Elsie Review

The Mega Man series of games are timeless classics. I was only 4 when the first game was released on the NES but I was ready to go when Mega Man X launched on SNES. I can still remember heading to Toys ‘R Us, grabbing the ticket from under the box picture, and picking up my game from the guy behind the counter. Mega Man has been the blueprint for many games since Capcom launched him nearly 40 years ago. Take, for instance, Shovel Knight. While it is so much more than a clone, at its roots, it is Mega Man but you replace the Mega Buster with the Shovel Blade and the robot masters with the Order of No Order. More recently, games like Berserk Boy (Mega Man if he could move like Sonic) or the 20XX games (roguelite Mega Man), nail the full Mega Man experience while forging their own unique identities. It was inevitable that there would be no shortage of games influenced so why not another one right now?

Developed by Knight Shift Team, Elsie is a roguelite action platformer heavily influenced by the Mega Man X series with hints of Dead Cells, Guacamelee and Hades. A group of high-tech androids have gone rogue. Dr. Grey’s final creation, Elsie, must find out why and save the day (the story is a bit on the nose but that is the least of your worries). You play as the titular Elsie and are the last line of defense for the planet Ekis.

Right out the gate, Elsie controls great with snappy response time. Of course, your first obstacle is everyone’s favorite: the tutorial. Correction: tutorials (yes, plural). In a rather bizarre design, Elsie’s abilities are shown (via button prompt) at the beginning of multiple runs. The strange part is that the abilities not shown are completely available. I understand tutorials late in a game for new powers gained via a story moment but these are basics like dashing. Speaking of, I came across a power-up that referenced the dash movement and I had to go into the menu and settings to figure out how to dash. After dying, on my next run, lo and behold was the button prompt to dash. This is unnecessarily convoluted and downright irritating. I was almost at the point of deciding whether I should just die so I could start a new run and maybe see a new tutorial.

As I said, Elsie’s movement feels phenomenal (for the record, I always thought Mega Man X having dash on the A button felt awkward, so a trigger button felt like a godsend). Elsie can shoot, run, jump, dash, and wall jump. A downward slam can be performed which doubles as a double jump if certain objects or enemies are struck in mid-air. In addition to her primary fire, you have a laser and a recharge ability. The laser fires a continuous beam that does damage to anything in its path for the duration and the recharge restores all energy which is a catch all for Elsie’s extra abilities including dashing and rapid fire (Elsie can fire a single shot or you can hold down the button for a machine gun like effect). Your gun, laser, and recharge ability can all be swapped later in the game.

You know how most games have that one unique feature that sets them apart from others in the genre (grappling hooks, transformations, rewinding time, etc.)? Well, how about a parry? Yes, a parry in a game that features no melee (I think - more on that later).

As enemies and their projectiles near Elsie, she can trigger what amounts to a small forcefield negating the incoming damage. Following the parry, a QuickTime-like event appears that can trigger a counterattack. I love the concept of a parry, especially in a game like this that can easily devolve into literal bullet hell. If you ever played Mega Man, you probably encountered that one enemy that had you jump, shoot, wait for their attack, and repeat until they died. With this parry ability, Elsie can close the distance quite easily. It still is somewhat unnerving and against every gaming concept ingrained into my muscle memory to purposely jump into danger to trigger it but it does work. As you play through the game, you even encounter enemies with shields only breakable by a parry. Once you master the ability, it becomes an extremely useful tool that can even be upgraded to do much more as you progress further into the game.

