Inferno Climber: Reborn (Nintendo Switch) Review

The deal with Inferno Climber: Reborn is that it presents a unique spin on concepts popularized by From Software's Dark Souls. Underneath the lo-fi presentation is what appears to be a deep and challenging game; one that offers its players numerous worlds filled with danger. Only through exploration, skill, and a wealth of patience can one hope to overcome the monstrosities that await here. Given enough time, you'll create heroes of unparalleled ability. Powerful armaments can be acquired, which will be put to the test against vicious fiends. On the surface, it's pretty standard stuff, so let's dig a bit deeper and discover what helps this title stand out.

Upon starting a new game, players are given the choice between eight classes. Each class represents traditional archetypes like young warrior, royal knight, and forest hunter. As one would expect, all of their stats are distributed accordingly. To give an example, legendary mages are frail, but their large MP pool allows them to fry large quantities of fiends. Each class also has their own special characteristic. Whenever the young warrior levels up, all of his hit-points are restored, making him a solid choice for beginners. No matter the decision, it's all but guaranteed that one will spend time with each class, before their journey reaches a satisfactory conclusion.

One of the most interesting aspects is that the eight classes basically serve as extra lives. If and when the player's starting hero is killed, then another must be chosen to continue the quest. Experience levels are shared between everyone, but it's never a good idea to leave the dead behind. As soon as they're able, one of the survivors should make their way to the corpse, and use a death contract. This restores the fallen adventurer to life. An important detail to keep in mind is that gear remains on the person when they fall in battle. Until they're revived, that lost property can't be recovered. Needless to say, it's also good idea to avoid dying in hard-to-reach places. Well… it's a better idea to avoid dying, period. Good luck managing that however.

Seeing as how death can be a pretty major setback, it's important to master the mechanics that govern this title. First off, stamina is handled a bit differently than in similar games. Running, jumping, and sword-swinging drain the stamina bar. While that bar recovers, the hunger gauge will deplete. Adventurers can't go hungry, or else their health will suffer. Other ailments such as poison or burning can occur, so try to keep all necessities on-hand, while also being mindful of the limited inventory space. Healing items can be purchased at the hub-world, but it's rarely convenient to come back and resupply. Shortcuts aren't particularly common, so adventurers will have to make do with what's on the field. Treasure chests and monsters hold all sorts of random loot, and food can be found most everywhere. Be wary though, food doesn't remain fresh for very long.

The bulk of this title's appeal is in exploring. Each realm is filled with all sorts of neat treasures, and even some surprising rarities. Those out there who don't mind a little puzzle-solving can uncover powerful gifts. Among the most useful are the skill books, which bequeath special talents to whoever reads them. These include, but aren't limited to, the ability to dodge-roll, deflect attacks, and charge through adversity. The world is quite large, and it will take many hours to find everything.

Adjusting to the controls is a very difficult endeavour. Walking from one place to the next is simple enough, but the nuances of combat and platforming are difficult to grasp. Rather than a wide array of moves or skills, successful fights are usually determined by who lands the first hit. Provided the hero has enough stamina, most enemies can be obliterated with a vicious button-mashing. However, if the player isn't paying attention, they can be knocked to the ground, overwhelmed by a crowd, or sniped from afar. Despite this being a fully-3D game, movement is locked to eight directions. Monsters can sometimes slip just outside of the protag's attacks. If two or more manage to gang up on him, they can do a ridiculous amount of combo damage. Also, the stiff controls can lead to missed jumps or tumbles off of narrow ledges.

Even if someone is able to overcome these issues, it's very unlikely that they'll make a lot of progress, because the frame-rate is absolutely horrendous. Apologies for coming off as overly harsh, but Inferno Climber: Reborn looks like an early PlayStation 1 game. There's no reason why it should run so poorly, yet there are so many instances of the frame-rate dropping into what feels like the single digits. If that wasn't enough, the dodgy camera makes looking around and keeping track of foes an incredibly arduous task. If deaths are to be as punishing as they are, then one should have ample opportunities to avoid them. Instead, everything is so unresponsive that failure is inevitable and unfair. This recipe for constant frustration will exhaust all but the most masochistic.