Review - ICONOCLASTS - Marvellous, fascinating, ambitious.
Finally, after waiting more than 10 years, Iconoclasts is released.
Except Grimoire - Heralds of the Winged Exemplar, I'm not sure we ever heard of a game which took longer to make.
And boy, was the developer right to take his sweet time.
Because the final product is extremely pleasant and addictive, enormously ambitious and beautifully made, and it manages to draw you into a magical 2D adventure which surpasses almost every Metroidvania we've seen in the last 20 years.
AUGUST 2018 UPDATE!
Version 1.15 brings:- a new Boss Rush mode
- a Relaxed difficulty setting for those who want to soak in its fascinating story without getting too challenged
- a bunch of minor bugfixes.
| Store | Platform | OVERALL RATING: 93% |
| Buy it on GOG | PC |
+ THE POSITIVE
+ GORGEOUS 32-bit pixel art+ A great Metroidvania experience + The best controls ever + Fascinating story
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THE NEGATIVE
- The most confusing bosses ever seen in a game- Disappointing music |
| Buy it on Playstation.com | PS4 | |
| Buy it on Playstation.com | PSVITA | |
| Buy it on Nintendo.com | Switch |
A METROIDVANIA HEAVY ON THE STORY!
Iconoclasm is the social belief in the importance of the destruction of icons and other images or monuments, most frequently for religious or political reasons.
You play as Robin, a good-hearted cute blondie(not her real hair color though), who is a mechanic without a license, which causes her trouble in Mother's eyes.
Now, who is this "Mother", you ask?
A religious fanatic who rules the tyrannic "One Concern" movement, which decided that only licensed mechanics would have the right handle the power source called "Ivory".
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| Robin, not disturbed by the huge cobweb above her bed... |
A liquid which seems similar to sap, existing in every natural thing in the world, and greatly prized by the One Concern as a holy substance.
It's used to power machines, but more importantly, it grants supernatural abilities to selected few agents of the One Concern. (yeah, you guessed that right, you're gonna have to fight those guys...😅)
The cherry on the cake is that these guys also get telekinetic power over all things containing Ivory...
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| One of the gigantic monster-like Ivory harvesting machines. Also one of the coolest bosses. |
Now, where do you fit in this story?
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| Jumping headfirst into any kind of situation, Mina! |
No need to tell you that they're at war with the One Concern, and OF COURSE you had to help them!
Well, it's your nature to help people, you can't help it, so, eventually, the One Concern soldiers are going to track you down and attempt to kill you.
The adventure starts when you have to escape from soldiers and follow one of these Isi pirates, Mina, who is going to be your greatest companion throughout the story!
Plot twist: Both Isi and the One Concern have harvested Ivory SO much that the planet's structure has become unstable, and now earthquakes are becoming more frequent...
Will the planet die??
GAMEPLAY - A METROIDVANIA/RPG? 😋
Being almost a pure Metroidvania, most of the gameplay consists in platforming, trying to figure out puzzles, upgrading your gear, unlocking skills which will grant you access to previously unreachable areas(my favorite part in these games😋), and beating gigantic bosses.(my least favorite part, and I'll explain why later.👎)
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| There's even a few stealth parts, like this scene in which you have to crawl slowly, making sure the One Concern soldiers don't hear you! (Tip: move only when they talk!) |
Why "almost"? Because it's one of these very few Metroidavanias who also happen to feature a very deep story with dozens of npcs, and believe me, you'll WANT to listen to them all.
Whether they teach you a trick, give you access to a crafting table, make the story progress(which is annoying sometimes, because, if you skipped one of the npcs, the story won't progress), all npcs are useful or at least interesting to talk to in this game.
Because of this, some people label Iconoclasts as RPG/Metroidvania.
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| "Hey Joe, I think these girls are drowning!" "Naaah they're just waving at us! Hello!" |
PERFECT CONTROLS - THE WRENCH IS A WITCH THOUGH
Controls are extremely pleasant and fluid, and you really feel like exploring the map everywhere with that energetic girl! 😄👍
This is certainly one of the most pleasant to control characters in a Metroidvania game, Ori and the blind forest was great too, though.
You'll need a few hours of practice to get used to the wrench, though.
At first, it's really a pain to grab these "bolts" or whatever they are, to "propel" yourself to higher areas.
This mechanic seems a bit similar to what we saw in the Sonic Advance games, except much harder.
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| Gya!! A snake came out of.. er... Wait, that's a snake, right? Anyway, I'll bring it home. I shall name you Mr.Thrilldo. |
Robin uses her wrench really in ALL kinds of situations.
To open doors, to fight bosses, to reach some high areas, etc.
It's not annoying, but it makes the gameplay less "smooth" and a bit slower than, for example, the very first Super Metroid (1994, Super Nes), in which you only had to shoot once on a door to open it...
... Okay, it's actually way less "realistic" than using a wrench, though.🤣
TIP!
You can "shut down" the annoying ghost by simply hitting him with your wrench! |
| And yes, you'll also have to use your wrench in some boring mini-games... |
THE MOST CONFUSING BOSSES IN THE UNIVERSE 🧐
Once you figure out everything, the game is quite easy and feels very smooth...
And I do mean everything, the core gameplay, the exploring, the puzzles, etc...
They all feel very rewarding and you even get addicted and want to explore more of this magical world to unveil more fascinating puzzles and get to know the lore and characters in details.
Buuuuuuut... THE BOSSES are a completely different story though...
They're the most confusing bosses I've ever faced in video games.
