Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists Review

I grew up playing the NES. That is to say, I played as a child, and I remember specific games like Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jackal, and Jaws, but I do not REMEMBER playing those games like I do the ones I play as an adult. For example, I remember repeatedly failing the trophy in Titanfall 2 to beat the training time and then coming up half a second short, retrying, and somehow coming up half of a half a second short (I may or may not have visualized putting a controller through the ground). I REMEMBER finishing Remnant 2 on hardcore and my hands literally shaking as the kill animation played. To my point, I do not recall NES games being difficult at all (I am much wiser now and have played some recently and WTF) or even experiencing any stress that I had the urge to quit. Was I just that good or did I just not care and moved from game to game regardless of the completion status?

Developed by Neckbolt and published by Burning Planet Digital, Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists “is a compact and high-density Metroidvania, with a focus on sequence-breaking and playing things out of order (Steam).” In a game that looks like it should be played on a Game Boy with its square ratio, you play as the titular character, a dryad. The world is completely dead, which may explain why the game opens with quotes from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Mad Max: Fury Road.

Alruna is a different type of Metroidvania. Most Metroidvanias follow a somewhat predictable (I said somewhat) formula: progress a bit, hit a wall, find an ability that breaks said wall, explore more until you hit another wall, rinse, and repeat. Alruna has all of this but also gives the player the choice of not doing any of this. You can tackle the bosses in any order you choose. Do some abilities help more than others? Of course. Can you do it without them? Definitely. Alruna is an explore-first, resort-to-violence-only-when-necessary type of game. There is no leveling and killing enemies serves no benefit outside of the occasional life hear they drop. If you avoid combat, though, you would not need to heal, right? The in-game map is a completionist’s dream as it shows every open pathway, fake wall, save point, and collectible (these only show in places you have passed through and missed). What is great about the map is that it does not completely hold your hand. Rooms on the map are just squares requiring you to be at that point to find the collectible (abilities may need to be unlocked) or determine which part of the wall is fake.

So, what was that stroll down memory lane in my introduction? Modern games can be very hard to downright impossible (or at least feel that way). Many of those games’ difficulties boils down to pattern recognition. Other times, you just need to hit them hard enough. NES games (Game Boy included) are hard for a multitude of reasons beyond just unavoidable boss attacks and impossibly large health pools. Bosses are easy compared to getting to the boss. Alruna is no different. Enemies die relatively quickly with most only taking one or two swings of the whip. Alruna also dies very easily. You have no defense so to speak. Enemies can “unintentionally” stunlock you to death. The game has no knockback effect, either to you or from you. More times than I could count, I would land a jump right in front of the enemy. Instead of just taking a hit and being able to move away, I would take 4 consecutive hits and die. There was no rhyme or reason as to when or how this would happen, though (perhaps the way the animations occur, but I am no developer). To add insult to injury, dying sends you back to the last save you made with everything done reset. Luckily, there are plenty of save points (the map has them all marked in areas you have discovered). While you try to avoid a deadly stunlock, be on the lookout for room hazards aplenty. You will encounter spike traps, saw blades, and water, all of which need to be avoided. It is not instant death, but you do lose one life and respawn at the entrance to the room along with any enemy, including those already defeated. Speaking of respawns, enemies reset any time a new room is entered. Only bosses remain dead but there is no reason to re-visit their locations. There is a warp ability you unlock as you progress, but prepare yourself to deal with enemies over and over (as I said before, killing serves no ultimate purpose, so feel free to skip those you can). Pro tip: Avoid using your dash ability or even jumping when exiting a room. More times than I would like to admit, a dash or jump lands me right on a spike or in water. There are ways to restore health, but why risk it unnecessarily before you even get a chance to survey the room. The game also has several bugs/glitches (some of which seemed intentional, at least according to Steam forums) that will teleport you all over INCLUDING to a version of the title screen (seriously) and the only way out is exiting to title and loading in, losing any progress since your last save. It happened enough to warrant a mention.

Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists is an enjoyable traditional/untraditional Metroidvania. Bugs aside, fans of the genre should be pleasantly pleased with this title. At only 3-4 hours long, any of those “catastrophic” bugs can only set you back so far. The playtime can easily be doubled as you instantly want to get the other ending after the credits roll. I almost want to find a way to stream this to my Analogue Pocket to go all-in on the Game Boy perspective.