Samurai Lantern | Review

Developer: AdventureBit

Publisher: AdventureBit

Reviewed on: PC

Available on: PC

Released: 11^th December, 2016

Samurai Lantern is a 2D single screen platformer developed by AdventureBit. Exterior help was given with the creation of the sound effects and music, but other than that, this is the work of a one man developer. If you want to try out Samurai Lantern it's completely free with the option of supporting the developer if you enjoyed the game.

I came across Samurai Lantern while searching for lesser known indie games to review which is something I'm looking to do more often. While certain indie games are fairly bare-bones, the experience you get while playing them can be fun and reminiscent of NES games in terms of minimal and simplistic graphics and controls. The question is, is Samurai Lantern an example of a good indie game or is it not worth your time?
As far as I can tell there isn't a story in Samurai Lantern, which I always find slightly disappointing. I know it can be difficult making cutscenes but I feel like for a game which looks and plays like an NES game, a wall of text with some illustrations giving us some backstory and character development would be sufficient. Maybe the samurai is cursed and must traverse a castle in hopes of finding a cure and the only way of unlocking the different floors is to light fires using the lanterns you collect? Something simple to give the player an overall objective would entice me to want to beat the game a lot more than beating it simply for the challenge.

This isn't a huge problem for an indie game to have though, it's just something which I feel would have gotten me slightly more invested into the game.

You'd better be on your toes because enemies will soon surround you unless you move quick and attack as you collect lanterns.

Obviously the main thing we're playing this for though is the gameplay. It's a fairly straight forward premise, you must navigate your way around each level by running, jumping and attacking to make your way to randomly spawning lanterns which appear one at a time. In order to open the door to the next level you'll need to collect fifteen of these lanterns, the catch is that the more you collect, the more enemies spawn which makes it more difficult to maneuver around the levels.

The enemies pose a big threat to your character because he dies in one hit. After getting touched by an enemy he'll commit seppuku, which is a way in which a samurai would commit suicide in order to either die with honor, as opposed to being captured or killed by the enemy, or it could be used after bringing dishonor to themselves. You're going to want to stay away from the enemies or defeat them quickly by using your sword to avoid this fate.

The combat is very basic, you have one type of sword slash which attacks in the direction you're facing and every type of enemy will die in one hit. The difficulty is ramped up through the amount of enemies rather than them becoming gradually getting harder to defeat. There are two different types of enemy, one is a blob creature which will walk on the floor and jump from platform to platform in a predicable pattern and there are floating skulls which will slowly make their way towards you, even going through platforms to get to you.

I love the animations for each action the samurai does, it's smooth and gives the game some personality.

Despite the enemy types lacking a huge amount of variety, the two different types we see in Samurai Lantern make for some interesting gameplay. You'll have to quickly make decisions about which enemies to prioritise and which to try and evade. I would have liked to have seen a few more enemies introduced, but the ones we do see are very well implemented into the game. Even better than just more standard enemies would be a boss encounter at the end of the game.

The level design is fairly varied, different layouts of platforms and walls are present in each new level which keeps things interesting but there's a lack of level gimmicks (such as ice, making platforms slippy, or darkness making it so you can only see enemies around yourself and the lantern, etc) which makes it so each level feels more or less the same. There are saw blades in the second level which set it apart from the first level (as well as making it more difficult), but these blades return in the third level, which means there's not a lot different between the second and third levels.

Most single screen platformers allow you to drop down pits and re-appear at the top of the screen but Samurai Lantern doesn't do this because of the emphasis on making sure you're surrounded by danger at all times. Having pits which kill you makes the game more tense because it gives you less escape options when you want to retreat. You can move to the left of the screen and appear on the right (or vice-versa), but this should only be used as a last resort because it can be a bit disorientating with the game being so fast paced.

The colour pallet for each level changes which keeps the game visually interesting.

A good bit of game design is how the lantern's drop locations are randomised which not only gives the game a small amount of replay value by making each run of the game different but more importantly you can't just memorize where the lanterns spawn to make the game easier for yourself.

The main menu is very good, not only acting as a standard menu by using the d-pad (I played Samurai Lantern with an Xbox 360 controller as recommended by the game's download page) but also acting as a bit of a tutorial level without being too obvious. Basically the main menu is displayed under a completely empty level in which the samurai can run and jump around, giving the player a chance to get used to the feel of the game and work out the controls before beginning the game properly. While I really like this idea, I wish the main menu room wasn't empty, maybe a more detailed background or some platforms would have made this a bit more aesthetically pleasing.

