Greak: Memories of Azur | Switch Review

September 6, 2021 Jacob Gunderson

What do you get when you cross The Lost Vikings and Hollow Knight? Correct! Greak: Memories of Azur appears to be one of the first games from Navegante Entertainment, and if you know anything about The Lost Vikings you might already know what kind of game it is. While not my favorite style, there have been many adventure puzzle games with the same ideas throughout the years with their own approach. Managing a three person party can get kind of hairy when exploring a map that could be straight out of Hollow Knight. The maps and feelings might not be as dark, but the level of exploration and the art stylings are familiar and really hooked me into seeing what else Greak had in store.

We’re Putting The Band Back Together

The game starts off with Greak, a young Courine, on a mission to find his sister Adara and brother Raydel. Along the way you find yourself in Raven’s Road Camp, which seems to be one of the last footholds the Courines have against the Urlag invasion. And they need help preparing their evacuation of Azur. Greak agrees to help as long as they help find his sister. Eventually it becomes a race against time as the Urlags get closer and closer to the camp.

Might not be the most exciting story, but it was enough for me to want to see how far it would go and how much they put into the world. The game itself is short and sweet; only took me 10 to 15 hours to reach the end. That works really well for a game like this so there isn’t this sense of mindless grinding to get to the next plot point.

Together At Last

Like most games, Greak: Memories of Azur has a main hub for you to buy items, save your game, or talk to strangers. Raven’s Road Camp is that hub, and it is from there you get all of your quests to go out in the world to collect supplies and help the camp. As you travel and progress the story, you visit many different places to find your siblings and special items. These places have new enemies and puzzles to overcome, and as you unlock the other siblings, the puzzles become more complex.

Each character has their own special movement abilities and fighting style. Greak is small and can climb through tight spaces and carries a small sword good for hit and run tactics. Adara is a magic user which allows her to float in the air for a short time and breathe underwater, and her magic also lets her attack from distance. Raydel is heavier than the other two, leaving him unable to swim, but he has a grappling hook that he can use to launch himself upwards from certain points. He wields a shield and sword, and can block traps and enemies alike. It’s with these differences that the game forces you to use characters individually to complete puzzles.

2 Is Company, 3 Is A Crowd

Parts of this game remind me of old escort missions where the person you needed to follow either walks too fast for you to walk and too slow for you to run. So you’re in a constant start/stop motion inching your way to the goal when you’re doing a puzzle. Movement is easy, because you are controlling each character separately. However, when you have to travel to get to that puzzle (and they all travel differently), it can stir up some frustrations.

I have the same frustrations during battles with these three as they do not share health. If the weakest one dies, it’s game over and you have to restart from your last checkpoint. To further these frustrations, the characters you are not directly in control of do not defend themselves unless they are on top of an enemy. This makes boss fights harder because it’s more of a race where you hope the boss dies before the bystanders. I was hoping for a little bit better character control, since games like this have been coming out since the early 90s. But you can find ways around it, and then it just becomes something you have to do so you aren’t yelling “let’s go” after every jump.

Ready To Make Some Memories?

Despite some bad spots, this game does get a lot of things right. This is a shorter game, and that is OK. I’d rather play a game with ten hours of good content than play a game with ten hours of filler grinding. The tutorials are simple yet informative with buttons and a picture, and it doesn’t take crazy skills to do well at it. I consider myself good at a lot of games, but for some reason I was having trouble remembering which button did what at the end, and still beat it. The artwork isn’t anything to overlook either. Either way, Greak: Memories of Azur and Navegante Entertainment will be ones to watch as they move forward. I hope I don’t end up as the only person who wants to see a sequel to this game, so get out there and try it.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy of Greak: Memories of Azur provided by Team17 for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Steam.