Greak: Memories of Azur Demo Impressions
When I woke up this morning I didn’t intend to be writing a piece. But then Navegante Entertainment and Team17 dropped a demo trailer for their upcoming title, Greak: Memories of Azur. I hadn’t been following this game at all, but the trailer completely hooked me with its style and gameplay clearly inspired by Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight. From there, I knew I had to get straight to work.
Before even having my way with the sticks, both the art and sound design jumped out at me. Greak is a 2D game created entirely from gorgeous hand drawn animation. It is extremely stylized and holds its own later on in subtle, but effective cutscenes. In terms of sound design, something as subtle as the player character’s clang of the blade they wield caught my attention. In a world so creatively envisioned, I easily found myself sucked into it from my couch in mere seconds. One more aspect I absolutely loved in regard to sound design was that of your player character being in dire straits. If and when down to one of four life orbs, the game becomes something I can only describe as heavy. The screen shrinks a bit, your borders become red, and the audio becomes muddled. None of these things are revolutionary, but are established early on and simply well done. One gripe I did have regarding the presentation of a sort however was that of the text in menus being very small, especially in handheld mode. Though admittedly a small critique, one that should prove very important.
I was thrilled early with regard to the narrative direction. Greak is telling a story in a very abstract way, but I was excited to see it thanks to the hand drawn animation. They pose questions for any player right from the get go - Who or what is Raydel? What happened to Adara? I quickly found some answers and was more than convinced to lose myself in the subtlety of the narrative.
Moving on to performance and gameplay, load times were very impressive. I have little to no gripes on that end. Controlling Greak feels really responsive and tight. Any player familiar with frequent dodge rolls and double jumps should enjoy the feel here. Greak is decked out with a blade and crossbow. This gives a lot of variety to combat with such a simple moveset. Your character is speedy enough to run by enemies if overwhelmed, could shoot from afar, swing away at your heart’s content, or dodge and weave with more of a tactical approach. The choice is all yours in terms of combat with Greak. You do, however, have only ten arrows and I found them a little hard to come by, so I suggest using them sporadically if possible.
Now, playing as Adara is a little different as she wields no melee weapon, but does wield the power of magic; projectiles anyway. You do have a mana gauge that determines how much you can fire at any given moment however. In place of a double jump, you can also levitate as Adara. I did not get to play as the third character. Only Greak and Adara are playable in this demo.
It is worth noting that switching characters means you control the other, but the previous one is still there. You aren't switching them away, they just aren't moving when not being controlled. Yet, there is a function to move them and engage in combat simultaneously. The characters will eventually attack on their own when an enemy is within a very close range or you are controlling them both with said function and the range is met. Adversely, there is a function to bring your other character closer and have them run towards you. Overall, I dig the traversal and unorthodox companion combat here. You could always just take turns by character, but certain puzzles ask you to move simultaneously for a time in order to complete them.
On the surface, puzzles aren't difficult, but pulling it off with this form of traversal can prove otherwise until you get the hang of it. Especially when you need things done simultaneously. The intricacies in traversal in relation to puzzles deepen as you play and the same can be said for combat as you progress. It all appears simple, but can pose a doable challenge.
Regarding difficulty, you can recover lost hits or health by defeating enemies, but some enemies can survive the initial onslaught. When this happens these enemies revert to crawlers reminiscent of Call of Duty: Zombies. Lastly, if one character dies, you lose. There is no reviving, at least not in this demo. You do have individual inventories for each character. I acquired some bread or other healing items for health at varying amounts fairly early on, but some items can grant damage buffs for you when in combat. You also collect gems as some sort of shared currency. I learned not to pick up arrows with Adara, who uses magic. The arrows will then go into her limited inventory. So pick them up with Greak who can utilize them without taking up inventory space. Even though it didn’t seem all that difficult, the final boss of this demo proved the contrary. I had issues with what I think is a flaw, of which I will get into in a moment, but in defeating this boss I had to beef up my character and use all of my healing items.
This flaw, in my humble opinion, is the fact that when controlling both in terms of traversal, you cannot make both dodge roll at the same time. Only the one you are controlling will dodge roll. Considering the game seems to nudge the character into this concurrent playstyle, it seemed a bit counterintuitive. Made me have to take on the boss one on one in order to avoid a game over.
Overall, I think Greak has a ton of potential and I have seen enough to warrant a day one purchase. A few small gripes aside, I can see the intricacies in traversal and combat becoming super enticing and fun. While I can see the narrative lacking gripping elements, something tells me it has enough there in terms of substance to engage the player. On top of that, the presentation is astounding. The art and sound design could not be any more alluring single handedly. I say give it a go.
Previewed by Austin Ernst