Each of the three houses of the Trichroma is uniquely designed-from the Yellow House which resembles a fantasy kingdom if it existed in TRON, to the Blue House which is the quiet and sombre remains of a once great metropolis, now flooded and shrouded in fog to the Red House, where HIM’s uprising began now a vast and desolate wasteland. There isn’t a single screen of this game that isn’t incredible to look at both in design and in concept. Natria Boy is an absolutely breathtaking game, utilizing pixel art to the absolute fullest. However, where Narita Boy really shines-again, attributed to its resemblance to Blashphemous-is in it’s visual design. That combat could’ve been tighter and more focused on precise dodging and blocking, that combat was intrinsic to the level design, and not just having progression pause every few minutes. This is something else that, as I was playing, I couldn’t help but wish it was more like Blasphemous. So there’s almost no incentive to use it, since you do the same amount of damage to Wildfire enemies, so you can just fight them normally the only penalty being the fight having to be slightly longer. In theory, this could be an interesting combat mechanic, however, its execution makes it somewhat redundant since, while Narita Boy can deal extra damage to enemies that have the same colour fire, they can also do extra damage to him. The most notable example comes in the form of the “Wildfire” abilities, which players can charge up during combat in order to give them an advantage over enemies that bear the same colour fire. Combat is somewhat chaotic, and-much like with level traversal-certain elements feel pointless. Rarely are there enemies just populating the world instead they only appear in scripted fight sequences. While by no means bad-with a large variety of moves and power-ups to utilize, and a variety of interesting enemy types- Narita Boy’s combat doesn’t totally feel intrinsic to its gameplay. Even the slightest flick of the stick will send him bursting forward and trying to platform with this greasy momentum will usually result in unfortunate pitfalls.Ĭombat suffers in a similar fashion. Where this is the most prominent, is in some of the upgrades Narita Boy gets, which allows him to bypass certain obstacles but is functionally pointless since there’s no real exploration within any of the levels-and it’s a real shame because the world is SO interesting that it’s just begging to be explored.įurthermore, controlling Narita Boy is a bit frustrating since he moves incredibly quickly, and his movements are incredibly slippery. This is what I mean when I say it feels less deliberate than Blasphemous, which committed fully to it’s Metroid style design. ![]() With its power, Nairta Boy must travel through the Digital Kingdom, restore the Creator’s memories, and defeat HIM. The same night, in another part of the city, a young boy receives a calling from his computer and upon reaching into it, his body becomes entangled with the code of Narita Boy-a digital warrior, who, upon entering the Digital Kingdom is told of HIM’s plan by the maternal overseer of the Digital Kingdom “Motherboard,” and given the Techno-sword. Unable to remember and patch the corrupted lines of code, HIM and his army of rouge programs known as Stallions, seek to infect the Digital Kingdom dominating it’s three houses and destroying the balance of the “Trichroma.” Telling the story of Lionel Pearl, also referred to as “The Creator,” who, while writing code for his “Digital Kingdom” is accosted by a malicious program known as HIM-who reaches through the program and causes Lio to lose his memories. Narita Boy’s story wears it’s TRON inspiration right on it’s sleeve. There is a lot to like about Narita Boy, but I think I would’ve liked it more, had it drawn even more from Blasphemous. ![]() On the other hand, you can see so much of Blasphemous’ influence in the game’s visual design, it’s atmosphere, and even the gameplay that it’s hard not to draw comparisons between the two. Talking about Narita Boy is difficult, since I want to avoid comparing it to Blasphemous-despite the fact that both games were published by Team 17-they were made by different developers, and as such I feel it a bit unfair to hold it to the standard of a completely different game.
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