Dandara

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

.

Review:

(Note: Dandara has been replaced on the Nintendo Switch eShop and Nintendo.com by Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition. The following review is only regarding the original version of the game.)

Dandara is a Metroidvania-style platformer that does the “platformer” part of that formula in a unique and interesting way. The titular main character cannot jump and isn’t affected by any gravity. Instead, She can directly move from one platform to any other white surface within her line of sight. As such, traversal in this game isn’t about making tough jumps, but about moving around to get a proper line of sight to where you want to go, and getting past obstacles blocking you.

It’s a clever concept that is executed very well here, but it’s not without its problems. From the start, Dandara only has three health points, and while this can be upgraded over time, it will take a considerable amount of time (or grinding) to do so. What’s more, by default, checkpoints in the game are far and few between, and while you can change this in the options menu, adding a more reasonable number of them throughout the map, the game sorta’ shames you for doing so.

Even with “easy mode” on, this game is loaded with difficulty spikes, particularly any time combat gets heated. While I really enjoyed traversal in this game, I found the combat to be terrible, thanks to Dandara’s attack requiring a moment to charge up each time you use it. Not only does this slow things down, but it makes responding to enemies quickly impossible with attacking, forcing players to depend on the less-than-intuitive platforming mechanics to dodge out of the way. The result is numerous frustrating deaths due to trying to get a quick shot off and not having the time to do so, or trying to quickly jump to safety and mistakenly sending yourself to the wrong place, losing one of your precious few health points.

The graphics here, at least, are fantastic, with wonderfully-animated pixel art characters in an imaginative setting. It’s rare that characters look as cool as Dandara herself, with her bouncing around the environment really making for a striking image.

In the end, Dandara’s good qualities do outweigh the game’s bad ones, but it’s frustrating that a game with such a great art style and such a wonderfully unique traversal mechanic is saddled with such terrible combat and unforgiving spikes in difficulty. However, for fans of Metroidvanias looking for something unique who have a lot of patience for games with high difficulty, this might appeal to you.

tl;dr – Dandara is a Metroidvania where instead of jumping, you ignore gravity and move directly to any white platform in line of sight. It’s an excellent concept, but it’s marred by frustrating combat and some problems with game difficulty.

Grade: B-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}