AeternoBlade

I have a soft spot for games that are clearly punching above their weight class, and AeternoBlade sits squarely in that category. Corecell Technology built a side-scrolling action-platformer around a central idea that is actually worth thinking about: a sword that lets you manipulate time, not just as a narrative gimmick, but as a layered mechanical system woven through both combat and puzzle design. Three distinct time abilities unlock across Freyja's journey. One rewinds time around everything except Freyja herself, letting you freeze enemies mid-animation and carve into them while they loop uselessly. Another creates a warp anchor you can snap back to at will. A third lets you cheat death by rolling back to just before you took a fatal hit. Each one drains mana, so you cannot lean on them indefinitely, which keeps the game from feeling trivial when the abilities work as intended. The seven-stage structure has some Metroidvania DNA: branching paths, gated backtracking, and secrets that require abilities you will not have on a first pass. Freyja starts with a small, stiff moveset, and the early hours are genuinely slow. Reviewers who bounced off the game often did so here. If you stay, the combat does open up as you spend yellow orbs on new combo strings and stat upgrades, and the rhythm of working through a tough room eventually starts to feel methodical rather than annoying. Boss fights have been a point of real disagreement in the community: some found them tough but fair, requiring you to genuinely apply the time mechanics rather than button-mash through; others found the tells indistinct and the design frustrating. Both camps have a point depending on your tolerance for a certain kind of low-budget jank. The presentation is unambiguously rough. Visuals sit somewhere around PS2-era fidelity, environments recycle enemy rooms heavily, and the story is a competent-but-thin revenge setup involving Freyja, the mysteriously immortal Beladim (the Lord of the Mist who destroyed her village), and a mentor figure named Vernia who teaches her what the AeternoBlade can really do. There are two endings, and reaching the true one without a guide is easy to miss. What keeps the whole thing afloat, and what multiple reviewers across the years agree on, is the soundtrack. It is genuinely the best thing in the game: atmospheric per level, fast-paced and emotionally sharp during boss encounters, and assembled with a mix of orchestral instruments and modern production that sounds more considered than anything else on screen. Who is this for, honestly? Metroidvania completionists who have already worked through Bloodstained, Hollow Knight, and Momodora and are still hungry. People who enjoy the sensation of a game that gradually becomes more capable as your character does. Anyone who finds something charming about a small Thai indie studio swinging hard at a genre typically dominated by larger teams. It is not for players who need responsive, polished combat from the first room, or anyone allergic to animation stiffness and recycled enemy corridors. The PC port arrived in September 2020, and while controller support is present, there is not much coverage of how the port specifically performs, so going in with a controller is the recommended path.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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