The difference between Canon of Creation and Vengeance in Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance and where to start

Disclosure: For transparency sake, I was provided with a review code, and played the game on both my Steamdeck and PC. 

Decline's Drops is an action platformer made by the Moulin aux Bulles Studio, and developed by Drazglb. Inspired by Super Smash Bros and Donkey Kong Country, it is a game that lovely mixes the best of both series, and has a fairly deep movement and battle system as a result. It is a platformer that is both fun to play, and very satisfying to learn and master.

THE GAME: 

Decline's Drops tells the story of a wooden girl doll named Globule who sees her garden get destroyed by a corporation through their pollution and factories that are destroying the nearby nature. Seeing this Globule takes it personally and puts on her boxing gloves to go and punch the heck out of them!

DD is a platformer with a fairly deep combat system that controls entirely like a Super Smash Bros game. You have different air moves, specials and, of course, "smash attacks" to send your enemies flying. DD even goes as far as to give you a button for both air dodging and shielding which you can use to adjust your jumps, phase through certain obstacles, or even gain a third or even a fourth jump if combined with a special. You start with your entire move set from the get go, and have a handy first stage as a tutorial to teach you all of the potential moves you can perform with Globule.

As you do these combos you gain a combo meter that gives you ranks for how long you can hold a combo going, and doing a better longer combo will give you droplets. Droplets are used to buy items from a shop, which includes different power ups and even Hud changes later down the line. You can also keep the combos going by picking up droplets or destroying boxes, and this gives a good incentive for veteran players to replay the stage to see how long they can keep a combo going throughout it.

The game is structured like this: You have five stages on each world before you meet a boss. On a stage you can collect five pieces of broken hearts, and then at the end you collect a full heart to end the level. Then, once you reach the end of a world, you get to take on a challenge stage where the game tests your knowledge of what you have learned in the previous world (some of the most challenging and fun levels in the game in my humble opinion).

Every time you beat a boss you gain new power ups in the form of phials that you can purchase in the shop. Some power up your "smash attacks," but weaken your specials as a trade off. Others increase the amount of droplets you can gain, but arguably the best power up that you get early on is double life phial. It could be considered even broken, but it's there to give you the option to make the game just a bit easier for yourself. Once you get to the third world the game starts to ramp up the difficulty in a significant way, and really tests your knowledge of your moves and movement even more.

Even though you have your entire move list unlocked from the get go, the stages themselves can introduce new mechanics for you to learn and keep things fresh (and later use in the challenge stage). For example, in first world you learn that there are certain obstacles you can bounce off of by hitting them with any attack, and that becomes its own whole platforming challenge. In a later world, you have a cute underwater glove vehicle that lets you zoom around and punch enemies by ramming into them.

The levels are well designed, and the secrets are hidden in a logical and fun way. Hidden walls even provide hints to help you find them. In some levels when you go out of your way to explore, often you will find areas you didn't think had anything, but in reality there are conveniently placed big droplets there to reward you for exploring. The movement can feel a bit floaty at times (especially with the air jumps) but it oddly enough gives you a "weighty" feeling of control over Globule that was more fun to learn to control. It is like you are controlling a wooden puppet living in the world. It also lines nicely up with how weighty and satisfying it is to do a combo, and to finish an enemy off with a proper SMASH! Attack! 

PROS AND CONS: 

Honestly, at first I wasn't sure if the game was gonna be worth its higher asking price of 18.49 euro ($18.99) than most platformers competing in those same price ranges, but the more I played it the more delighted I was with the whole experience. It is a well crafted game, with fun combat, and very fun platforming; that is both challenging, yet also fair for both newer and older veterans of the genre. I can, without doubt, say that this game is an indie highlight of the year for me, and a fairly hidden gem that deserves a proper chance (it also has a really lovely soundtrack!).

The reason I wasn't too sure about the price point at the start was because even if the presentation in game while playing the levels and seeing Globule move around is absolutely lovely hand drawn 2d animation (seriously we need more of that in the world as a whole), the menus and the world map went for a more "simplistic" look for them that gave me the impression that they were a bit of an after thought (though the pause menu is cute with a sleeping Globule near a tree).

Of course it is hard to balance a visual language throughout an entire game, and it is more worth keeping it consistent, and easy to understand with everything that is going on. However, for me personally, it wouldn't have hurt to see just a bit more work put into the menus and the world map; it does help set the correct mood and expectancy of the player after all. 

Speaking of presentation, I know this isn't really a story focused game (as most platformers aren't), but on that front I wouldn't have minded a bit more foreshadowing or more interactions with the different antagonists you meet in the game. At times it feels like the game wants you to have a small rivalry with some of them, but they kind of just suddenly appear and you punch them. It is more of a personal gripe though not necessarily an issue with the overall presentation.

That being said, the levels do transition nicely while in them! A big highlight was that a terrifying looking spider was in the background, and then suddenly disappeared from your sight to only become a major obstacle in the next part of the stage. Or how after you take down one of the bosses, the next level starts with you seeing the bosses corpse on the floor and leaving the arena. Small touches like this makes it feel like an actual journey through a world, and they are highly appreciated. 

CLOSING THOUGHTS: 

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Decline's Drops. It is fun, challenging and has a delightful soundtrack. Its asking price might be a bit high, but honestly for that price you get a well crafted hand drawn passionately made platformer, that will last you easily over 5-7 hours (depending on if you try to 100% it), and the mechanics are deep enough that I could see speed runners enjoy it a lot. 

(Fun fact, you can wave dash in this game Super smash Bros. Melee style to get a lot of extra speed throughout stages.) 

Honestly isn't that everything you would want from a good platformer? 

I highly recommend this hidden gem of a game, and I will definitely keep an eye on what the developer does next! Oh yea almost forgot, got a small tidbit from the dev themselves, after you beat the game you can find an easter egg in a certain garden. Good luck finding it!