Nope, I'm not exaggerating, and I played during 30 years. lol
Why, developer, why?... Aaargh....😭
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| Even this boss, despite being early in the game, is a real pain to beat. Tip: as usual, use your wrench and throw him back his bombs! |
Take the boss in the underwater city, for example...
It's very easy if you know what to do, and impossible if you don't... lol
I actually had to find a video of a poor guy painfully trying to beat this boss, until I noticed he stopped playing and decided to look for a longplay video to understand what he had to do... And he found a video of a guy who did the same.🤣
That's how confusing bosses are in Iconoclasts.
Once you finally figure out how it works, you can beat any boss easily in two minutes.
It's not really difficult, it's just that you don't have any clue about how to beat them...
So you try to shoot at everything, you use your wrench on everything, etc.
Almost every boss AND mini-boss is like that.
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| Ash, the stealth boss, and easily the worst boss in the whole game. Where is he on the picture, you ask? Well, he's a stealth boss for a reason... Good luck. You'll need it. |
A few times, it wasn't the bosses, but some areas with difficult "puzzles" which made me go "huh?"...
When I was in the "electric" area, frankly, I had NO idea what to do, sometimes.
But it's definitely a good thing if you don't like games holding your hand.
It's a TERRIBLE design mistake when it comes to bosses, cos you're in a hurry and have to figure out how to beat them in a matter of seconds.
But taking your time to figure out by yourself how to reach a higher platform, or open a door from a distance feels much more pleasant and rewarding.
These relaxing puzzle areas contrast a lot with the panicked and tense boss fights.
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| This is right after the first boss fight... Oh thanks for jinxing us, Mina! Sigh... |
WHENEVER another boss fight started (and by the way, there are COUNTLESS mini-boss fights, more than in any game I've ever played), I felt like smashing with my head the bullshit button and just skip the fight.If you think the game is too difficult or confusing for you, you might want to read that complete guide! (if you want the "Kindle Edition", click here!)
ALMOST 32-BIT ERA GRAPHICS 🤩
Lovely graphics! This game has its own unique style.
The color palette is really reminiscent of what we've known in the 90s on Super Famicom. (a CRT filter would be a VERY good addition to this game!😋)Everything feels harmonious. This is the upside of being just one developer.
AAA games have sometimes hundreds of artists, and very often, despite art directors doing their best, games feel like they have no "direction" at all, especially with every artist trying to add their own personal touch. Iconoclasts is the opposite of this.
This is the vision of one man.
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| The Isi underwater base! It feels like a maze sometimes and you'll have plenty to explore! |
Animation too is great, except when you climb up ladders, where it looks a bit "choppy.
Other than that, animations look super smooth and it feels like watching an anime sometimes.
Actually, even if we always say that pixel art games remind us of the Super Famicom or Megadrive, we didn't get to see such good anime-like animation until the PS1 and Saturn, which were 32-bit consoles. (Not mentioning the Neo-Geo and CPS2 as well, but they didn't have nearly as many various genres of games.)
MUSIC - 8-BIT IS OVERRATED 🤨
A few tracks are good, but overall the soundtrack sounds like very average 8-bit Nes music...
(I'll never understand why there's such a huge number of indie games using 8-bit music with 16-bit graphics style...)
Anyway, if you still enjoy it, you can BUY THE OST ON GOG. 😉
It seems like a waste to use such music for a game with such gorgeous style.
I turned the music off and played Guardian Heroes OST instead.
(1996, Sega Saturn - yeah, a 32-bit console, but it fits well😉)
It might be the most appropriate ost for this game! Guardian Heroes music goes with everything.😁
Then I turned to Judas Priest and Ratt during boss fights.
So that it could cover my screams of rage. lol🤣🎸
Speaking of which, despite the game being updated periodically, you still can't alter settings in-game, apparently.
If you want to turn the music off, you'll have to go back to the menu to do this...
But... You can't, because you have to find a checkpoint first. lol
I hope the developer adds this simple option in a future update.
And despite checkpoints being usually the regular saving system in metroidvanias, a quicksave wouldn't have hurt.
Again about the sounds...
Just a tiny detail, but I noticed the developer did something I only saw in Terraria before.
When your character is to the extreme left of an area, you hear in your headphones her footsteps only in the left ear. And vice versa for right.
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| Hello Kitty? More like Hell-no Kitty!😄 |
RATING BOX
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VERSION TESTED: v1.15
Publisher:
Developer:
Release Date:
January 23, 2018
Genre: Metroidvania, Platformer
1 PLAYER
Difficulty: Easy/Impossible
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GRAPHICS: 95% | |||||||||||
| The pixel art is beautifully done, with a very distinct style never seen in other games so far. | |||||||||||
| MUSIC: 71% | |||||||||||
| Not our style at GMG. Melodies aren't memorable, and instruments don't fit well the game style. | |||||||||||
| SOUNDS: 86% | |||||||||||
| Professionally done, the sound effects mix well with the action. | |||||||||||
| GAMEPLAY: 87% | |||||||||||
| Controls are among the best in this category. Maybe THE best. It would deserve 100%, but the confusing bosses make the whole experience very frustrating at times. | |||||||||||
| OVERALL RATING: 93% | |||||||||||
| Iconoclasts is a MARVELLOUS Metroidvania, and maybe our favorite since Ori and the blind forest. It's so great that despite its very serious flaws including impossible bosses and confusing gameplay in many areas, it still deserves the title of Megahit, by far. We want a sequel! |
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