The fortress of Valfaris disappeared from the stars, and when it came back it was overrun with corruption. Therion journeyed back to his home to cleanse it and learn why everything went so horribly wrong, but discovered his father, Lord Vroll, as the source of Valfaris' ruin. Justice for the citadel’s people was delayed due to Lord Vroll’s escape, but a determined Therion chased after and is ready to renew the attack. This time, however, instead of a full heavy metal run and gun shooter it’s a side-scrolling blaster from the pilot seat of a giant mech.
For a direct sequel, Valfaris: Mecha Therion changes up the gameplay while leaving just about everything else intact. Same brutal universe, same stone-faced Therion, same crunchy-guitar metal making up the all-new tunes of the soundtrack. The actual game aspect, though, is now an auto-scrolling horizontal shooter in low-poly 3D, packed with enemies and set-pieces as Therion flies his mech through enemy swarms. The main gun shoots a steady stream of tormented souls, but when its energy gauge dips the souls get smaller and weaker. The gauge refills slowly by itself while slashing things with the sword fills it up much more quickly, and seeing as the sword also cancels bullets you’ll be using it constantly. The energy gauge also feeds a powerful area attack, and a different gauge fuels the invincible dash skill.
As Therion kills his enemies their blood gets syphoned into a threat meter, and the higher it goes the tougher enemies get. Checkpoints along the way, however, let you spend this on permanent weapon upgrades, which show up regularly as the levels progress. The initial rapid-fire gun can be replaced with a slow but powerful shotgun-like weapon early on, for example, but the upgrades don’t transfer from one weapon to the next so you’ll need to be careful about what you spend the points on. Or you could just spend at will and not regret the purchase, swapping in new weapons anyway for the fun of it. A little shooter skill can make up for the difference in brute force, and it’s not like there’s a life limit. Death puts you back to the most recent checkpoint to try again, and experience with the level layout can take you farther than any single upgrade ever could.
Valfaris: Mecha Therion released today on Steam and should make fans of the developer’s previous games, Slain and Valfaris, quite happy. While the change to low-poly 3D instead of pixel-y 2D takes a minute to get used to, the heavy metal attitude is as strong as ever and the action knows when to go hard and when to settle back for a second before starting the next assault. Therion’s universe is a vicious, brutal expanse that could grace any one of hundreds of heavy metal album covers, and getting to blast through it in the heart of a giant mech is a perfect way to take in the scenery.
