Bo: Path Of The Teal Lotus Review

Summary

Path of the Teal Lotus blends Metroidvania and Soulslike in a Japanese folklore-inspired adventure with stunning 2D visuals.
Platforming is fast-paced and challenging, with tricky terrain and puzzles adding depth to the gameplay experience.
Despite similarities to Hollow Knight, the game shines in its vibrant world, charismatic yokai, tough boss fights, and rewarding exploration.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus wears its inspirations on its sleeve. It’s a mix of Metroidvania and Soulslike, steeped in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the myths of Japanese folklore. You play as Bo, a tentaihana fox journeying through lush forests, mystical cities, and dark caverns to bring three members of the Usagi Clan back to their home in the C🦋rimson Bamboo Forest.

I was instantly entranced by the gorgeous 2D presentation, which is reminiscent of traditional Japanese paintings. Environments are vibrant and lively, with detail in every co🧔rner you look. Sakura City is particularly beautiful, with cherry blossoms falling in🐠 the foreground as you walk through shrines and stalls manned by various animal spirits and yokai.

Link from Breath of the Wild gliding by Claire from A Short Hike with A Short Hike's world in the background

You Should Play Indie Breath💮 Of The Wild Before It ൲Leaves Game Pass

A 🌃Short Hike was one of the first games to riff on the new Zelda formula, and it's well💖 worth a look.

Posts 4

Outside the city, things are much more dangerous, with malevolent yokai and tricky terrain waiting to snatch away your health. 16🔯8澳洲幸运5开奖网:Platformin🌟g is fast-paced and challenging — you’ll need to get into the groove to succeed, as one wrong move typically means you’ll fall, likely into sharp bamboo or spiky plants. Puzzle elements are also sprinkled in throughout these sections, such as batting snowballs into flaming lanterns so you can bounce off t🎀hem without burning yourself, adding depth to what would otherwise be pretty simple platforming challenges.

You begin with a simple jump ability to help you get through each area, but will soon unlock an ext🌱ra jump, a dash, and a grappling hook. These are intuitive for the most part, but I consistently had trouble nailing the extra jump, especially when I needed to use it on enemies. Rather than the classic double jump that’s simply another button press, this extra jump requires you to hit your staff down onto an enemy🎉 or lantern first, which allows you to jump a second time.

I often found myself off by a slight margin when I performed this on enemies and bosses, meaning I i✨mmediately crashed down into them and took damage. When the combat is so fast-paced and relies on you keeping with the flow, one mistimed hit can turn the tide. It’s a small nitpick, but this is a main mechanic that’s a bit more convoluted than it needs to be.

Irksome controls aside, Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus has some great boss fights. Whenever you encounter one, you immediately feel the sense of scale — Bo is a tiny little flea compared to these gigantic beasts. They’re also varied, often requiring you to use different abilities you’ve picked up on t🎶he way rather than simply bolstering your combat skills through practice.

They do still require a bit of practice, though, and you’ll most likely need a few tries to lea💟rn their attack patterns.

Getting into the flow is once again key to fighting bosses. Dodging💮 their attacks in a circular pattern around the screen proved effective for staying in that flow. When I died (which I did, a lot), I easily fell into the ‘just one more try’ mindset. Thankfully, save poiไnts are kind enough and right by the boss arenas, so I never felt too defeated when I needed to try again.

While playing, I was consistently reminded of Hollow Knight,ꦺ and couldn’t keep the comparisons out of my head. With 2D hand-drawn graphics, Soulslike bosses, Metroidvani🌞a-style progression, and even specific mechanics seemingly drawn directly from Hollow Knight itself, it was difficult not to be.

Drinking tea from the teapot is exactly like consuming Soul (you can even obtain an Omamori that lets you move slowly while drinking it, just like one of Hollow Knight’s charms), and the ‘double’ jump mechanic is identical to Nail 🐠jumping (though thankfully, Hollow Knight has a regular double jump as well…).

This isn’t neces꧑sarily a bad thing — I love Hollow Knight and won’t complain about getting more like it — but some mechanics felt like a rehash rather than entirely fresh ideas.

Where Bo definitely succeeds is in creating a vibrant world filled to the brim 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:with charismatic yokai. Every area has a distinct feel, from the snowy mountains home to a beetle tribe to▨ an enchanting forest where you must escort a fox wedding party to the 💝safety of a nearby shrine.

Every location is meticulously detailed, making exploration one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. Combined with the stunning painting-like gr♉aphical st✅yle, the world and atmosphere are easily its biggest strengths. I couldn’t wait to enter a new area and see what type of environment it would be and what kinds of yokai I’d find there.

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus tries its hardest to break out of the staples of genre contemporaries, such as with its fo🐻lklore backdrop and a handful of new abilities, but it sometimes results in being more convoluted than necessary. Still, it’s set in a beautiful world that’s a joy to explore, with tough bosses and platforming that provide a rewarding challenge.