Rehtona 幻境双生

A review copy was provided by the developer. Follow my Curator page, Fruit N Doggie Reviews, so you can be updated whenever I post a new review. Overall Rating - High Quality ★★★★☆ First Impressions I wasn't really sure what Rehtona (RE) would be like, but the visuals gave me the impression of a really charming puzzle game. Ultimately, that's more or less what RE wound up being, yet with a distinct approach in its puzzle design. It impresses me how creative people can be for designing puzzles, and if you have the patience for it, can be some of the more unique and rewarding types of games to triumph in. Gameplay RE is a puzzle platformer, and unlike some games in that genre, doesn't focus on overly difficult or taxing platforming. A few stages could have been tweaked for easier mobility, but none of the puzzles are going to push the player's ability to make tricky jumps. Instead, the emphasis is much more on navigating stages and figuring out how you need to move the objects around to solve the puzzle. I know that when I'm already trying to figure out a mind stumper, I really don't want to mess with a difficult jump that wastes my time and attention span. The main focus of RE's puzzles is switching between the light and dark world versions of a stage, as there will be significant differences to the same layout. For example, the plants of the light world are immovable and solid, but they'll wither away in the dark. Before you can access the gate to transport to the dark world, you have to navigate the light world first and gather the key. Then you'll have to get the puzzle piece and make your way to Musii in the dark world in order to finish the stage. There are other examples, but some of RE's mechanics include block shoving, blocking instant kill lasers, creating platforms by copying yourself, destroying walls, and getting mad jumps on bubbles. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2796005168 Controls In spite of how complicated things can get with a puzzle game, there's not that much to the controls; the sheer basics for platforming, activating her illusion powers, and rewinding your mistakes. Due to how some blocks were placed directly over head when you're trying to jump upwards, a few jumps were a tad annoying to make. I've also accidentally pushed blocks too far or started shoving them when I didn't mean to, but you get used to this and learn to avoid it. Aside from these minor annoyances, the controls handled well. Story There isn't really an introduction to what's going on in RE. Without knowing anything about the world around the main character, or her place in it, reality starts bending and acting out of sorts with no explanation as to what's causing it. As she interacts with different visions that emerge as you finish the jigsaw puzzles, it's still unclear for much of the game what's going on and whether she's talking to herself or some variant thereof. Despite the game mentioning a branching story line, it only amounts to two different endings based on whether you got every gem or not. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2796005534 Visuals While looking at the over world map and town, RE really reminds me of a picture book. The simple townsfolk going about their business, a serene atmosphere, and what looks like a busy, developed location from the background buildings. Even when everyone is transported away the area still looks nice, and the dark world doesn't look horrific or nightmarish. With all the color sucked away it looks dim, and the floating buildings are disconcerting, but it's more like the light world gone a bit wrong than a sinister, evil dimension. Sound Design With how much concentration a puzzle game demands, I never noticed the music of RE while playing. Intentionally paying attention to it, I realized it's probably because the music is rather mellow and still. There's not a strong percussive element to establish a beat, and it sounds mor…

Rehtona is a great puzzle-platformer, with crisp gameplay mechanics, clever level design, and beautiful pixel art graphics. However, if you're going to spend money on it, buy the mobile version. The desktop version is way outdated, has no extra content, and generally doesn't seem to be supported by the developers anymore. In comparison, the mobile game gets regular updates, and has way more content — tons of DLC levels, as well as a level editor — all of which can be acquired for about the same price as the desktop version. The only downside to the mobile version is that it's very demanding, so slower phones and tablets may have trouble running it. Update: as of April 2021, the mobile version has also stopped receiving updates. But otherwise, everything above still holds true, so I still recommend getting that over the desktop version.

Pros: It's got a few fairly creative puzzle mechanics, along with some standard ones. More importantly, all the puzzles are well designed. The ability to rewind one "significant" move at a time is a very nice quality of life feature. Cons: Like many indie puzzle games, it is only 3-4 hours long and doesn't have much replay value. The story isn't worth much, and the game ends rather abruptly. Overall: If you are hungry for novel puzzle games, and don't mind them being short, it's not a bad choice. Especially if it's on sale. But it's not a must-get.