The Skylia Prophecy review

Prophetic Origins

When you purchase, download, and install a Metroidvania game, you expect a few things, just on a surface level: 2D sidescrolling gameplay, an array of power-ups, and maybe some tense boss fights. You know, things that remind people of Castlevania and Metroid, two of the greatest franchises in video game history, and the basis of the entire genre. So many incredible games have been released over the past few generations that not only earn their place in the Metroidvania genre but also become the new gold standard for what those games should be and how they should play. The Ori series, Cave Story, and Hollow Knight all come to mind in this regard. The Skylia Prophecy, unfortunately, does not manage to set itself apart or revolutionize any part of the Metroidvania experience in the way those previously mentioned games do. But while it might not be setting the world on fire, does that mean it's not worth your time? Join us as we break down the experience of playing through the Skylia Prophecy and determine if this particular prediction should have remained on the shelf.

The Skylia Prophecy is the product of a single developer named Ezekiel Rage (it's not clear if this is his real name, but it is also the name of a villain from Johnny Quest if you're old enough to remember that cartoon), and his publisher, 7 Raven Studios. Ezekiel has several other games under his belt dating back to 2018, but they all seem to skew towards a retro 8 or 16-bit presentation, and The Skylia Prophecy is no different. Which would be fine, if that presentation was at all consistent. 7 Raven Studios also published Last Beat Enhanced, a game that was similarly created by a single person and features a retro art style. The difference between these two, what made Last Beat Enhanced's presentation successful while I think The Skylia Prophecy's presentation falls flat, is its consistency. The start screen art on both games is obviously much different from the pixels you are presented with in-game, but Last Beat's art didn't feel out of place. The colors and style fit with the visuals in the actual gameplay. With The Skylia Prophecy, the start screen art seems…. strange. The characters are drawn with a rounded softness that implies a much different game from the tough-as-nails grittiness that you're going to spend the next 4-5 hours with. You might be wondering why I'm harping on the start screen images so much. It's just a minor nitpick for something you're going to spend less than a second with, right? Maybe so, but in the case of The Skylia Prophecy, it actually acts as foreshadowing for other parts of the game that feel incongruous and out of place.

A Realm in Peril

After you make it past that start screen and begin a new game, you're immediately hit with the raw, pixelated nature of the game itself. It definitely hearkens back to early Castlevania and even features some impressively smooth animations that make movement and combat flow quite nicely. But it is clearly not the fluffy, Disney-like world you might have envisioned from seeing the initial art.

This world is overrun with evil, and basically falling apart. Our protagonist, an 18-year-old woman named Mirenia, unleashed an ancient evil several years prior and has spent the intervening time preparing to go on a quest to quell that evil and set things right again. All around her, people are being slaughtered and assaulted, pushing her to complete her objective. It's not uncommon fantasy RPG fare, but it sets the stage for the rest of the game well enough. The retro art style also holds up very well across the dozen or so different environments you'll visit. Each one has a unique visual style so you'll regularly have new geographic features and color palettes to feast your eyes on. However, there is quite a bit of backtracking involved if you want to get the most out of the game.

The Darkest of Souls

Aside from the primary story missions that push the narrative forward and get Mirenia closer to the end of her journey, there are also a series of side quests that you can accept from a particular character. These sidequests are taken on and turned in at the same location, which is usually at the beginning of a new zone. So, after you make your way through an arena battling all of the enemies and completing the side quest objective, you then have to go all the way back to turn in that mission and claim your reward. It's understandable if a little annoying. The quests themselves don't appear to be particularly taxing, as they usually involve solving a light puzzle or destroying a particular enemy, so you won't waste too much time on them. Actually completing and claiming the rewards for these sidequests will become imperative by the end of the game though due to the steep difficulty curve. The Skylia Prophecy's core gameplay is its combat. Which isn't bad or experience-ruining by any means, but is surprisingly difficult and has a few head-scratching quirks. For instance, there is a category of enemy that is low to the ground. I spent maybe a minute or two trying to figure out how to do a crouch attack, or maybe a dive attack. It turns out that the only solution to deal with these kinds of enemies is to use your shield.

Confusing, right?! Placing yourself in front of these enemies (which are always on the move) and throwing up your shield is enough to kill them when they walk into it. The game does not tell you this. In a few awkward situations, you'll have to stutter step behind those same enemies as they are moving away from you to try to take them out from behind or wait for them to finish their slow circuit until they can face you and walk into your shield. It's definitely a strange choice, but I can see the developer's attempt to have a mixup enemy thrown in there, and when you're dealing with several enemies at once and a low threat comes up to you, putting your shield up after a flurry of sword attacks does look quite cool. Your shield is also helpful for normal enemies and the occasional projectile, and you'll need to master its use if you want to make any kind of progress in the game. Mirenia can only take a few hits before you hit the strange-looking Game Over screen, and you'll probably be seeing that quite a lot. Even with the health, magic, and strength upgrades, the boss characters and enemy mobs can be overwhelming. But, unlike Dark Souls, there doesn't seem to be any pattern or way to make it through those situations successfully. You need to be either really excellent at the game or have incredible luck. You can always purchase health potions from the shopkeeper in town (whose character portrait appears to be of an anime character, completely out of line with every other character) to get a little farther in those situations, but you can only hold one at a time. Ezekiel Rage's The Skylia Prophecy has the makings of a good or even great game, but it certainly is not that in its current state. The entire experience has the distinct feeling of a puzzle where you can see the picture it's trying to make, but the pieces don't quite fit together. For me, it was the baffling presentation that seems to mix art styles from minute to minute, without explanation. However, the steep difficulty curve will likely also put many players off, especially those not accustomed to the Dark Souls mantra of "kill the player".