This first impression of Faerie Afterlight was made possible thanks to the wonderful people at Mastiff as well as the hard-working developers from Clay Game Studio. I was invited to play a preview build which consisted of the first three worlds. According to the fact sheet, that equates to roughly the first fifth of the game and there was quite a lot of content to cover for a Metroidvania. Faerie Afterlight shares many similarities to games like Ori and Hoa. It's a game that relies on its stunning visual presentation to convey its story. It gave me a reason to want to protect the world that Kimo and their friends reside in.
Most of Faerie Afterlight's story is told through lore either within the game's cutscenes or hidden away in quirky hard to hard-to-reach locations. Essentially, a nameless entity is given the name Komi by a sprightly Faerie named Wispy. Komi then joins Whispy on a journey to restore the fragments and cease the corruption that's affecting the wildlife and its residents.
While combat is a core mechanic in Faerie Afterlight, it gives a very anti-violent message through its characters. Most of the residents that Komi meets are friendly, some even offering to help the duo on their journey. The enemies within the game are all possessed by corruption which Wispy can use their own power to their advantage.
Separate from Komi's health bar is the green energy that's required to use skills tied to Wispy. At first, Wispy can temporarily control enemy movements as the corrupted enemies are unaffected by the corruption that would harm Komi. The mobile ground enemies behave like movable platforms in this regard while airborne enemies can help reach Komi to otherwise inaccessible heights.
Eventually, Wispy can use its power to manipulate time, revealing hidden areas created from decaying rubble. This is used with the right analog stick and controls feel like they all work together. I could commit to Komi's general platforming and attacks while if I needed Wispy's puzzle mechanics, the transitions are seamless. As the game progresses, the number of skills learned between the duo increases, opening up possibilities of movement as well as responsibility towards the player.
As this is an early preview build, I'm aware that most of the issues will be fixed upon release and beyond. While I enjoyed Wispy's capabilities, there were times when Wispy's ability to latch on to an enemy to possess them showed inconsistency. The camera needs to be centered in such a way that Wispy can stay on the enemy and if the enemy is off focus, so will the Faerie. This unfortunately means getting in harm's way at times, especially when the airborne enemies fire projectiles that Komi needs to avoid.
Komi's attack animation was also the cause of some rather humorous deaths as the little guy likes to recoil from his enemies every time an attack lands. The pushback isn't dire but there were times when I had to be careful. During the spider boss, I've died several times because the hitbox for the spider's rock fall attack would be just in range of the pushback I'd receive from attacking her. Likewise, there were enemies on platforms that would cause me to fall off simply from the recoil of hitting them. It felt like older 2D action platformers but it wasn't enough to ruin what otherwise was a good time.
Faerie Afterlight will release sometime in September and players can enjoy a public demo currently on the Steam storefront page. Expect a full review of what may be one of the first must-play games to play in the third quarter.