Saviorless (Switch) Review
Release Date: April 2, 2024
Publisher/Developer: Dear Villagers/Empty Head Games
Platform: Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), PC (via Steam, Epic Store, and GOG), PlayStation 5
Price: $12.99
Saviorless is a tale of Antar, a young boy who dreams of visiting the Smiling Islands and becoming a Savior. Eventually through the narrative you get to play as a Savior directly, as well as a third, mysterious main character. This hand-drawn, two-dimensional platforming game is set in a lush world filled with puzzles. Each character plays with a completely different style, with the Savior being all about combat, whilst Antar’s sections center around puzzles and basic survival.
The narrative is broken up in a curious way that keeps you on your toes, with literal narrators telling the tale as you go, and bickering about how to properly weave the tale. As Antar continues his journey, he collects pages of the story that end up helping him collect artifacts. These artifacts may not make sense as you pick them up, but the sporadic and oddly woven tale will unravel as you dig further into the mystery.
Saviorless’ tale as a game is as interesting as the game itself, being developed by a Cuban studio and published internationally despite many obstacles. The game has been in development for over seven years. Despite all of the setbacks, the game is well-polished and surprisingly jarring with it’s beautiful art style yet sudden and small but painful looking bloody moments, like witnessing a peaceful-seeming characters erupt with a gush as enemies explode out from their insides.
As you progress in Antar’s areas, you come across strange enemies that can kill you in one hit and diabolical puzzles that will throw spikes at you every chance they can. One hit and you are starting from the last save point. Personally, this is my one hiccup with the game as I cannot dictate when the saves happen. A couple times I found myself mastering five or six steps only to be killed on the next tricky part three times and having to re-do them again, with another little trick after that. In a world full of Dark Souls style instakills, it’s not that big of a deal, but it can become grating if say, you are fighting a boss, don’t know their patterns, get killed three phases in, and get reset right outside of the boss room…again.
Meanwhile, the areas with the Savior can be far more combat-heavy and action oriented. The disparity is jarring, but it allows you to really get a feel for two different play styles that make sense in this environment. Savior does make me long to get back to the action when playing as Antar personally due to the resets that felt a little lengthy. The Savior is not without it’s limitations, though, as you must keep killing to stay alive. This can cause resets as well, because if you miss a puzzling part and get stuck, you end up having to wait out a death timer before having to try again. The narrative easily kept me coming back time and again as I attempted to decipher the mystery of the Saviors and the Smiling Islands.
Running only $12.99, Saviorless is a daunting mystery that’s worth the cost of admission. The beautiful art style and grim fantasy tale is an enthralling, unique, and dark tale that draws you in. If you’re clumsy or not quick to grasp patterns you may get frustrated during particularly fun yet daunting boss battles, however the patterns are simple enough to fully understand after one or two attempts. Saviorless is a beautiful game that you’ll want to see through to the end to get the entire tale.
Pros:
-Beautiful artwork and level design
-Interesting puzzles that are simple to understand but difficult to master
-A deep, intriguing tale that keeps you on your toes
-Different playstyles of the protagonists offer fresh adventures
Cons:
-Some respawn points feel too far back
-Disjointed story may confuse some at first
-Antar’s instant deaths or the Savior’s timed kills may feel frustrating if you are struggling with an area
Special thanks to Dear Villagers/Empty Head Games for providing a code for review!