Valfaris: Mecha Therion

Developer: Andrew Gilmour; Steel Mantis

We’re not in a decrepit old church anymore, or crawling our way through slimy, alien tunnels - we’re on a revenge tour in a huge mech, and we’re not slowing down.

Valfaris: Mecha Therion returns us to the revenge story of Therion, still chasing down his father, Vroll. Fed up of ground pursuit, he’s taken to his giant mech, with the much embiggened Bathoryn. 

There are quite a number of changes, in fact. The first is doing away with the pure 2D experience. It’s still a side-scrolling affair, but now with full 3D models, cutscenes, and environments. Presentation is primarily side-on, but sometimes perspective changes as you navigate the environment. There’s a lot more play with the back- and foreground, showing approaching enemies flying around you, or bosses moving to the different planes to attack. The scale can be quite amusing - whilst you’ll spend most of your time fighting other giant mechs, sometimes you do get to stomp a few overly ambitious foot soldiers trying to take you down with wholly ineffective pea shooters (seriously, they do zero damage).

Gameplay has also changed from a hack-and-slash with occasional gunplay, to a shoot-em-up closer in style to games like R-Type. Your primary weapon is a gun with limited energy, that you have to wait to recharge over time or use your melee weapon to attack enemies to release energy. There’s also a variety of special weapons, though some are very situational, and you’ll probably pick one or two that you prefer using anyway. Some weapons are more novelty and fun than for real use, but they add to the variety. 

Another change is the upgrade system. As you fight through levels, you accrue blood metals, which you use to upgrade weapons. The more blood metal you have, the higher the chance of strong enemies appearing. You also need some rarer items that are hidden around to get the really good upgrades. There are numerous mods to be unlocked, too, which provide some utility and can be used to complement your playstyle. Checkpoints are still plentiful, thankfully, and heal you to full just by floating near them.

Music is still a huge part of this game, with even more face-melting heavy metal. And I do mean more metal. As in industrial. And more speed. Everything is just more. But once again, it all perfectly fits the setting and the theme. We also haven’t stopped headbanging. You thought being in a huge metal robot was going to slow down the thrashing? Not at all. Therion still takes breaks when he finds cool new stuff to flex his neck muscles. 

There’s also a new game mode for this entry. More akin to the coin-op arcade machines, you now have a life system instead of HP, and a score. If you die, you restart at the last checkpoint; lose all your lives, and it’s game over. The risk/reward system comes into play here. If you destroy a checkpoint, death means going even further back, but destroyed checkpoints reward blood metals, and 5 blood metals grant an extra life. Building up your score also rewards lives at set amounts. The final difference is you can no longer upgrade anything at checkpoints, they’re found throughout the level (though you can still swap mods at checkpoints).

This series changes presentation with each entry but remains consistent at its core. Valfaris: Mecha Therion is fun. This is DOOM-level fun. This is a teenager-discovering-their-first-metal-album fun. It’s also a challenge, and repeated neck-snapping nods to gaming of old.