Valfaris sees you take on the role of Therion. The game starts as he lands on his home planet, Valfaris, to slay all who have been corrupted by an arcane evil and turned against him. How and why? I don’t want to spoil too much, but there is a surprising amount of exposition within the quick dialogue. However, that doesn’t slow this face-paced, heavy metal inspired, Contra science fiction side scrolling shooter.

By Wyatt Meffert

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The Game:

The world of Valfaris has been ravaged by arcane evil, and in each mission stage that is clear to see in its terrain and inhabitants. Through lush but rotting forests to desolate, frost bitten industrial structures, Therion finds no equal in slaying foes and scaling obstacles of many kinds, like insta-kill electric fences, giant garbage compactors, spikes, and pools of acid.

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Being inspired by Contra, there is plenty of platforming involved in Valfaris, including riding flying cybernetic worms above terrain that would one-shot Therion if he tried running on it. As far as the shooting goes, there are 19 weapons to choose from and three different weapon categories: Pistol, melee, and “Destroyer.” The pistol weapons have unlimited ammo and all of them shoot different sorts of ammo from each other. The first one Therion starts with shoots three long range missiles that shoot 30 degrees apart; one missile being centered. Then there is another pistol that’s a rail gun, which shoots a straight and narrow laser that penetrates enemies for equal damage across the screen. And destroyer? Well, I think it’s best you have fun finding out more about them yourself, as the feeling of their impact can only be felt first-hand.

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Melee weapons have less variance than the pistol and Destroyer weapons, but they are still all unique. Therion’s sword has an average length. Everything about it is average except its badass design. You will probably end up equipping different melee weapons for different stages and tasks though, like the life stealing one for a boss or long obstacle course you might have trouble with. With a good melee system comes parrying, and Therion can parry some of the most devastating looking attacks. He can’t parry fire, but that’s kind of expected.

All weapons in the game can be upgraded with blood metal, a collectable resource to find. These upgrades include more and stronger missiles for the pistols and Destroyers, and stronger blades with a longer range for melee weapons.

The Good:

Valfaris is a badass game. Therion’s enemies, the landscape he traverses, and the guns he uses are all designed from the ground up to exude awesomeness. Between the fast paced heavy metal and lack of backtracking, the game wants to keep you moving, and I really appreciate that. And, not every weapon needs to be upgraded or used. What’s most important is your play style and skill. I like how the game doesn’t force you to use any one weapon. Though in a few select cases, some are better than others.

Also, the boss fights are short and sweet. I’ve read some people complain that they’re not long enough. Even the last boss, which is split into three stages, doesn’t take long. But I think that’s a good thing, considering the game is rather stingy on health drops. Much longer of battles and the game would lose its tailored momentum.

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The Mixed:

The parrying mentioned earlier feels a bit odd at first. While fine overall, it could have been implemented more smoothly as the window of time in which an attack can be parried felt longer than it should have been, and it threw me off.

The Bad:

While I didn’t see my FPS counter dip below 58 (I am running a 9900K, 5Ghz all-cores with an overclocked 2080 Ti and 64GB of 3600Mhz RAM), every now and then there seemed to be choppiness to the movement on screen. Maybe it’s some weird issue only I faced, but it was a bother.

In my first play through, I didn’t know there would be a couple of weapons that could life-steal and be made larger and able to steal more life through upgrades at the various checkpoints. Like with health drops, the game is stingy on blood metals which felt like a shame. It’s easy to die in the game, and being able to more often upgrade weapons would have helped mitigate the pain of dying so often.

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The Verdict:

Valfaris is an excellent 2D action-platformer that, if you’re into heavy metal aesthetics and music, I would highly recommend. Anyone who tends to get impatient with deaths and hard hitting bosses should remember what style game this is. It’s short, sweet, and glorious in all its mix of organic and cybernetic brutality.

Valfaris is available on Steam for 24.99$, and was developed by Steel Mantis studios.