Possessor(s) PS5 Review. Heart Machine is known for developing games with vivid colors and vibrant animations. Its latest project, a 2D Metroidvania called Possessor(s), is no different. This team always manages to put together something special with each game it releases. Does Heart Machine continue its legacy with Possessor(s)?
Possessor(s) Review (PS5) – A Solid Hit But Not A Home Run
Demons Descend
The game opens to you, Luca, witnessing your friend dying at the hands of demons that took over the city. At the same time, demons sever your legs at the knees, and they leave you to die. As you drag yourself to find help, you encounter a demon named Rhem, who, like you, suffers from potentially fatal wounds. He brokers a deal to let him possess you so he continues to live, and in return he offers to repair your legs. Reluctantly, you accept the deal.
As you progress, you learn that the battery company that runs the town seems to be the center for the demonic takeover of the city. From there, you utilize the power that Rhem bestowed on you thanks to his possession in order to find the demons who killed your friend. Just as an aside, Luca is someone many people would call a Fixer. As I am a fellow Fixer, it’s nice to see some representation, even if it’s a hard pill to swallow.
As mentioned in the introduction, Possessor(s) is a 2D Metroidvania. With that comes all of the features fans come to expect from this genre: map exploration, unlocking new areas, and plenty of boss fights. Combat is meaty and satisfying, with weight added to each hit. When you hit an enemy, there is a built-in pause for a millisecond where everything freezes.
Neon Fights
It gives that snapshot feel to each attack. It also creates a bit of a risk-reward as well because the rest of the world keeps moving during said pause. The game also doesn’t accept new inputs until after the millisecond freeze. This gives you that much time to assess your situation, like if you just noticed a projectile coming at you from behind. This gives you the freedom to continue your combo or instead dodge or parry.
This pause increases the difficulty a little bit. Even on easy mode, you find yourself in tough situations. Boss fights are a bit easier to handle simply because they feature fixed choreography. While navigating the world, though, you easily find yourself cornered by several different types of enemies. A situation I came across often is an invincible enemy (that only takes damage by parrying its projectiles) and several types of ground and airborne baddies. Avoiding different types of projectiles as well as melee attacks forces you to adapt much more in the open world than when fighting bosses.
The parry system is rather forgiving in a different way. The window to successfully parry is still quite small, as is expected. However, if an enemy shoots multiple projectiles at you in a row, then your parry animation continues to parry the successive projectiles. Incidentally, this only works if you successfully parry the first projectile. Still, plenty of enemies shoot multiple projectiles, so this additional parry utility comes in clutch quite often.
Sticking to Fundamentals
What doesn’t always work well is your whip. This serves as a multipurpose item, both allowing you to catch grapple points and also grab enemies. However, if there are boxes or other objects closer to you than you are to the enemy, then your whip automatically grabs the boxes instead. You can aim which way the whip goes, but it still auto-locks onto objects close to you, even if said objects don’t line up with the direction you aimed in. The easy fix is to just destroy the boxes, but this muddies things up in the middle of a fight.
In a lot of ways, Possessor(s) puts more focus into exploration than it does the boss fights. While the boss fights give you plenty of challenges, you spend way more time both fighting enemies and performing specific platforming as you navigate the map. That’s where the challenge is in this game. Dealing with all different combinations of adapting enemies and projectiles all while minding your footing asks a lot of you.
There is no leveling system in Possessor(s). Instead, you change up your equipment to suit your needs. All weapons have different speeds, different damage, and different levels of staggering opponents. Heavy weapons can stagger enemies more quickly and with more damage per hit at the cost of slower attack speed.
Pace Change
With this in mind, you can take on anything in the game without needing to worry about what level you are. Instead, it all comes down to skill and your familiarity with your weapons. This boils the game down to the nitty gritty foundations of the genre, walking away from the level-up formula that made Castlevania: Symphony of the Night such a hit and instead leaning more into the foundations of the genre.
I personally like this simply because I’m only limited by the skills I need to unlock different parts of the map and not by my ability to fight whatever enemies I come across. The only drawback to this is that it’s not so clear which paths you need to take, particularly early on. Once the main objective gets pointed out, you see objectives in all corners of the undiscovered map. Unfortunately, in order to progress many of those paths, you need more unlocks. This results in you spending a fair amount of time just testing out each path. This also means a lot of running around the map.
Of course, this kind of exploration is normal for games in this genre. However, the most beloved Metroidvanias find a way to organically tell you that you need to look elsewhere. This can be either dealing with enemies that are too strong for you or walling you off right away from the places you can’t go. Here, you end up exploring through an area for a handful of zones before you realize you cannot progress that section yet. This then sees you running back and forth through areas to find where to go next. There is the occasional subway you can ride to fast travel, but they are not close together or frequently placed. This doesn’t ruin the game by any means, but other Metroidvanias have handled this side of the game better.
A Charming Neon Metroidvania
Possessor(s) brings a lot of success to the table: lots of boss fights, chunky and engaging combat, and a robust world to explore. Combine that with a strong narrative, and you have a recipe for success. The whip needs some optimization, and progressing the story can easily stagnate once the map opens up. Possessor(s) may not be able to contend with the titans of the genre, but it doesn’t need to. It still provides a good experience for anyone interested in Metroidvanias.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.