Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition Review (Nintendo Switch)

Wash, rinse and repeat

Dandara is the type of game the cool kids like to call a Metroidvania. This translates to a game where you have a large map to explore, but, some areas of the map can’t be reached because you lack the right key, weapon or super power to progress. So the aim of the game is hunt down the new ability and find the route you couldn’t access before which may require some backtracking. Fight a few bosses now and then, then upgrade your abilities.

Continue to wash rinse and repeat several times until your character is super powered up and you can take on the final boss and win the day. Around ten hours later you’ll be home in time for a nice coffee. But how does Dandara stand out from the rest? Let’s explore.

Inspired by a Brazilian warrior

When I first started playing Dandara I found the story to be a bit tricky to follow. What I gathered was that there was a big bad who was oppressing people that needed sorting out and Dandara was the gal to sort things out. What was more interesting is that I discovered Danadara is inspired by a Brazlian warrior of the same name who fought against slavery back in the late 1600s. It was actually quite fascinating looking up this history and it made the underlying themes of the game make much more sense, despite the game being obviously very different from the actual historical events. This gave me a greater appreciation of the story the developers were going for.

*Picture based of the Brazilian Warrior*

Danadara is of course not set in 1600; it’s set in a fictitious world filled with beautiful pixel graphics. You’ll bounce across a wide variety of environments from greenwoods to robotic areas to hell dimensions because why not. Accompanying this is a lovely soundtrack to entertain your ears while you explore for chests and random NPCs to chat to.

*There’s many characters up for a chat, maybe a coffee?*

Gameplay: a really interesting juggling act

Usually games like this are platformers on a 2d plane. Dandara decided to rock the boat and go for an entirely different style of movement that strays from the norm. While Dandara is standing still she remains on the platforms and can only move to the white highlighted areas. However how she goes about this is what’s different. You aim with the analogue stick, tap a button and off you bounce. You’ll often be bouncing from the floors to the ceiling and the movement is fast paced and fun. You can’t fall and die so don’t panic. You can only move to highlighted platforms. This opens up the areas to some somewhat puzzling platforming as you are of course restricted to where you can jump to and it turns the old idea of head to the right into head up, maybe down, zig zag, this way that way etc.

*The green line helps guide you to your next jump*

Difficulty spikes

To add to the challenge there are enemies to defeat. Dandara can shoot out a charged shot which takes a second to charge and takes out various enemies and bosses that get in your way. It becomes a juggling act of making sure you avoid the projectiles sent your way as well as choosing the right moment to strike. This style of play felt very satisfying. Unfortunately the game has some pretty unpleasant difficulty spikes particularly on boss fights where so many projectiles and enemies are thrown at you it became very hard to follow what was going on. This leads to a lot of deaths and repeating certain bosses again and again which may frustrate some players.

Dandara has a single set difficulty but should you find things too challenging it offers accessibility options like more checkpoints and cheats if you’re struggling to make it through. I didn’t use these myself even though there were points where I was very tempted. I felt using them would just break the game and make it pointless to continue. Possibly a better idea to adjust the difficulty would be to adjust the speed of the game that way in some of the crazy sections it would have been easier to follow what’s going on rather than getting stressed and failing a lot like I did.

Dandara starts out pretty underpowered as you would expect. But before you know it you’re unlocking new abilities and weapons, keeping your adventure fresh but also allowing you to breeze through older areas you struggled with, with ease. Unlocking these gave a great incentive to pursue through the adventure and see it to its conclusion.

*Many abilities to find and use to aid you in your adventure*

When you die as opposed to getting a game over you are informed Dandara is ‘fallen into oblivion’ possibly one of the most horrific game over screens I have ever seen. We’re all pretty desensitised to Game Over but failing into oblivion sent chills down my neck. Fortunately you’re also informed that you’re returning to the previous flag.

Flags act as the games checkpoints. On resurrection you may note you have lost all of your ability points collected up to that point. When this first happened I panicked as I had worked so hard to accumulate the points. Then soon discovered if you return to the spot you ‘fell into oblivion’ (shudder) you can collect all the ability points you lost. This may remind some people of a mechanic in a little game called Dark Souls. I wouldn’t know it’s too hard for me. As well as flags there are campsites dotted around the map that allow you to improve your various abilities provided you have collected enough points which are dropped by enemies, fallen spirits and chests.

Conclusion

Overall, Dandara is a satisfying adventure. If you love metroidvania games, buy it, it’s different and you’ll love it. However, if you’re new to this genre Dandara does prove to be a fiery entry point.

Initially I was warmed by the retro inspired pixel graphics and music. Dandara dares to be different and it just works. Crazy difficulty spikes made the later areas of the game quite frustrating. Regardless, I can’t deny I still had a lot of fun and the game made me look up some history which is good in my books. As I returned to replay the game I thought about the real Dandara and her struggle to fight against an incredibly difficult cause for the time. While the fight against slavery doesn’t compare to the the struggle of finishing a video game. I spent around two hours fighting the final boss before I succeeded. The lesson I guess I picked up from this is never give up no matter what. You can make it through.

I’m pleased I learned about the real Dandara and I thank the developers for that.

I look forward to the developers future projects.