The Legend of Azarias

I went in expecting a rough asset-flip and came out with a grudging respect for what one developer managed to assemble here. The Legend of Azarias casts you as Raphael - the Archangel, not some blank-slate mercenary - on a vertical tower climb through 13 floors of Asmodeus's castle to rescue a girl named Sarah. The biblical framing is genuinely interesting as a worldbuilding hook, even if the narrative never quite develops it past the premise. For fans of first-person dungeon crawlers in the Grimrock or old King's Field vein, the setup alone is enough to get your boots through the front door. The core loop is straightforward: explore a floor, manage your stamina bar in real-time combat against demonic enemies, collect weapons and armor from side quests and drops, then push upward to the next floor. Stamina management is the mechanical wrinkle that separates this from a simple button-masher - burn it too fast swinging heavy weapons and you leave yourself exposed mid-fight, which adds a layer of tension that the genre sometimes forgets to include. The enemy variety grows floor by floor, and the demonic theming stays consistent throughout. Side quests hand out new gear and skills, so engaging with them is less optional padding and more a functional part of getting strong enough to survive the upper floors - that is the right kind of quest design, for the record. Where the game shows its budget is in production polish. This is a solo indie release and it looks and sounds like one. Animations are sparse, the writing is functional rather than evocative, and anyone expecting BG3-level dialogue or the kind of lore depth that rewards re-reads is going to hit a wall fast. The Metroidvania tag on Steam implies more interconnected backtracking than the game actually delivers - the structure is more linear tower ascent than sprawling web of locked doors. That mislabeling sets expectations the game cannot meet. What it can meet is the appeal of a concentrated, atmospheric crawl through a dark fantasy setting with a clear narrative goal. Thirteen floors is not a massive commitment, and the stamina-based combat keeps encounters from being trivial. It sits comfortably in the "weekend curiosity" tier rather than the "main event" tier - a distinction worth being honest about. If you have already played Grimrock, Vaporum, or the Might and Magic X revival and want something scrappier with a demonic theological flavour, Azarias delivers on that specific niche. If you need a polished, writing-forward RPG, look elsewhere. Monika, Scout Team