There's a wall jumping mechanic but it isn't implemented very well into the level design, at no point do you have to wall jump to navigate an obstacle and while it does help to get onto platforms if you jump into the side of them, I feel like this was a missed opportunity. While playing around on the main menu, I found that you could only do one successive wall jump before the ability runs out, which makes me think that this is a mechanic which was supposed to be utilised a bit more at some stage in development. A level where you needed to wall jump to make it to a higher platform would have been great and separated itself from the design of other levels.

Wall jumping is a feature which I feel could have been expanded on greatly. It's really only good for helping to get onto platforms above you.

There are no power-ups which may seem a little bit strange, but I think this is good because it keeps the game very simple and easy to pick up and play without getting too complicated, and having power-ups may have detracted slightly from the difficulty of the game. Not that the game is too difficult, it's just the right amount of challenging to keep you wanting to beat it but not so easy that it's insulting.

The main criticism I have of Samurai Lantern is that it is extremely short, the whole game can be completed in less than five minutes if you have a good run and there's only three levels before the game abruptly cuts to the credits. If it had around ten levels with a boss encounter after the fifth and tenth levels I would have been very impressed and satisfied. But as it stands I found myself very disappointed when the credits rolled.

The game is over before it feels like it's begun. I would love to play a more fleshed out version of this game one day.

The graphics are good and everything runs smoothly, I especially like how the background of each stage changes colour so it doesn't get too repetitive. There's lots of small attentions to detail like making the lanterns and the samurai character emit a subtle light so you can easily identify where everything on the screen is, there's a cool animation of a blast of air appearing when you jump and there's also some really good visual feedback when you kill an enemy, the screen shakes just as the hit lands making you feel the weight of your actions. You can tell a lot of effort was put into this game and it really shows.

The overall look of the game does come across as slightly uninspired with it being the typical pixel-art style that a lot of indie games go for, but there's enough detail and charm going on below the surface for this to not be too much of an issue.

One thing I would have liked to see is blood gradually covering the level after killing enemies, maybe you could get some sort of bonus for not getting blood anywhere or alternatively for covering the level in blood. I think this may have given the game a bit more style, especially if the blood sprayed out of enemies like a stereotypical martial arts film.

These floating red skulls can cause problems if they catch you off guard. They're especially annoying because they can go through walls and platforms.

The controls for the game are almost perfect, everything is responsive and the buttons are all mapped in a way that makes sense. The game has built in Xbox 360 controller support too which is fantastic because it was obviously built to be played with a controller over a keyboard and mouse.

The left analogue stick will move the character left and right, the A button is used to jump, the X button is to attack and the Y button is used to reset the stage if you die or make a mistake. Very simple controls, but don't fix what ain't broken.

My one issue with the controls is that there isn't a way of quitting the game when using the controller. This is a shame because if that wasn't the case I wouldn't have a single problem with the controls at all. You can't remap the controls, but that isn't an issue because the placement of inputs is perfect the way it is.

Upon collecting all fifteen lanterns in a level you have to make it to the door alive. Make sure you don't get caught at the last hurdle!

The sound effects in Samurai Lantern are all great, they're fairly minimal and you probably won't even notice them on a conscious level but even if you don't pay particular attention to them, the game wouldn't be anywhere near as good without them. Anything you do in the game will make a noise, whether that be hitting enemies, jumping or collecting items and the feedback you receive from the sound when doing these actions makes everything feel weightier and more impactful.

There's unfortunately only one music track through the entire game which is disappointing and it doesn't do a good job of reflecting the varied visuals or making the stages stand out from one another, but the track itself is well produced and incorporates the oriental themes associated with a samurai. The track does also get slightly repetitive so I feel like more music is definitely needed.

Another of the samurai's animations I really like is his sword attack, it really looks like he's slashing with all his might.

Samurai Lantern has the basis for a really good game, if it was expanded on to include more levels, boss fights, more standard enemies, level gimmicks and more music we would have a game that's fantastic. But in it's current form the main issue with Samurai Lantern is that it's extremely short. The fact that I'm left wanting more though is a great thing because that means I thoroughly enjoyed what little time I spent with the game.

I'm looking forward to seeing what this developer creates next, they obviously have a lot of potential and with funding could perhaps make something great.

Pros:

- The controls are great and Xbox 360 controller support is built into the game.

- There's a lot of attention to detail in the game's visuals which helps with gameplay and being visually interesting.

- It's completely free, so if you like the sound of it, I recommend you give it a go.

- The two types of enemy keep things fast paced and work extremely well with the level design.

Cons:

- It's too short and because of this it lacks substance.

- There's only one music track through the whole game which gets a little bit repetitive despite being a well produced and very catchy song.

- There's not a lot from a gameplay point of view which separates each of the levels.

- No story elements whatsoever to keep you invested in completing it.