Afterimage Review

Set in the beautiful fantasy world of Engardin, you take on the role of Renee, a beautiful long-haired warrior armed with a sword and a sprite companion, Ifree. The world in Afterimage has been destroyed due to a cataclysmic event known as “The Razing” that almost annihilated all humans. Renee and Ifrit have been granted the Gift of the Gods by the god Aros. This gives the two of them the ability to repeatedly come back to life, death is not permanent.  

Renee awakens in the ruins of the capital city — Rubiwood Village — with no recollection of the preceding events. Dangerous monsters have been appearing right outside of the village, and as you go to inform Madame — the Leader of the Village that the creatures were approaching. The whole place is on fire, and some of the residents have died. You will see the glowing blue echo of these fallen people, and if you interact with them, you will gain EXP and learn more about the world of Engardin. You see the mysterious cloaked figure siphon the soul of the god Aros (Madame) into a crystal. She has not been killed, but Renee and Ifrit chase after the stranger and set off on a journey to retrieve her mentor, which will determine the fate of this human race in the new world. 

Engardin is home to many fantastical creatures that you will encounter on your adventure. Some look cute like dinosaurs that have been combined with bunches of grapes, while others are more frightening like huge fire wolves that are ready to attack you on sight. You will also discover enemies called Wanderers. Usually, when people pass away their essence is taken to the soul steam, where it will find a new body to inhabit. But something has interrupted this process causing these Wanderers to appear. They prey on the corpses that you left behind and neglect to clean up after. Taking on the form of glowing ghost knights armed with either large swords or bows, you quickly learn that attacking isn’t the only action you will have to take but dodging is incredibly important. The furious enemies won’t hold back, and you will be in trouble if you get in their way. To be at peace, they will have to be defeated so their souls will be set free once more to enter the soul stream. 

Afterimage is a beautiful hand-drawn game that features a fantasy world that is full of life and boasts 15 different semi-open world areas that seamlessly join together giving you tons of areas to explore and feature over 150 unique enemies. The sound effects accompanying the enemies are great, each making their own little sounds — like the flower pot with eyes and moss on top; they make silly mumbling sounds when they are walking around then get excited and chase after you when you get close. The Wanderers drag their sword on the ground as they walk around, you can hear the sound of the metal scraping on stone getting louder as they approach. Touches like these make this fantasy world come to life, and I was happy to hear which enemy is near before you can see it so you can get prepared to face them.

There are 10 different abilities that Renee can learn to use along with a large assortment of weapons. The one I found most useful was the whip, as it is longer than a regular sword and allows you to stand a bit further away. There are spots to equip a primary and secondary weapon that you can easily alternate between. Any of the weapons you acquire can be placed in either position; the game won’t force you to have a specific type of weapon as your primary. While exploring and defeating enemies, you will acquire talent points that you can use to fortify yourself. If you head to the Talent area in the menu, you will find a Skill Tree — looks more like a web — where you can spend the points that you have obtained. You can choose to focus on improving your HP, MP, Defence, or Attack of your weapons and magic. I like how you can upgrade your primary and secondary weapon slots independently. Renee has to be at a certain level before letting you learn them, or you will have to acquire connecting talents first. If you want to learn a different skill instead of the talent you previously had, you can unlearn them. This will let you retrieve your talent points and spend them on something else. This is especially handy if you are dying in battle a lot and want to concentrate on improving your HP and defence instead of magic. The game allows you to do a lot of customisation here!

While on your journey through all the different areas that make up Engardin, you will realise that the world is full of unknown secrets and hidden areas to traverse. Be sure to thoroughly check out every location, as there are seemingly invisible paths and chests that you may miss in your first pass-through. As you learn new abilities, you will be revisiting a lot of the locations, as you can reach new platforms that you haven’t been able to access before. Each area you visit has its own story to learn and reveal how the zone connects to the rest of this world, and you'll discover the hidden truth of Engardin. It looked bright and vibrant, but the soundtrack in Afterimage tells a different story. The music feels sad and full of melancholy, reminiscent of games like Hollow Knight or Symphony of the Night; it felt polarising compared to the bright and colourful world of Engardin, but created a good contrast. 

The Confluence of Streams act as save points — they look like trees with crystal balls hanging from them. This will also update your map with the new areas you have discovered, as these new paths won't automatically be added to the map, you will have to visit the save point first. It will also replenish your health and act as a checkpoint where you will spawn when you die. If you have to do some grinding to improve your level, select a location near one of these confluence points. It is helpful to save your progress and fill your health gauge without wasting one of your potions and not have to worry about dying if you get hurt when you are far away. Every time Renee gains a level, besides becoming stronger, you will get a Talent Point or an AfterImage Point that you can spend on her Skill Tree (which looks more like a web) to make her stronger, increase the amount of HP she has, or learn new abilities. These can also be found in hidden chests if you search secret areas. When you level up, your health gauge is replenished, which is helpful when you are grinding for levels and have wandered far away from a save point. 

The controls in Afterimage are simple to use; there are buttons for the primary attack, secondary attack, magic, and a dodge that will launch Renee backwards to avoid enemy strikes. Though I did find it was easy to get turned around, instead of getting away from the enemy, I was crashing into them. You can crouch to avoid getting hit by things like arrows, but if you try to attack at the same time, Renee has to wait for the full animation to finish before she stands up so you can attack again. The enemies you face off against take a lot more hits to defeat than you may expect. On average, it would take around eight hits to defeat the enemy, whereas even the smallest foes needed four good hits to beat. So it may take a lot of experimentation to figure out the skills that will help you most on the skill tree to make your experience feel more balanced.

The area I found most disappointing in the game is the story. There were fully voiced cutscenes, but the characters were referencing fantasy terms and never explaining what they meant, so half of the time, I wasn’t really sure what was going on. That makes it very hard to get super interested in the story that the game is trying to tell. The impressive visuals and massive open world to explore mixed cool weapons and attacks are sure to keep you playing, not the convoluted story.

Afterimage does a lot of stuff right and, if you are a fan of action RPG titles that have a Metroidvania feel, this is a title that you are going to want to check out. With entertaining enemies to fight and challenging bosses to battle, Afterimage will keep you busy for a long time. I can definitely say this is one of the most impressive-looking games that I have ever played.