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I used to be lovestruck once I noticed Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus and performed it throughout the Subsequent Fest. That sport is the definition of eye sweet, and since it’s a 2.5D metroidvania, taking part in it on the Steam Deck was a breeze. I felt lots was going for it from the demo and was hopeful it might develop into as nice because it appeared. Now that I’ve performed it, I can confidently say that it is a Metroidvania you will not wish to miss out on, and I could not be happier.
I wish to begin this overview by getting the plain out of the best way first. Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is without doubt one of the most lovely Metroidvania video games I’ve ever performed. The sport has an origami-like aesthetic, the place every little thing appears prefer it was made from paper. It is vitally Japanese-inspired, which works wonders for it. Results like fireplace and water look infinitely extra distinctive because of the intricate designs that may be comprised of layers of paper. On high of this distinctive aesthetic, there are some 3D fashions snuck in there that slot in nicely with the origami world, however they do not stick out a lot and add depth to the areas you traverse.
Whereas all of that is superior, it was the number of places and vibrant colours that basically wowed me. Every place I went to felt prefer it was not solely distinct however wholly distinctive. From villages to caves to mountains and extra, every place had one thing new and exquisite to have a look at. I do not normally take footage of video games exterior of doing so for critiques, however this was in all probability the primary sport the place I felt compelled to as a result of the vistas of the forest have been simply so lovely. The colours pop by every space as nicely and are highlighted even additional on the Steam Deck’s OLED display screen. It was simply gorgeous.
The story in Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is attention-grabbing however does lose steam after a bit. You play as Bo, a celestial blossom who has come to satisfy an historic prophecy. Whereas there may be an cute forged of characters, and I really like they’re all impressed by Japanese mythology, it by no means actually stood out to me all through my time. It wasn’t a nasty or fully uninteresting story, however I ended up falling extra in love with the areas and gameplay mechanics over the reasonings behind the 7-hour journey.
Talking of which, Bo is a unbelievable Metroidvania with a beautiful fight and traversal system. You begin off the sport with a small set of skills to get you transferring ahead, and the extra you play, the extra this expands. You start with solely realizing the right way to do a small bounce and whack issues together with your workers, however as you play, you’ll acquire new methods to work together with the world. For traversal, you may floor pound to destroy bits within the floor and deal harm, use a bat to whack objects to interrupt partitions, and even benefit from a grappling hook to swing on floating objects you may hit to maintain your self airborne.
The sport emphasizes airborne traversal and utilizing completely different skills to get round and take down bigger enemies. To start with, you may preserve your self off the bottom by whacking enemies after leaping, which supplies you the prospect to leap once more. In a while, it is possible for you to to mix this with the grappling hook, air sprint, and extra to create these combos and hit enemies numerous occasions earlier than coming again to the bottom. There’s even a novel system to present your self further highly effective expertise utilizing equipable Daruma Dolls, and you may cost them as much as make a good larger assault by getting larger airborne combos.
The emphasis on being airborne is obvious all through the sport, making some collectibles unreachable except you may soar by the air. The bosses want this as nicely, making you grapple and hit/bounce your approach regularly to its head or whack balls into it whereas getting airborne to dodge incoming assaults. Every boss felt distinctive and difficult, and whereas the ultimate boss ups the ante somewhat bit an excessive amount of, it by no means feels unfair.
You’ll be able to heal your self utilizing your tea kettle, which refills as you assault enemies, and you may improve it extra within the hub city to carry extra fees or heal extra. You can too improve your weapon and Daruma Dolls from this space and purchase Omamori, which Talismans you may equip with completely different results. There are a stable quantity of those to purchase and much more that may be discovered as collectibles. You’ll be able to return and discover these together with your new skills and these little helpers you may collect to construct new constructions in your hub world. Bo does a fantastic job at making it worthwhile to return to older areas to seek out these collectibles.
The quantity of management you might have and the issues you may improve make taking part in Bo such a pleasure. And it is even higher to expertise on the Steam Deck.
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus – Steam Deck Efficiency
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus performs equally to different 2D metroidvanias/platformers on the Steam Deck, and it’s unbelievable. The controls work splendidly, the sport appears crisp and exquisite, and the gameplay matches splendidly for moveable play. It drains the battery very nicely, too, however it’s kind of larger while you attempt to play at 90 FPS. Enjoying at 60 FPS will normally preserve you round 8W with a excessive of 9W, however slip to 90 FPS, and you’ll begin seeing 12W to 13W excessive battery drain. It is a little bit too excessive for me, and with 60 nonetheless feeling very clean, I like to recommend simply sticking there.
I’ll say that some UI components with textual content or pictures are somewhat too small to make out. Most textual content is readable measurement, although some sentences are too small (like the highest part of the bamboo bat), and the Map Legend icons are too small to make out the design inside. Fortunately, completely different colours will be made out on the map legend, however the precise designs inside are too small.
In any other case, there aren’t any points with the sport on Deck, and it is unbelievable!
Accessibility
Bo does have a few completely different settings that may make it easier to out. There’s a particular Dyslexic Font you may toggle to make it extra readable for these with Dyslexia. You’ll be able to change sport pace and controller vibration, language and audio sliders, and rebind controls. Earlier than you hit 20 deaths, you may also activate Invincibility and Infinite Mana. I’m not positive why they’re locked after 20 deaths, however they’re choices./
The sport does assist 16:10 resolutions and controller/gamepads. There aren’t any HDR settings or cloud saves, however the devs have talked about they’re engaged on getting cloud saves applied.
Conclusion
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus shocked me in additional methods than I initially anticipated. The sport is attractive and feels wholly distinctive with every new biome in its Japanese-inspired origami-like world. The fight is unbelievable and works hand-in-hand with the traversal, doing a fantastic job of preserving you in your ft, or on this case, within the air. It is wonderful how nicely the sport works with all of its elements, and even when the story is not the best, it greater than makes up for it with its gameplay mechanics, lovely world, and the way nicely it runs on the Steam Deck. Should you get pleasure from Metroidvanias or Motion Platformers, do your self a favor and get this sport!
Our overview is predicated on the PC model of this sport.
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