Revita Preview

What do you value more, your health or cool weapons? Revita forces you to make the hard decision in this twin-stick roguelite platformer. You play as a child who has lost their memory, and all you know is that if you want to get your memories back you need to ascend the clock tower and fight through the procedurally generated rooms to reach the top; once you reach the top you have to defeat the boss awaiting you. Creepy voices warn you that you shouldn’t have come, but you aren’t totally on your own; you will meet different characters in the tower that will help you on your journey to the top. 

Since Revita is a roguelite you will be able to keep some of the power-ups you unlock to use again for your next attempt. My favourite things to acquire are relics that improve your stats for your next playthrough, or other beings known as Familiars that will help fight enemies that try to attack you in every room of the tower. It’s super handy when the enemy is across the room firing bullets at you from a spot that isn’t easy to access, your Familiar has no issues floating right up to them and beating on them! 

The way you get stronger in Revita is by redeeming some of your hearts or blueprints in exchange for power-ups. This is a real balancing act, because if you get too greedy and give up too many hearts you will have a harder time getting through the rooms and to the top. If you do manage to defeat the boss at the top of that tower, you will board the metro and be whisked away to another tower in a different area. We had to know that getting past only 12 rooms couldn’t be the end of the game, if that were true this would be one of the shortest games I’ve played! 

As you make your way through the multiple rooms and boss fights, you will earn rewards that you can exchange for various items and abilities that will carry through to your next attempt. While playing, if you collect enough souls from defeated enemies you can replenish your hearts by using your focus ability, and if it is used when your health is full it will create new hearts. You can use these hearts as an offering to the item statue when you come across it or when you find chests that can only be unlocked by spending health. You are not required to spend any hearts, you can just leave without buying or unlocking the chests, but it sure is hard when there are multiple cool-looking powers and upgrades!

Some aspects of Revita reminded me of another rogue-lite I have played, Dead Cells. When you meet The Imprisoned you learn that you can collect keys for him and exchange them to unlock relics that will show up in the tower, such as a Mythril Shield, a Cute Doll, and a Lava Lamp, all of which can become quite useful during your quest. Once they are unlocked, they will always be available, even when you perish. 

While on your journey there are multiple times when you will get to make choices that will impact your game, such as listening to souls that have been captured. If you choose to listen to them, these poor souls will be set free and available for you to interact with at the station. Since you saved them, they will be glad to help you out, for a cost of course!

On my first attempt, I made the mistake of exchanging my hearts for upgrades at every opportunity. I soon realised that this was a huge mistake because you don’t need temporary upgrades if you are dead, so I got smarter about picking and choosing what to spend my health on. It makes more sense to keep your health and make more progress to unlock items like relics, earn blueprints to upgrade your current items, and collect soul coins from enemies that can be spent on items you upgrade that will carry over to your next attempt.

Revita is incredibly addictive and I love challenging myself to see how many floors I can get through before falling victim to the huge assortment of enemies and levels you find in these towers; my current record is 35 floors. I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves roguelite games, with a retro look, and a variety of powers and items to unlock. This game is sure to keep you busy!