SHEEPO

Pros: - looks nice, sounds nice - witty writing - fun exploration Cons: - too many boss fights where you have to wait for your turn to attack

Well made game. Pleasant visuals and music, fluent controls and a decent variety of gameplay for it's relatively short length. Typical metroidvania mechanics. Very polished overall. It's obviously not the right thing if you're looking for a 50+ hours metroidvania with endless exploration and constant challenge, but great if you're fine with a shorter experience.

Sheepo is a challenging platformer-Metroidvania. The titular humanoid sheep is an explorer sent to gather eggs of the local species for an intergalactic species database. How physical objects are digitalised or preserved is not explained, while the eggs collected allow the protagonist to shape-shift into the respective species, but only when there is one nearby, which does not improve the consistency of the story. The controls are comfortable and rebindable, though the on-screen prompts still show the default configuration and wall-jumping is a bit odd. There is no direct combat outside of boss battles, only the environmental hazards, such as spikes and chainsaws. The boss battles are mostly focused on avoiding damage (bullet-hell-like) long enough for the bosses to die or be knocked out. The difficulty cannot be adjusted mid-game, and discovering that you woefully underprepared at the fifth boss is rather unpleasant. Fortunately, the save file can be easily edited with a text editor. There are several NPCs to talk to and some secrets to discover. The map is helpful overall - there are not many types of collectibles, only the health upgrades and the feathers. The latter are required to unlock the final areas and the ending. An optional NPC in the late-game gives a map showing the approximate location of the uncollected feathers. Another NPC can point in the general direction of the next egg to collect. Unfortunately, if the protagonist dies after collecting a feather and before reaching a save point, the feather will need to be collected again. Considering that they are usually located in hard-to-reach places, it is rather unpleasant. The visual design is expressive and readable. The soundtrack is nice and fitting. Overall, because I played Islets, the developer’s newer game, before Sheepo, the experience felt underwhelming. Islets is simply better in every aspect, but Sheepo can be enjoyable as well.

This is a platformer first and foremost, jump aroung , unlock new shapeshifting skills to reach new places and challenge yourself to get 104% completion. Theres no combat, there are a few bosses, but all you do is jump and move around baiting them into hurting themselves, the game is not particularly hard, don't expect "path of pain" levels of platforming, but is challenging enough to keep you going. Very enjoyable experience, specially with the catchy music and the cozy graphics. A good title to decompress for a few hours.