Dandara: Trials of Fear - Review

You might be wondering “hey didn’t Dandara come out already?!” Yes it did, some time ago now. Developer Long Hat House has added a free expansion, fortunately for me who missed out on the game the first time round so it’s a good time to check it out. If you’ve played it already and for some reason are reading this instead, what are you doing? Go play it already!

Dandara has been awoken to help the people of Salt fight back against oppression and reshape the world, or that’s what you’re told at the beginning. Dandara is inspired by an Afro-Brazilian historical character of the same name, and during the game you pick up on the Brazilian influences. Helping the oppressed around Salt in turn leads to them helping to open up the world and provide you with items that can help you clear previous obstacles. It also doesn’t hurt to hear what they have to say either. Around the world you’ll find points of interest or writings left for you to find out more about the world.

Dandara can only move by jumping from jump points on the many surfaces throughout the world, making for a very different kind of platformer/exploration game. When you’re grounded you can point the left stick to direct where you want to jump to next, the only catch is it has to be another landing point. In some areas this means you’re on a set path, in others you need to use it to zip between surfaces while dodging enemy attacks. Moving around took me a little getting used to, the touch controls work better for moving quickly, but the physical controls are better when you have to move and shoot.

The movement is really something else, I can’t remember playing a game quite like this in some time. Despite the unusual traversal mechanics it’s fun to bounce around the world. The only stumbling block is that there’s combat mixed in too. The biggest difficulty I had with this surreal experience is that it isn’t player friendly. Juggling combat and dodging attacks works well enough when it’s the early enemies. A few hours in and it feels like the combat and the movement isn’t enough to keep up with the much more deadly threats. To a degree you could say it’s a reflection of my skills, but I doubt I’m the only one who struggled with moving and shooting.

It’s not helped that shooting requires you to charge up your attack before you can fire it, and the range is often short of your target. All the while your enemies can bombard you with projectiles that you’re in a very limited position to avoid while also trying to take them down. Worse was when I pressed to charge the attack it didn’t always work. Given the time it takes to charge the damn thing it can really mess things up.

Inspired by Dark Souls, when Dandara is killed her spirit is left there with all the hard earned salt. If you can get back to your spirit you can recover it, die again and it’s lost for good. This mechanic frustrated me in Dark Souls and it’s no better here. If I died there the first time, chances are high it could happen again if I stumbled into an area I’m not ready for yet. The game doesn’t gate off all the areas you’re not really equipped for, which can lead to some frustrating time exploring and struggling to survive. While it can be punishingly difficult, it never communicates ‘hey if this is too tough you might be on the wrong path’. By the time you find out you can be fairly deep into some unforgiving areas you can’t easily get back out of. Ultimately it was always a real let down to lose so much salt, especially when I had enough for much needed upgrades.

With stylish pixel graphics and gated progression through items and upgrades, there’s very much that Metroid inspiration. Darting around the rooms you’ll see platforms or pathways you can’t interact with just yet. It wasn’t too far in where I stopped looking forward to how I’d overcome obstacles, and became more worried about how long it’s going to take me to get back there to use them. A fast travel option earlier in the game definitely would’ve helped, or even being clearer at times if you’re on the wrong path. Backtracking can be a real pain when you’re off the beaten track.

The world and mechanics behind Dandara are fascinating. While inspirations like Metroid and Dark Souls are easy to see, it is still very much it’s own thing. For all the issues I have with the game it is still one I wanted to play, the visuals and the music kept me interested in seeing where it goes. To a degree I also hoped I would pick up the movement over the course of the game. I did improve, but there’s only so much you can do when the game is made to be difficult.

Being the first time I’ve played Dandara, I can’t speak to how much the Trials of Fear update adds in regards to quality of life updates. From a gameplay menu you can select options that can add in more checkpoints or ‘cheats’ to give yourself unlimited energy and respawn in the room you died in. They definitely help give you more of a fighting chance if you want to persevere to the end, or even just ease up the challenge a little. The Trials of Fear portion does contain a sizable amount of content, great for previous owners. If you're jumping in now, you’re getting even more value along with one of the more interesting games of this genre.

Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition is simultaneously a great exploration game in the spirit of Metroid, while also being a difficult game to enjoy whenever combat becomes a bigger focus. The movement around the world is unique and while the story is a little thin, the world is still interesting thanks to the visuals, music and style. If you’re tired of the usual ‘Metroidvanias’ then Dandara is worth your time. For all its frustrations there’s still plenty to enjoy.