REVIEW | Noreya: The Gold Project: a classic metroidvania that goes strong and in the middle

June 21 was the launch of Noreya: The Gold Projecta metroidvania developed by the French independent studio dreamirl. The title is quite classic in its concept and proposal but stands out for its 2D pixel art visual style and the inclusion of small decision-making that affects the game map.

The narrative puts us in the shoes of Kali, a fighter who suffers, along with her group, the attack of a god and plunges her into darkness. Our objective is to take revenge on said deity or to purify the evil that lurks in the world. This detail is not something minor since throughout the game we unlock sanctuaries and we will have the possibility of praying to the God of Light or the God of Gold.

Depending on what we do, the map changes in some sections, opening new possibilities and different paths. In addition, we will have the possibility of obtaining different skills depending on whether we prioritize one path or another. This kind of double map present in the game, called the path of light and the path of gold, invites us to thoroughly explore each point since we can find different uses.

Taking out this differential that does not reformulate the genre either but works in a good way, Noreya: The Gold Project It is a classic metroidvania that presents us with an interconnected map that we can travel through in a non-linear way. Obviously, as we advance in the game we unlock different abilities that will allow us to access corners that were previously impossible.

The game contains both combat and platform and puzzle sections. I enjoyed the latter a lot and several locations surprised me about how their resolution should be. As for the combat, it is the aspect that left me most doubtful about the title since I never felt it was satisfactory. The impact of the blows is not very precise from a visual perspective, so it is often difficult to calculate the distance to hit or avoid a blow.

Added to this is the limited variety of enemies and some of them are truly annoying to face. In any case, I never felt frustration in the entire game but rather it is a lack of precision in the section. On the contrary, I found the different bosses in the game very good since they were not limited only to a combat section but each of them includes some external mechanic that we will have to discover to defeat them.

Some of these bosses are challenging but we have many tools to make our way through them easier. Noreya: The Gold Project. When we defeat enemies we collect gold that we can use at the shrines to pray to a god and add points to use in our skill tree. Many improvements are available here, ranging from shields, more damage, more life and even the possibility of learning new skills depending on the bosses we have defeated.

The skill tree is quite extensive and greatly affects the gameplay, so traveling around the map to discover new enemies and collect gold is extra important. Outside of this, there are also secret paths and sections that reward us with more life and damage. Thanks to this and the possibility of affecting the map depending on which god we swear allegiance to, the experience of the title can vary quite a bit depending on each player and that is something notable.

However, Noreya: The Gold Project, broadly speaking, does not offer anything very different from what other metroidvania can offer. As much as it is a highly recommended experience, it is worth clarifying that if you have already played other titles of the genre you probably won’t find anything you haven’t seen before. This is not necessarily a negative criticism since it has nothing to envy of other exponents except in terms of the depth of combat.

Something that I cannot fail to mention is that throughout the title I suffered many performance problems. While this is something that will surely be fixed as updates go by, they affected my experience. Above all, during my confrontation with the final boss where I had different crashes and most of the combat had a lot of FPS drop.

Definitely, Noreya: The Gold Project He approves of everything he proposes and manages to stand out in his artistic style as well as in the puzzle sections and the boss fights. The combat is the aspect that left me with the most doubts, but it does not affect the classic and recommended experience that games in the metroidvania genre can offer.