I was sent a free copy of Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review.
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What is Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona?
Skelethrone is a difficult by design 2D metroidvania soulslike for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC via Steam, GoG, and Itch.io.
You wake up in a strange place full of death, despair, and monsters. Armed with only your fists, you must travel through this nightmare and stay alive. But your journey won’t be easy. Powerful monsters hunt you down relentlessly, and although you will find weapons to help you on your journey, you will die. Luckily, death isn’t permanent, and your flame continues to burn. Will this newly found immortality be a blessing or your curse?
Gameplay
This game is difficult by design, but there is an easier setting players can choose from the start. Players start with nothing and collect gear as they progress through the adventure. Players are meant to die a lot and do better with each subsequent life as they gain levels. Players level by buying upgrades from a diverse skill tree. You should probably look up a guide if you’re not playing on easy. You are essentially grinding out XP until you’re strong enough to beat the boss so that you can move onto the next one.
Review
I have trouble recommending Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona because of its controls. A game this difficult needs to have fluid and responsive controls, but the game feels clunky. Sometimes the inputs don’t register, and sometimes you’ll die because of the coding. Better players will probably be able to excuse the game’s clunkiness, but they also have better options in the genre.
Aside from feeling clunky, combat is boring. While you can find different weapons, it seems the right answer is two-handed weapons. The shield felt useless, one-handed weapons didn’t do anything, and I couldn’t get the bow to work properly. Even if you get the perfect weapon and build, the game is unbalanced. I get that the game is meant to be difficult, but there are rooms where there are too many enemies and traps. A skilled player might not have issues, but the controls and coding make these rooms extremely frustrating.
The art style is fine, but some areas are too dark. There is a story, but it isn’t good enough to earn a recommendation. The only real reason to buy Skelethrone is because you want a challenging Metroidvania game and enjoy the flavor, and even then, you have better options. If you can get past the game’s issues, the game is still rather boring.
Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona is difficult to recommend because of how niche the game is. There are better metroidvanias. But if you don’t mind the roughness and want to play something that is hard by design, there are worse ways to spend $14.99.
You can pick up Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC via Steam, GoG, and Itch.io, but I would wait for a sale.