Whether you call it “Metroidvania” or “search action”, I'm always down to explore a big interconnected map while I collect upgrades that let me get to new parts of the map to get more upgrades.

GigaSword caught my eye earlier this year, with trailers showing that it's unique twist on Metroidvania design was having to leave your sword behind to solve some puzzles. Since a lot of challenge in this genre typically comes from combat, a design inclined towards puzzle platforming sounded really interesting.

As of writing this, I'm sitting around the 12 hour mark of the Steam Deck version of GigaSword with the end in sight, but it's been a rough ride.

There has been a lot about this game that I've absolutely loved, but it needs a patch or two before I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

Friend of the Owls

I'll be honest, I don't come to this genre for the story. I have heard people super passionate about the story in games like Metroid Dread or Hollow Knight Silksong, but I couldn't tell you two things about their plot.

I wish I could say the same about GigaSword, but this game has so much story that it's impossible to ignore.

You play as a kid named Ezra who lives on the streets of a town in the shadow of a big magic tower full of humanoid owls. Everyone knows the owls are there, and that they carry giant swords, but most people live their entire lives without ever seeing them.

Not Ezra, though. Early in his life he is saved by an owl named Omari, who watches over Ezra as some amalgamation of father/lover/pet owner. When the local military decides to attack the owls to steal their magic, Ezra finds Omari dying on the battlefield and takes up his sword for revenge.

The basic outline of the plot if pretty familiar, which is part of what made the long story interludes feel so dry. While the still pixel images that make up the cutscenes are really beautifully rendered, there is just way too much talking in the opening of this game before you can finally start swinging a sword.

Big Sword, Slow Swing

Unsurprisingly, given the game is named for it, the GigaSword is a huge focal point for the story and gameplay of GigaSword. While it's just a normal sword for Omari's people, it's clear as you explore the tower that these are people who are serious about their swords.

Nearly every owl statue you see is holding their sword; the doors in the castle are opened by swords, with locks that unlock based on gems laid into the hilts; there are switches and blocks only intractable via swords; and of course it's your primary offense in battle.

Mechanically, there are two ways the size of the saber impact you.

First, you just can't move very well while carrying it. You can jump twice as high and grab on to ledges if you leave it behind.

Second, it's slow. The main combat move in this game is a three hit combo, and it's so, so slow. Throughout the entire game, I never got to the point where combat clicked with me. Every enemy attack pattern felt like it was designed for a player character with a speedier swing.

It's not that it's hard, it's just that it feels off. Like I had somehow imported a fatroll Strength build from Dark Souls into The Force Unleashed.

Unsatisfying Upgrades

Since this is a Metroidvania game, I pushed through GigaSword‘s frustrating swordplay looking for upgrades that might make it feel better. There are two separate upgrade paths in this game.

You're introduced to the first version when you find your first save room. Following the Souls like format, you can spend the currency you gather from fallen foes at save points (which cause defeated enemies to respawn).

Unfortunately, the upgrades you can buy here lean more towards ranged magic attacks. You can increase the power of a jumping strike or invest in a Zelda-like ranged attack that only works when you are at full health, but there's nothing that changes that basic, slow, 3-hit combo.

I started having more fun when I finished the upgrade tree about 2/3rds of the way through, rendering the currency from downed enemies basically useless. Since I didn't have an incentive to fight them, I started ignoring baddies and realized that you can just run through enemy sprites as long as they aren't actively attacking.

The other progression format is in the Metroidvania vein, with a handful of unlocks that give you new ways of traversing the map. One of these is a charged swing of your sword, which is great if you want the combat to be even slower. There's also a late game one that I don't want to spoil, but is super interesting.

Unfortunately, most of them are gems for your sword that just have zero combat applications.

At first I thought that these were all going to be simple keys, but instead they lean more towards puzzle mechanics. Without spoiling things, the gems change the way you move your sword through the puzzles.

Fantastic Puzzles

Along with new enemies, fantastic background art (fans of sexy Owl sculptures rejoice!), and great music, every new area in GigaSword also introduces a new mechanic that forms the basis of the puzzles in that area.

These are varied, they are interesting, they rarely overstay their welcome, and they are tutorialized phenomenally well. Every title card telling me I'd uncovered a new region of the tower got me pumped to see how this section of the game would play.

At first, the puzzles are built around dropping your sword and then platforming around unencumbered until you find a ladder that you can drop down to where you left your sword. As you explore more of the tower, you'll start to find moving platforms, destructible terrain, red and blue switches, and all sorts of different elements, but the core loop never really changes.

The primary “puzzle” that you are solving is usually “how can I get the big sword to go up”, but the combination of the abilities unlocked by the gems and the unique mechanics in each region kept that basic idea fresh.

In general, these are pretty approachable challenges, too. Each room is generally it's own self contained puzzle, so you know the solution is somewhere right in front of you. When I got stuck in this game, it was never because a puzzle was too tough to crack.

So Many Issues

This game feels rough.

Outside of the issues with the story and combat I've already talked about, I've also run into a lot of technical issues.

The tower seems to be full of invisible ledges. Ezra frequently gets caught on the edge of walls or misses jumps because he bonks into something that just isn't there. Most of the time, once I ran into one of these I was able to hit again repeatedly, as if there really was something there.

Speaking of invisibility, I had to quit out of the game and reload my save about a dozen times because Ezra's sprite just disappeared. The camera would still track left and right if I tried to move, but it panned regardless of walls or platforms.

The one time I did get stuck on a puzzle, it was because a movable block that was the key element of the puzzle disappeared, and I spent ten minutes trying to figure out what I was supposed to do before I ran across the map and back to find a block that hadn't been there when I left.

Speaking of the map, it's terrible. You can only see your current part of the tower, rather than looking at the whole interconnected map as one space. Not being able to have that context made it super hard to navigate from region to region. You also cannot notate the map, which I understand isn't the genre standard I want it to be.

The map does highlight different types of doors for you, which is nice, except that it uses almost the exact shade of green for two different types of doors and doesn't show you doors in the middle of a room and also sometimes it just highlights things the straight up wrong color.

Final Thoughts

When GigaSword hits, I absolutely love it. Unfortunately, for me, it only hits when it is being a puzzle platformer.

And even then, running into bugs that cause you to lose progress by reloading a save over and over again made

it really tough to keep digging for those bits I loved.

I hope this game gets a patch. At the very least, it needs to have some of those bugs ironed out and the map could use an overhaul. Ideally, I'd also love to see the combat get revisited, because the timing just feels off.

There is enough good here that it's worth watching in the hopes that it gets those tweaks. But even if it doesn't, I'll be over the moon if they ever announce Super GigaSword as a sequel.