A slightly less hard-core Rabi Ribi, with a tighter story and more elaborate combat system. And yes, I compare to Rabi Ribi because this isn’t just a spiritual sequel, it’s also by the same developers.
You play as Tevi, a bunny girl, who wakes up in a strange place, however unlike Erina, Tevi has to actually fight her way back to friendly turf, since instead of a strange hospital completely distinct from the world, you’re inside the Golden Hands’ desert base, and you’re not alone. Lots of robot cleaners and cat girls with knives trying to stop you from escaping, but obviously they’re no match for you.
You see, unlike in Rabi Ribi, this game is a lot more forgiving on its normal difficulty. Enemies deal slightly less damage, bosses even less so, and you can even replace boss contact damage with just a movement-blocking collission box depending on what play-style you prefer. Tevi gains health with levels as well, meaning that even on low% runs, you’re not locked to 50HP the whole game. Potions do still scale the boss level, but not nearly to the degree that it does in Rabi Ribi, unless you enable the potion scaling option on a new game. You can increase the difficulty at Tevi’s bed. + levels increase boss HP/damage, and higher level titles (Hard, Expert, Infernal BBQ) add new patterns and increase bullet density.
The story in Tevi is significantly more coherent than Rabi Ribi or even other metroidvanias like Hollow Knight. This is a bit of a double edged sword however. A game with a more compelling story gives a bit more direction and purpose; it makes it easier to follow and helps players be less lost. However you also lose a lot of the freedom. In Rabi Ribi, there is almost no story, and the goal is to simply beat bosses, meaning the map opens up very fast and you can collect items, upgrades, and bosses in any order. In Tevi, however, a lot of bosses can’t just be “stumbled” into, as they require certain story triggers before spawning. There is an option to remove these triggers (Free Roam at game creation, but it require’s Speedrun mode on, which kills all the cutscenes anyway) but it makes the game’s plot incomprehensable, so you really should play the plot first time around. You can see the years of growth and development that the developer team has had between Rabi Ribi and now. The sprites and tiles are more intricate and coherent, the game has voice acting (though it’s in Japanese), and the team finally learned how to use both male characters and trousers!
While Tevi and Erina have different movesets, I’d say that Tevi’s moveset is more versatile. Both have a jump, slide, 4 hit combo, extendable combo, dash, uppercut type move, slam type move. Erina does have a slide dash attack that Tevi is sorely missing, but in return Tevi gets a spin attack, air combo, a second type of bomb, and significantly better access to magic. Ribbon is Erina’s source of magic, She provides up to 7 spell types, each with a charged and uncharged varient, but charging requires holding the button. Tevi on the other hand has 2 magitech companions, Celia and Sable, providing a combined 6 spells, but instead of charging, as long as you have 100% mana, tapping the spell button will fire a strong spell instantly. Mana potions and Sigils can raise your mana cap far in excess of 1000%, letting you spam attacks quite quickly.
Like Ribbon, Celia and Sable have a burst attack, called a Core Expansion, which provides a protective shield for Tevi, as well as attacking the boss with various powers. These bursts cost consumable Orbitar Crystals (as opposed to Ribbon’s charge over time,) which are dropped by enemies and certain boss attacks. Holding up or down when using a burst will trigger alternate effects providing they are unlocked.
My only complaint is how Tevi’s Bunny Amulet is handled. Unlike in Rabi Ribi where the Amulet charges over time in order to provide a screenwide attack and some invincibility frames, Tevi must charge her amulet by using Celia and Sable’s strong spells. Using them both charges it faster than just sticking to one or the other, so you are incentivised to switch between them, but it also slowly discharges when spells aren’t being used. This makes the Amulet a far less consistent defensive tool. The saving grace is that bosses rely less on bullet hell attacks now, instead prefering a mix of bullet hell and physical attacks. Tevi also has other reliable dodge options in place of Erina’s recharging Amulet. Early on you collect an item that allows Tevi to charge a “Golden Dodge.” Like the Amulet, this is also charged, but this time by melee attacking, and any moves that are designated as “Dodge Moves”, if you would be hit will instead spend a Golden Dodge charge. Core expansion also helps with clearing bullets and providing some safety, so that’s also a nice tool in the belt.
Above I mentioned Sigils. These are similar to Erina’s Badges, in that they are found throughout the map and in shops, and cost 0-9 EP to equip, but Tevi has access to over 200 of them, and the ability to equip upwards of 300 EP worth of badges. The yellow potion grants +5 instead of +3, and there are some 0 EP sigils that simply grant more EP based on a condition. For example “+1 EP for every 2 sigils bought” or “+6 EP when equipping sigils costing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 EP.” You can create some really funky sigil synergies in this game that if done right can utterly trivialize some of the bosses, even on higher difficulties. Experimentation is part of the fun, the game even provides a Sigil randomizer option that you can enable after finishing your first run!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2230650 £24.99
Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/TEVI-2488960.html £29.69
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