We wouldn’t rush to get a library card for the Phantom Library. It strikes from location to location on a whim, and the books are able to transporting a reader to totally different worlds. We are able to solely think about how a lot cash the Phantom Library makes from late charges.
It’s additionally very not too long ago change into evil, being possessed by ghosts and hoovering up any unlucky soul who occurs to be passing by. As if we would have liked one more reason to keep away from it. However Ravva doesn’t have the posh of a alternative: the little owl-wizard was passing by once they obtained sucked into the Phantom Library’s halls.
Ravva and the Phantom Library, you might not be conscious, is a sequel. We personally reviewed the primary sport, Ravva and the Cyclops Curse, and have been largely underwhelmed. Whereas it supplied a number of assaults, represented by summoned creatures, we latched onto the one or two we appreciated and caught with them. There wasn’t a lot of a sport there both: we have been carried out in a flick of a lamb’s tail, wishing there was extra. We handed it a 3 out of 5 and promptly forgot about it.
Ravva and the Phantom Library is the type of sequel that you just all the time hope you get whenever you begin reviewing a sport. Throughout each standards it’s superior to the unique, to the purpose that we’d encourage you to skip on to this one. There’s a motive that there’s no ‘2’ or ‘II’ within the title: we’re guessing that the builders need you to start out with this one too.
Issues don’t begin auspiciously. Whereas the opening story concerning the Phantom Library grabs the eye, and every degree is chosen from a lovingly rendered library interface, we will’t assist however really feel that Ravva and the Phantom Library makes a mistake. It neglects to tutorialise itself, assuming – we guess – that the participant is aware of what every of the 5 totally different assaults do. As somebody who noticed the end-credits of the primary sport, we couldn’t bear in mind these assaults, although. It had been too lengthy. And if we will’t bear in mind them, as somebody who performed the primary, then how is anybody else going to?
So there’s a little bit of opening befuddlement. You’re tapping buttons to see what every of the 5 totally different weapons really do. A fast rundown: there’s the essential bullet; a blue creature fires from above your head, clearing rainbow-coloured bricks; a purple creature fires at a forty five diploma angle above your head, hitting enemies that fly larger than you; a inexperienced creature drops bombs in a low arc, hitting issues beneath you; and an orange beastie emits a radar pulse which might discover secrets and techniques in an space. It’s attainable to modify from one to the opposite in milliseconds with a faucet of a button.
Within the opening sport, we moaned about a few of these weapons being higher than others, to the purpose that some grew to become irrelevant. That specific drawback has been handled. You completely want to make use of each weapon, as blocks and enemies can’t be circumvented with out them. Ravva and the Phantom Library develops the air of a puzzle sport, as you’re employed out which of the weapons fits the present state of affairs. How can I bypass a flying beastie? I can do a radar pulse, discover a flying cloud-platform, after which get above it. Ravva and the Phantom Library is chock-full of those mini-puzzles.
An issue stays, as switching between weapons remains to be fiddly. 5 weapons to cycle by way of is so much, and Ravva and the Phantom Library loves to search out moments the place you want to take action at pace. Bats undulate throughout the display, pushing you to navigate a display in opposition to a time restrict. Bosses want you to modify between strikes if you wish to do optimum injury. But it surely’s all the time awkward, by no means speedy, and we ended up questioning whether or not Ravva and the Phantom Library would have been higher with fewer of those summons.
However what elevates Ravva and the Phantom Library above its predecessor is how meaty all of it feels. There’s simply a lot extra substance right here. Ranges are not one and carried out in a few minutes. They’re labyrinths, demanding fifteen minutes or so to finish and air-dropping a boss in on the finish. The degrees are sufficiently big that checkpoints are all of the sudden crucial. We’d argue that Ravva and the Phantom Library might have carried out with extra of them. Every degree solely comes with two, and we’d have doubled the quantity.
Ravva and the Phantom Library is massively beneficiant with the way it allows you to have interaction with the degrees. You are able to do them in any order, selecting from volumes on the Phantom Library’s bookshelves. They roughly enhance in problem in accordance with the numbers on their spines, so there’s a beneficial order, however you may largely dabble in accordance with your personal whims. Higher but, every of the degrees calls for replay. There are an enormous variety of secret areas and invisible treasures in Ravva and the Phantom Library – all of the sudden, the radar-monster turns into extra helpful – and you’ll select to have interaction with them or not. No matter your alternative, it’s satisfying to really be on condition that alternative. Ravva and the Cyclops Curse failed to search out its depth.
It’s nonetheless somewhat tough across the edges. A lot of Ravva and the Phantom Library is spent destroying bins to progress, and there’s solely so many thrills available obliterating cubes. While you die, the overwhelming majority of those bins return, so that you’re typically clearing them repeatedly. We all know why the emphasis is on such an odd factor, as a result of totally different colored bins require you to vary your weapon. It makes switching necessary. However did it need to be so long-winded?
Nonetheless, there’s been a development to the final degree design. Not solely are they longer, however we felt like we have been being examined somewhat extra. A juggernaut-like beast was a relentless headache, whereas the bat rooms hardly ever did not take a coronary heart pip from us. We appreciated the extent of problem of the bosses particularly. Whereas they have been barely extra spongey than we might have appreciated, they have been puzzles ready to be solved. Sure mixtures of positioning and weapons made them beatable, however the conundrum was to find these mixtures. Ravva and the Phantom Library has developed a specific talent at creating these encounters.
Which is to say that Ravva and the Phantom Library is a major step ahead from the primary sport. And should you haven’t performed Ravva and the Cyclops Curse, then know that this can be a puzzle-platformer with substance. It has its fiddly moments, however it’s additionally obtained a knack for creating dense, sprawling ranges with a fun-to-figure-out boss on the finish. Even when you’ve got a backlog to work by way of, this tome remains to be value testing.
