Cathedral, you saucy minx. You lure me into your abode with false promises that I have slayed the day, only to tell me that my progress was a mere fart in the wind. Here’s a Cathedral Switch review.
A retro-inspired Metroidvania, you play an anti-social knight, much like the one writing this, in a quest to escape said building. It’s an 8-bit aesthetic with simple, yes super slick controls, and quite frankly, it’s a bastard.
Deep into the cathedral, my knight was soon dusting themselves off after an altercation with a spirit. I was no longer inside, but out in the wild. The game had fiendishly opened up an expansive world packed with numerous zones, featuring plenty of secrets to find.
Cathedral Switch Review
Under the illusion I was acing the game without a single death, the difficulty ramped up to borderline insanity in places. But do you know what? It’s doable. One of the challenges with Cathedral is being precise, read: perfect, which can be an infuriating experience.
If an enemy hits you, it will knock you off a ledge. Kill the enemy but get pushed back to another screen, and you have to return to the same area, only they’ve now respawned. Even worse, the flying enemies fly through platforms, making it impossible to kill them without manoeuvring around them.
The knight in the game comes equipped with a sword, and a ranged weapon called the Magnus Apparatus, or something. Besides being useful for picking off enemies, it’s essential for triggering orb-like switches that release timed platforms. The sword attack applies to whatever is next to you, though you can jump in the air and execute a diving attack. This doubles up at chipping away at blocks, revealing some sneaky locations. You tricksters, Decemberborn Interactive!
Platform King, Not Knight
Going back to Cathedral being precise, sometimes there’s no leeway for error, and you not only have to beat the timing of switches going off and deteriorating platforms, but also execute a jump where you don’t end up bouncing into one of these scoundrels.
The game’s art style and sadism reminded me of Jump King a little; the gameplay here is more consistent and rewards you with some loot that you can use for upgrades, though be warned that you lose a percentage of it with each death.
Enemies don’t take many hits if you can time it right, but if they clobber you, regardless of how weak they may appear, they hit like a truck filled with shot puts. The key thing is to avoid them with your jumps, more than anything. Oh, you’ll also need to find the checkpoints as swiftly as possible – and don’t forget to squirrel away some pennies for a rainy day.
Cathedral Review Summary
While Cathedral can be a satisfying game when you get it right, it’s challenging, and sometimes you question why you’re even playing it. Is it a game you’ll return to? The difficulty can sometimes feel utterly unfair, but finally finishing a section that troubles you is much more rewarding than unlocking a skin or new badge.
