Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition | Xbox One Review

May 28, 2020 Scott Clark

Metroidvanias (or as my counterpart Zack refers to as “gear-gated games”) have had a huge resurgence in the indie space. As a fan of the genre, I’m always on the lookout for new entries, especially when they shake up the formula in interesting ways. I had never played Dandara from Long Hat House when it released in 2018; to be honest, I had never even heard of it. But now that the “Trials of Fear Edition” released, I was eager to get my hands on it. It’s a beautifully artistic experience that plays beautifully, but may frustrate players who get lost with where to go. It’s still a solid entry for fans of this style of game, especially since it’s very much a bite-sized experience.

A Brief Lesson in History

The title character is based on an Afro-Brazilian warrior from the 1600’s. Much like from the pages of history, this Dandara has a quest to relieve the World of Salt from the oppression of the Golden Idea. The lore of this universe is told mostly in ambiguous pieces of codex found throughout its 2D environment. The story, however, plays a backseat to the true reason to play the game, which is its unique gameplay.

Unlike most Metroidvanias, Dandara literally cannot walk from point A to point B. Instead, she teleports to specific surfaces, including the walls and ceilings. At first, this feels awkward, but very quickly becomes natural. In fact, once I became familiar with the controls, I found myself zipping through familiar areas at a speed that would rival Sonic.

Dandara also has a ranged weapon used to take out enemies, but it must be charged to fire. This makes for interesting encounters where you must time your teleportations to coincide with enough time to fire a shot before evading once again. Much like the majority of this game, it’s novel idea for this type of game that simply works beautifully. It takes very little time to traverse longer areas of the map, which makes backtracking much less of a chore. As expected, you’ll acquire new weapons and abilities to unravel new areas to explore, and it all feels satisfying when you discover a new location.

Explore a Directionless World

This description is coined as a selling point for Dandara, but I have to admit it’s the biggest frustration I had with the game. As much as I love Metroidvanias, nothing turns me off faster than getting stuck without knowing where to go next. On several occasions, I simply had no idea what my next objective was. Walkthroughs were of no use, since it was nearly impossible to pinpoint my progress. I resorted to wandering around the entire map looking for unexplored sections until I was able to find an undiscovered area on the map. While this may be a welcome mechanic to some, I found myself completely burdened by the amount of time between each moment of satisfaction. This could have been alleviated by simple waypoints on the map, which would have been very welcome.

In fairness, this is more than likely a personal issue instead of a fault with the game itself. I’m more or less a person that doesn’t like to feel like a failure when playing any game. And this one made me feel at a loss more often than not. Again, that may be due to personal lacking of skill or know-how, but it was a constant struggle for me.

The only other gripe I have with this title is how disorienting the map can be. As mentioned above, you enter certain rooms from the walls and ceilings. If you entered from the top, the next room might reorient itself so that you are now coming in from the left. While this offers a unique perspective that I appreciated, it twisted my brain when looking at the sub-map. I often had to adjust the map in my mind to know which direction I needed to go. “So I need to go up on the map, but when I get back to the game, that’s actually left.” An in-game mini map would have made this a lot easier to digest.

Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition Final Verdict

Despite all of that, I’m still highly recommending this title, especially if you’re a fan of this style. The sprite work and animation and beautiful, the upgrades feel rewarding, and the bosses are a blast to fight. Although I didn’t play the original to compare, this edition includes new areas and weapons to experience. The novelty of the gameplay makes this one definitely worth your time. With some minor tweaks, this would have been a hidden gem. By most accounts, it still is, and I hope others will discover the beauty present here.

To hear me talk more about Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition, be sure to listen to Episode 285 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:18:50 time stamp.

This review is based on a copy of Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition provided by Sandbox Strategies for coverage purposes. It is also available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.