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A cute anime-esque platform shooter | Glimmer in Mirror - First Impressions

2K View2023-01-10

From the looks of it, you might not think of Glimmer in Mirror as a metroidvania platform shooter. In fact every fiber of my being is telling me that it isn’t, it feels more like a flashy side scrolling hack and slash game, but Glimmer in Mirror is indeed a shooter in a cute anime (chibi) disguise, and that’s refreshing to see.

Glimmer in Mirror is a promising new game released in Early Access with a story-rich gameplay filled with cute chibi characters and stunning beautiful backdrops, accentuated by its melodramatic smoothing soundtrack.

The main character is Shiro, A teal haired girl who stumbles upon a sentient white magic crown named Lyo with a funny cute personality, one who grants her special powers called Glimmer powers. Starting with her basic attack: an energy blast or what the game calls a Light Surge.

Soon after, she discovers more ways of utilizing her glimmer powers, meeting interesting new characters and varied enemies along the way. Nothing is known about her or the world around her, it's all a blur from both her and the player’s perspective, it's as if she just magically got transported to that world. The mystery of the story gets gradually revealed in her adventure.

There is no voiced dialogue, so prepare for some light reading for most of the story elements. Fortunately, the conversations and banters between the characters are funny and entertaining. It also shattered my expectations for the english localization, which was surprisingly coherent and even good.

Metroidvanian is the best word to describe Glimmer in Mirror's gameplay. For those unfamiliar, it means platforming aspects with a focus on jumpy exploration while avoiding hazards and defeating enemies scattered around the levels, ending the chapter with a standard boss fight. The game has a mana system called Glimmers that allows you to use skills like charging up your light surges for a bigger impact.

For an early access game, Glimmer in Mirror is quite polished in the gameplay department. The combat is smooth, hits and kills are satisfying even if the enemies are a bit scarce and passive to my liking.

The map design is a bit confusing and could see a lot of improvements in the future. The animations and effects, while fluid and flashy in general, have a bit of imbalance to them. Some effects are a bit laggy compared to the silky smooth movement animations, and vice versa.

Glimmer in Mirror is still incomplete, as expected for an Early Access title. Only a few chapters are playable so far, but overall, my experience with it has been mostly good and I see a lot of potential in this game.

If what is already playable in this limited early access release is representative of the full game down the line, then this is definitely something that could become a success in the future, especially if they add many improvements while in Early Access. At the very least, it is indeed a hidden gem that is beautiful, cute, and fun.

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