Pseudoregalia Review – A dream within a dream

If you’re familiar with my writing, you know that when “Metroidvania” is a tagline that often coincides with a negative review. Time and time again, I am of the opinion that Metroidvania games, at least in recent years, tend to lack in originality when it comes to gameplay or presentation. I’m usually the most fatigued and least excited when I’m done playing one and it comes time to write the review. I’m ecstatic to say that Pseudoregalia has not only broken this pattern, but the game absolutely smashed it and has become one of my new favorite games.

Admittedly, I was tracking Pseudoregalia’s development briefly on Twitter. At the time, I stumbled upon the creator’s account after some artists I knew interacted with one of their posts. While I thought the game looked interesting, I was in no way prepared to enjoy the game as much as I did.

So much so that I am currently listening to the OST while writing this and fighting the urge to put this review off to go play it again!

Pseudoregalia is a platformer with movement that I would describe as fast and concise. Running and jumping to catch onto ledges feels fluid, smooth, and consistent. It goes without saying that this is extremely important for a game that features platforming at the core of its gameplay. Once you get the hang of your speed and jump height, navigation through Castle Sansa becomes like second nature, until you discover a new tool that switches up your movement.

Initially, the only movement tech you have access to is a basic jump and an ability to latch on to edges. As you explore, you’ll gain access to new abilities, such as sliding, that drastically change how you navigate the environment. These abilities help you build speed or gain air time and rewires the way you view movement with each new upgrade you find.

Your creativity is an important tool for navigating Pseudoregalia, as the game lacks any waypoints or maps and features a labyrinthian maze of alternate paths to explore. One of my biggest pet peeves in games is having your hand held throughout it. Pseudoregalia trusts you to find your own way and encourages you to imagine what could or could not be a path and discover for yourself if you were right.

When I realized the hanging cages weren’t just decorations and were actually platforms I could grapple onto, I was way more satisfied than I probably should have been. The game continued to throw varied and sometimes not-so-obvious obstacles at you, such as ropes, vines, destructible walls, switch puzzles, and slide gaps without ever blatantly explaining them to you. This emphasis on self-discovery and freeform exploration helped to immerse one into the dream-like vibe the game presented.

Presentation is what took this game from being simply a solid platformer and making it Pseudoregalia. The game is absolutely packed with style. The game is unmistakable from anything else you have or likely will ever play, which is a feat few titles can claim.

The world of Pseudoregalia feels like a dream. Grey-whites and muted purples litter the color scheme, while a faint hazy fog obscuring everything just beyond your vision. You feel both invited and cautious of the world around you, as if you could get lost at any moment in an endless maze of not-quite-real reality.

The game takes clear inspiration from titles from the mid to late 1990s. The whole thing feels like a nostalgic memory I might have of an early PS2 game, where things are remembered just a bit better than they actually were and specifics are made foggy by the passage of time. If I had to make a direct comparison, I would say the game feels closest to a Kingdom Hearts title, which is an aesthetic I am an absolute sucker for.

The game even has a sort of low frame per second look, which plays into the retro aesthetic without being so intense that it messes with your movement.

Your weapon, the Dream Breaker, looks really cool, which is something I’d be mad at myself for not pointing out. Combat in the game emphasizes speed and movement with your character being very squishy at a measly three orbs of health (or roughly 6 hits) and prone to being knocked prone by enemy attacks. Outmaneuvering your beefier opponents and hitting them with fast combos is your key to victory, and this style of combat feels very befitting of a character resembling a jack-a-lope.

Like the movement tech, combat mechanics are deeper than they initially seem and require a bit of player exploration to fully understand. For example, I discovered by complete accident that you could throw the Dream Breaker to have it land on enemies for big damage. There are as many ways to slay your enemies as there are enemy varieties themselves. My favorite of which were enchanted swords that flung themselves in an arc in an attempt to split you in two.

It would be criminal to publish a review of Pseudoregalia without discussing the sound design. The sounds in the game are fantastic, and I don’t simply mean the original OST which perfectly encapsulated the dreary dreamy vibe of the setting. Each sound in the game was satisfying to listen to and felt unique to the world, like something you wouldn’t hear anywhere else.

Good sound design is paramount to a game’s feel, providing feedback for actions like jumping and swinging on enemies. Messing that up can seriously throw off a game’s tone and fumbling here would have totally ruined the immense work the game put into immersing you into its dream-like setting. Thankfully, this is a problem Pseudoregalia doesn’t have. I even enjoyed the soft pitter-patter of the character’s footsteps echoing alongside the soundtrack.

Pseudoregalia was reviewed on the PC. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Pseudoregalia is available on Steam.