn’t align with the visual polish. The music, and especially the sound effects, sometimes feel stuck in the late 1980s. A more modern interpretation of retro sound would have better matched the game’s visuals and presentation. Alwa reminds me of several games I can’t even recall anymore, a possible stylistic parallel being Incantation mixed with the platforming of DuckTales (NES).
The story is passable. Players guide Zoe, a girl summoned to the vibrant world of Alwa, trying to go home; she confronts enemies standing in her way. Although short, with a small world by Metroidvania standards, some gamers might be interested in attempting Alwa’s Legacy again on pacifist mode, which tasks you with avoiding any direct combat with enemies and bosses.
Legacy of Alwa is a solid indie-developed game. It mostly excels with some minor tweaks needed to stand out as a quintessential Metroidvania, but the blueprint is there.