Being a roguelite, Elise includes the following: the usual cycle of dying to start another run and picking up the various currencies so that you can purchase upgrades so you can delay the dying before starting another run. I know roguelite is a bad word to some people so I can assure you that Elsie is not punishing in any sense. If I had to compare Time To Die (TTD - oh! I should copyright this) to other roguelites like Dead Cells, Hades, 20XX, Rogue Legacy, and Scourgebringer, Elsie’s TTD is close to the bottom of the list. Elsie collects four types of currency during a run: bits, scrap, keys, and Arclight Coins. Bits are used only during the run to purchase upgrades (after purchasing the upgrade to purchase upgrades during a run) and you lose them each run. Keys can open chests randomly found on a run but you do not lose leftover keys when dying. Scrap and Arclight Coins are used back at the Wharf, your base of operations. Scrap’s primary function is to purchase and enable vendors in the base and during the run. Each biome is considered separate in terms of upgrades so you have to buy what the game calls bonfires for each new zone you encounter. I say what the game calls bonfires because…

This has to be some sort of tribute to the Souls game because that is clearly a vending machine. Anyway, “bonfires” can restore Elsie’s health (enemies do not respawn when using it) and later can increase your health and energy. On your first run through any area, you can actually come across various vending machines but the upgrade must be purchased before they can be used. These vending machines only stock what you have purchased via scrap or Arclight Coins back at the base. Upgrades can include new weapons (this includes your primary fire, the laser, and recharge ability), and passive effects that buff Elsie’s ability including her weapon, and dash/parry abilities.

If you spend Arclight Coins on a new weapon, you will start the next run with that weapon before it becomes randomized in the pool to be found. One of the big reasons I always recommend Dead Cells over Hades to people is that I found completing a run with a random weapon (Dead Cells) over one I picked beforehand was just that much more satisfying. Elsie has quite a number of weapons that you unlock but I found, more often than not, that they either rarely appeared on a run or I did not have the currency to purchase them when it was in a vending machine. Later on, you can purchase an upgrade that has a weapon pedestal appear but this feels like something that should appear earlier than it did, at least for me. Also, several times, it had the exact weapon I was carrying which made zero sense since it appeared in the first room when there were no opportunities to have picked up anything else.

There are a lot of good, even great ideas and features Elsie has but that may be its downfall. Gameplay starts off with a relatively simple loop (or so it seems). Roguelites need to keep you engaged whether it be through “one more run” or just something that you want to give it another try. Elsie starts every run from the Eclipse Skyport (at one of two starting points). When you die, you return to the base. As you move through the level, you either enter a room that you can exit whether you choose to kill everything or not, or a room (the game refers to them as arenas) that becomes locked until you do kill everything. Sometimes, rooms are completely empty but maybe this just served a quick respite. At the end of several levels, you encounter a boss fight. Defeating said boss rewards you with a fair amount of currency and a choice of destinations. This continues for multiple levels until you reach the end of the game. Yes, end of game, not the end boss. Elsie will say, paraphrasing, “Hey Doc, I reached a dead end.” You are instructed to head back to base. This is the equivalent of…

Except, in Mario’s case, you go to the next level. Elsie just starts a new run. Now, as you play, you encounter NPC dialogue from the rogue androids meaning that the end of the game will be a fight against them. If you beat them, you get some story bits and then are told to find the others. It is unclear if there is something you must do in a level to trigger the boss fight or if it is just random. “Did I choose the wrong path?” “What path did I take last time?” One of my favorite parts of roguelites is the randomization but not at the cost of reaching the end of a story. I beat the game. Let me clarify.

See? Achievement unlocked. I looked though and I have only 42% of the 107 achievements including ones that say “Defeat X boss.” I only fought 2 androids so I know for a fact I am not done so please make it make sense. On a side note: some achievements say “_______ with Elsie.” Am I reading too much into it or does that mean there are other playable characters?

This review pained me to write. The first time I learned about Elsie was at PAX East in 2019. As a fan of both roguelites and platformers, I was instantly drawn to the booth with its amazing pixel art game on display. I have seen Elsie at least one more time at PAX since then and it probably holds the record on my Steam wishlist for the longest time. Perhaps I hyped it up too much. I can overlook some technical issues (the game locked up several times but nothing worth noting that amounted to buyer beware) but this goes beyond that. If you want my review for one single run in Elsie, I would say this is fantastic and a can’t miss title. Unfortunately, the review covers the entirety of the game. Elsie has some awesome ideas at its core and even flashes of greatness but cannot hold it all together for a total package. If you do grab it, be sure to leave some positive feedback in a Steam review because I think Knight Shift Team can do exciting things in the future.