Odallus: The Dark Call

If you read my review of Oniken: Unstoppable Edition, then you already know that I loved it. I felt like it delivered an authentic throwback experience with great gameplay and a compelling story. What you may not know is that I actually like developer JoyMasher's follow-up game, Odallus: The Dark Call, even more than Oniken. Now it's coming to consoles for the first time, and I'm here to tell you that this is one of the best side-scrolling adventure games available on any game system.

This is the story of Haggis, a war veteran who spends his nights hunting in order to provide for what's left of his family. But when the village is burned down, Haggis decides to set out on an adventure to find his son. This leads to the discovery that people are turning into monsters, which forces our hero to travel far and wide in an effort to collect the many shards of the Odallus.

While it would be easy to simply compare Odallus to the classic 8-bit Castlevania games that launched the series, I don't think that does this adventure justice. This is a game about exploring this world and finding the tools you need in order to take down each boss and steal their shards. The adventure is split up into nine different stages, each with their own hidden items and paths to unearth. This is the kind of game where you'll end up going back and replaying the different stages as you unlock abilities and equip new weapons and armor.

And speaking of abilities, Haggis is on the hunt for five different items that will aid in his quest. This includes the ability to push heavy objects, double jump, breathe underwater and even float through tight areas. There's nothing necessarily earth-shaking about these abilities, but I love how they are implemented here. This world is a joy to explore and I loved uncovering all of its goodies. And it helps that the levels are both diverse and expertly crafted. This is a developer that is good at world building and expanding the lore through the backgrounds, and they are at the top of their game with Odallus.

The truth is, I love this game. It perfectly captures the spirit of the classic 8- and 16-bit side-scrolling adventure games, all while infusing some of the modern game design lessons we've learned since those early cartridge days. I love how the new abilities opened up the previous levels, often in unexpected ways. I love how many bosses there are and how you can drop out of a stage at any time without any consequences. I love that there's a mine cart level, because of course there is. I even love how the story plays out, especially at the end. This is a great game.

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Unfortunately, there are two problems that hold me back from giving it a higher score. The first has to do with the button mapping, which is absolutely baffling. Look, I've played a lot of games in my life, so I'm used to a lot of different controller configurations, but this one left me scratching my head. On the Switch, you jump with the "A" button and attack with the "Y" button. In case you're not looking at a controller right now, those buttons are across from each other. Your thumb doesn't naturally cover those two buttons, so you have to reposition every time you want to jump or attack. There's absolutely no reason for it to be this way and never feels natural. And to make matters worse, there's no way to customize the button mapping. This is a big disappointment, especially considering that JoyMasher got it right with Oniken. You'll be able to get used to it, but it sure would have been nice to have a way to remap the buttons.

Also, Odallus suffers from a few annoying technical problems. There are times where the camera will stop following Haggis, making it impossible to see where he is. He'll be completely off screen, almost as if the camera person is asleep on the job. There are also times when you'll fall out of the environment and get stuck. And perhaps the most annoying and pervasive problem is when the game will slow down for no reason. There are times when the game will simply chug along at half speed, something that can only be fixed if you exit the stage and reenter. I hope the developer will be able to address these problems (and maybe add button configuration) in a future patch.

But even if they never fix these issues, Odallus: The Dark Call is a phenomenal adventure that everybody should play. From the throwback pixel graphics to the epic boss fights to catchy chiptunes soundtrack, I love almost everything about this game. And best of all, it's challenging without being frustrating. There aren't a lot of cheap hits or bottomless pits, and the gameplay is tight and responsive. This is even more proof that JoyMasher is a developer we should all be paying attention to.