Infernax

Infernax is a love letter to metroidvanias as well as player-controlled narrative.

My playthrough saw me fighting, platforming and adventuring across tightly designed areas and dungeons in a well-realized setting with very reasonable difficulty design and a steady and satisfying sense of character progression.

+ the coop is superb, but also great in singleplayer.

From the screenshots and extra visuals on the Steam page, it's probably easy for someone to tell if this game is for them.

This gorgeous package is wrapped in 8-bit soundtrack, that compliments the entire aesthetic.

while many people, myself included, have compared this game to a simons quest (castlevania) type experience, i would argue this game's flow is more like a darker Zelda 2 sort of play. the experience is pretty highly refined, and the game itself has many accessibility options for difficulty and play adjustment so its up to the player to really decide on their difficulty experience. the additional (secret) character options all give good refreshes to the game, with varying style and in some cases even new music for certain areas. this was an incredibly enjoyable experience for me, and if you enjoy games like zelda 2/castlevania simons quest then pick this up.