I am a long-time fan of Metroidvania games and play all of the ones that I can get my hands on for the most part. Vigil came to my attention when watching a video about the best MV games of 2021 and I'm glad I watched it because this indie studio is not big enough for me to probably have ever heard about it if it weren't for this video.
I've logged about two hours of gameplay thus far and here is what I think up to this point.
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I know that one hour doesn't sound like a lot but as true fan of Metroidvania games I can say that I believe the first hour is by far the most important. You have to grab your audience and get them interested as well as present the tutorial in an easy to understand, yet not overly cumbersome way. The game also has to catch your eye and they need to make you care about the story.
The first hour flies by and the controls are simple enough to make me want to come back. Also, this game isn't terribly difficult (yet) so I'm thinking I am going to stick with it. Although it doesn't appear in many MV games I do appreciate it when games have a leveling up system because this way if you find something that you consider too difficult you can just grind a bit to get a few more levels under your belt and make the game significantly easier.
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You make it to the first boss fight pretty quickly and I was happy to discover that he / it is a huge pushover. I don't think you really need to try very hard to emerge victorious on this. I barely knew the controls at that point and killed it with tons of health to spare. From that point forward the game goes down a path that I don't particularly care for, unfortunately.
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When you enter the first town after defeating the first boss there are entirely too many people that you can speak to and there is far too much dialogue. I actually kind of prefer games that have very limited or even no dialogue to speak of. That's just a personal preference though, I'm sure there are some people out there that really enjoy getting immersed into the story but for me, if I wanted to read I have plenty of books that fill that hole.
Combat at the start is really simple but there is also a stamina bar, which I am never a fan of. Thankfully it hasn't become a factor but there mere presence of it suggests to me that it will become a major part of the game at some point. Sadly, if it does become a drag on the game this will probably be a very good reason for me to walk away from this game altogether.
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Enemies and combat in general has a lot in common with Blasphemous in that it is quite gory and gruesome. The enemies seem to be deformed demons of sorts and this is always welcome in my world. I don't want my enemies to be cute birds and lizards - bring on the evil!
I will continue to play this game until it starts to get on my nerves but so far I am really enjoying this. It's simple, it has a retro feel to it, and it's really easy to jump into. Most of the dialogue is skippable so this is a good thing. So far I feel like this game is worth the $12 or so that I paid for it.