Game: Pronty
Genre: Action, Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows))
Developer|Publisher: 18Light Game LTD| Happinet Corporation
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: US $14.99 | UK £13.99 | EU € 14,99
Release Date: March 7th, 2023
Review code provided with many thanks to Decibel PR.
Under the Sea
Most 2D adventure games are set on dry land, but Pronty decides to take the formula under the sea into depths unknown. Pronty will likely turn heads with its stunning graphics, although it takes some risks with its gameplay, making it a glowing fish in a gigantic ocean of other 2D adventures.
You play as the cute and plucky sea guardian, Pronty, accompanied by your robotic swordfish pal Bront. Since Pronty is not one for words, Bront provides commentary to the plot and acts as your main weapon, which we’ll come to later. Set under the sea in the fabled land of ‘Royla’, his once prosperous paradise has been injected with a heavy dose of pollution thanks to an unexpected visit from a monstrous fish. This ooze has mixed with the local fish life, turning them into infected evils.
Pronty appears to be the last sea guardian swimming and must fight back against these corrupted baddies, bring hope to the once prosperous land, and learn a little about themselves along the way. The trouble is, Pronty is kinda new to this sea guardian business, so they will need to spend the game finding new abilities and getting stronger. Which just so happens to be a good template for an adventure game. As far as plots go, it’s a pretty standard affair. I didn’t really feel a lot for Pronty since all it does is nod its head happily to the next mission. Bront made the adventure much less isolating, being a friend in need of combat and also providing context to the plot.
Enchanting Graphics
The stand out of the experience is the graphics which are enchanting, presenting with detailed hand-drawn sprites. There is a huge diversity of corrupted enemies to experience, from mechanical clownfish to gun-totting crabs. All of these are catalogued in a codex you can read at your own leisure. There’s some impressive detail to the levels you explore, which will take you through all sorts of art deco-like ruins now ravaged by pollution. Still within this destruction life is clinging on, waiting for a hero to save the day. The game is accompanied by a serene soundtrack that certainly feels relaxing during the exploration phases, only to appropriately tense up during the boss battles.
Let Bront do the Work
Pronty follows the familiar adventure game template where you explore a giant map and seek out your next objective before finding new abilities to help you access new areas. This adventure game focuses mostly on exploration and combat with some very light puzzle-solving. Setting the game underwater gives Pronty a more unique feeling than most adventure games. Swimming around feels comfortable to control, with appropriate water swishing when you decide to dash about creating further immersion in the underwater adventure. The combat is quite unique.
Dash Through the Enemy
Pronty doesn’t directly attack enemies. This is handled by your swordfish friend Bront. A small faint circle orbits Pronty giving you an idea of the attack radius for Bront. If any enemy invades this space, you tap the attack button, and Bront will strike. Mashing the attack until they eventually explode is one way to get the job done, but the recommended way is to use a countermove. By dashing through an enemy, you will mark them temporarily and hitting an attack at this moment will cause severe damage often in one hit. It’s quite rewarding when pulled off correctly. Bront also uses additional moves like spinning around Pronty to form a shield protecting you from projectiles. Bront can also be shot out like a javelin causing massive damage on impact. All these moves generate heat and can’t be relied on constantly, so you must pick your moments.
If in a pickle, Pronty can dash through the water at the expense of some stamina. Stamina will also be spent using various moves unlocked through the game, which I won’t spoil. Combat does come with some issues however. Bront does have a tendency to get stuck in the environment and flails about until it finds a way back to Pronty’s side. The javelin move can also be unreliable. It works in principle, but with the auto-lock feature, Bront still tends to attack enemies rather than the target of interest. In fact, the more enemies on screen, the more messy combat feels.
Explore
Outside of combat, you spend most of your time exploring. You have access to a map that shows you areas you have explored and routes you’ve yet to explore to point you in the right direction. At the start, it wasn’t clear exactly where to go, leading to me getting a bit lost. As I pushed through, the game does provide more hints and markers, which proved helpful.
Exploring off the beaten path is encouraged to find collectables learn more lore about the work, and find perks and upgrades. These perks can be equipped at various save points and provide various buffs to combat, which are fun to experiment with. New cosmetics can be unlocked for Pronty, and the developers appear to hint at post-launch content to expand the game further.
Big Bad Boss
I had very mixed thoughts on the boss battles. These are often encounters with larger-than-life monstrosities that fill the screen and graphically look gorgeous. My favourite is the shark that seems to have a thing for sharp objects. However, actually confronting these bosses felt like quite the slog. The movement speed of the boss is pretty fast, making it very hard to find an opening to counter-attack, which does the most damage.
Most of my time on these encounters was spent desperately evading the boss’s attack and slowly whittling down its health to the point my fingers got sore, mashing the attack button. It got to the point where I rather disliked these boss fights despite loving their presentation. It didn’t help with my frustrations that there are no checkpoints before these fights, and if you die, you head back to the last save point, which is sometimes quite far away.
Fortunately, the game lets you adjust the difficulty, even allowing the player to customize it by tweaking damage dealt and stamina depletion. I do appreciate this feature, but I would have preferred an option to slow the enemies down so I could become accustomed to the counter move easier. Being an older gamer, button-mashing just isn’t working for me anymore.
Makes a Splash
My thoughts are mixed on Pronty, but ultimately I swim away recommending it. The game’s presentation, level design and premise is unique, with its gloomy ruins of a once prosperous world that pleaded to be explored accompanied by a mesmerizing soundtrack. Combat is a bit of a mixed bag, with it being functional for the most part during exploration but hard to harness during tough boss battles.
I appreciated the developers’ attempt at something different, but it didn’t click for me. Overall, Pronty is an adventure game that earns its place in the spotlight. If you’re in the mood for another 2D adventure game, this is one worth diving into the eShop for.
Final Verdict: I Like it
