Afterimage (PS5) Review

Been playing a game called Afterimage (also available on Mobile, Steam, Switch, PS4 & XBox Series X), and been having a pretty good time.

Style of game is a Metroidvania, so if you like that style, you're almost certainly guaranteed to like this one. You play as Renee, a girl who has lost her memories, and is determined to get them back. Along the way, you run into various characters who help & hinder her progress, and the reasons for all eventually become clear throughout the game.

The progression isn't the most intuitive, and figuring out where to pick up keys for giant gates wasn't immediately obvious, so it may be frustrating to get your bearings. It is a giant open world map, so that's forgivable, but there's a manta ray you can ride and a boatman, which get you to a few places you can't normally get, which feel odd & disjointed from the rest of the game. However, with a resting potion, you can quickly warp to save points on the map, so once you've visited an area, it's not terribly difficult to find your way back.

That being said, it was a bit tricky to figure out which way to go, so I ended up in a few areas I probably shouldn't have been right away, which made for pretty simple grinding, when a save point was nearby, which is often. Some of the power-ups, known as Afterimages, aren't available, so I was locked out of several areas for a large part of the game. Guess that might mean I just need to "Git Gud" but with a bit of persistence, everything has worked out. Hoping to finish it this week.

I did have to consult the interwebs on where to pick up one item, which assumes you've located a key, so I'll have to dig around a bit more before I can actually find it. Here's hoping!

Plan on putting around 40-45 hours into this, maybe add another 5 or so to complete all the additional side-quests. There are multiple endings, and the one I've seen so far was a bit strange, just a few still images, and then the ending name displayed, before kicking me back to the start screen to pick up where I left off. Felt strange, but hey - I've seen worse mobile adapted games.

Overall, it's a fun game to play, at least once. 7 out of 10.

Here's a link to Amazon for a physical copy: Afterimage Game