As a reviewer, it’s my job to look at those games that many others might not even dare gaze upon. And especially during a dry spell like Summer, any review codes given are a must-have. From the outset, I looked at Sofyia and saw a charming, cute, light platformer which could have potential. Upon loading up the game, I stared at the opening credits … and saw the logo for The Hentai Room …. Oh lord.
What is Sofiya and the Ancient Clan?
Sofiya and the Ancient Clan is a console re-release of … Sexcraft - Sofiya and the Lewd Clan (oh lord), a wholesome-looking, traditional side-scrolling action platformer presented in a bright and colourful pixel art style. You play as Sofiya, a talented young witch who begins to question everything she has been taught and the rules of the magical world. Soon enough she becomes enemy number one, with the entire kingdom looking to hunt her down. However, this is all due to her former master deciding she could ruin his evil plans.
Sofiya must use everything she has learnt, including powerful magical spells and her nifty platforming abilities to survive an onslaught of enemies as she crosses the kingdom, to stop her former master and become the ultimate witch.
Travel through a range of fantasy locations from sprawling hills, dense forests, dark caverns, spooky graveyards, and many more epic locations. You’ll be jumping from moving platforms, fighting a wide variety of enemies, from orcs, soldiers, and demons, as well as fighting some epic bosses. And as this is a console release … there’s much, much less hentai material … like hardly anything, which is good.
From the sound of things, Sofiya sounds like a delightful and pleasing 16bit era Sega Mega Drive, and from a surface level, it can seem that way.
What does Sofiya and the Ancient Clan?
I will say that visually speaking, Sofiya and the Ancient Clan is a very nice-looking game. The pixel art style is very much reminiscent of that of old 16bit Sega games. It’s extremely colourful, nicely detailed and with a wide range of environments, enemies and effects, Sofiya and the Ancient Clan really do have some talent behind the scenes when it comes to the art and presentation.
The core combat mechanics while very limited in scope, are interesting in concept. You will learn and use a collection of spells that damage your enemies over the course of the game. You’ll be launching fireballs and other ranged attacks as any talented Witch will do, but also must keep in mind that attacks are limited to how much mana you have. Mana does regenerate over time and you will need to make sure not to use it all up against powerful foes, as you will need to wait a few seconds before you can attack again. This system could have been expanded on further I thought, but there is enough here to add a layer of tension and somewhat a tactical edge to combat encounters.
The bosses are also quite cool, with plenty of variety, sceptical and interesting combat patterns that make them a decent challenge.
What does Sofiya and the Ancient Clan not do so well?
Sadly, there is a lot more elements which don’t work as well, and hold the game back from being a charming side-scrolling platformer.
The controls are very clunky and moving Sofiya can be a challenge. I wouldn’t mind so much the awkward controls, but there are plenty of instant death moments in each level, where this does become an infuriating problem.
There are lots of death drops, spiked floors, ceilings, and so much more which can end Sofiya instantly. Now I love games like Blasphemous which also has these elements too, but Sofiya and the Ancient Clan just has so many moments like this in pretty much every single level, and no checkpoints to speak of. Occasionally a massive level will be broken up into two, and this is somewhat of a checkpoint, but most levels will go on for too long, have too many instant death traps and usually have a cheap death moment at the end, which results in doing it all over again.
Plenty of platforms are too small, floors of spikes too long, and health pick-ups have the oddest logic. Enemies drop health, but these pick-ups only last a second or two, before disappearing. You can find the odd health pick up which is stationary, but these are far and few between. I just felt all levels went on too long, with too many death traps and cheap moments.
Level design is also a factor in why Sofiya and the Ancient Clan just isn’t much fun to play. There are moments of tedious looping level design, of going back and forth, with plenty of instant death traps in the way, lots of annoying enemy placements, and generally boring mission objectives of flicking switches, running around, flicking more switches and so forth.
While there is a nice enemy variety, all enemies just aren’t challenging to fun to fight. Most just pace back and forth, some will shoot a ranged attack if they see you, but worse of all is that Sofiya’s attacks are slow and dull in execution.
Overall?Sadly, Sofiya and the Ancient Clan looks like a nice game and could have been fun (and didn’t need any of the adult material in my opinion), but so much holds it back from the annoying platforming, tedious level design and general lack of excitement in combat and mission objectives. I hope the developers will make a better game next time, as the art and some concepts are cool, but refine everything else for next time.
+ Looks nice
+ Some neat ideas
-- Tedious and annoying platforming/controls
- Combat and mission objectives are dull
A PS4 review key of Sofiya and the Ancient Clan was provided by the publisher.
