Dragon Half is a manga series that ran from 1988 to 1994. Written by Ryuusuke Mita, it follows the adventures of Mink—the daughter of a dragon slayer father and a dragon mother—and her friends. Meanwhile, the king wants her out of the picture so he can propose to her mother, and Mink is locked in a rivalry with the princess over the hot new monster slayer: Dick Saucer. Yes, that is indeed his name.
While the manga never achieved widespread success—especially in the West—it did manage to get a two-episode OVA. It’s thoroughly hilarious and stands as one of the funniest stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
So, when I saw that Ryuusuke Mita designed the characters for a brand-new video game, it went on my radar immediately—the precision platformer, Lovish.
Gameplay:
Lovish's gameplay loop is as simple as they come: a map of stages, each a single-screen challenge for the player to complete. They start off fairly easy, but get increasingly harder as the player progresses.
At the end of each screen, a random event occurs. These can range from neat situations and mini-games to replaying the stage, flat-out killing you, granting extra lives, and much more.
The player starts with 200 lives, but it is very easy to burn through them as some of the later stages can be demanding. Thankfully, lives only affect the ending you receive, and it is entirely possible to beat the game with a negative number of hearts.
Paired with the simplistic yet well-drawn pixel art, the game gives off an incredibly nostalgic feel. Had you shown me screenshots and told me it was an old NES title, I would have believed you.
Throughout the game, you will unlock shops and find opportunities to acquire upgrades. For example, while the player character normally dies in one hit, it is possible to buy an upgrade that gives you an extra hit before dying, grants access to extra challenges within the stages, and so on.
There are several extra challenges available. Each level features three crowns to collect: one for clearing the stage under a time limit, one for clearing it without taking damage, and one hidden behind a breakable fake wall. On top of that, you can unlock additional challenge levels by entering hidden portals in specific stages, which are sure to test your skills.
Fortunately, these extra challenges appear to exist strictly for completionists, as some of them require an exceptionally high skill level to clear. I will be honest and admit that I did not manage to complete them all, as they get quite difficult.
The controls, however, felt very finicky to me. I found that the game sometimes requires pixel-perfect precision, yet the controls feel just too floaty and slow to complement the design—a crucial factor in a precision platformer. I never truly felt in complete control of the character, leading to several deaths that felt more unfair than user error.
While the core gameplay loop is straightforward, that does not mean the game itself is easy; it gets frustratingly hard at times. Some of the standard levels can get quite ridiculous, placing you in incredibly tight spots or positioning enemies in maddening locations.
The random event system does not help matters either. Clearing a grueling stage only to be forced to repeat it due to unlucky RNG—or losing a life through no fault of my own—never felt rewarding. Some events can be fun to witness, especially the guest appearance by Dragon Half's Mink, but I cannot help but feel the concept was not executed as well as it could have been. The text scroll for them is also quite slow, and there is no way to speed them up or skip them.
Another criticism lies with the shops. They only sell permanent upgrades, meaning once you purchase them, the shops—and by extension, your money—become completely useless. I would have liked to see them sell hearts or consumable items. That at least would have given coins a purpose once you accumulate a surplus, which is bound to happen considering just how many side challenges this game offers.
What About the Story?
I was hoping to write quite a bit for this section, as what drew me to this game in the first place was its connection to Dragon Half. The trailer seemed charming, and I was expecting to get a good laugh, but... there is unfortunately not much here.
A group of four heroes sets out to rescue a kidnapped princess, and Solomon, the knight of the group, figures that if all four rescue her, there is a chance she might fall for any one of them. And so, he decides to ditch his companions and go save the princess on his own.
It is an incredibly good setup for a comedy, and one that raised my expectations for the game to deliver a very fun story. Unfortunately, almost every bit of story afterward comes from the random events at the end of each stage, an extra mode unlocked via an upgrade that serves as a prequel, and the endings.
Ninety-eight percent of these moments are not particularly funny; they mostly just paint the main character as a douche—and not an entertaining one. By the time I finished the game, I simply disliked him.
Should you play it?
Lovish is a game I really wanted to recommend before starting it; it is very silly, has a nostalgic feel reminiscent of the NES days, and features work by the person who created one of my favorite comedies—one that I still recommend to people to this day.
However, the level design can come across as hostile, the controls can feel quite finicky and imprecise, and I simply lost patience with the main character by the end. Top that all off with a random event system that can make the game feel unfair, and it becomes a title I just didn't want to go back to.
If you like precision platformers and really want something to give you a challenge, I think Lovish will definitely scratch that itch. For people who are prone to losing their patience, however, there is unfortunately little here to enjoy.
VERDICT: Maybe
Reviewed on PC
Review key was provided
Available On: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
Post a Comment