The Vagrant is a 2D, action hack-and-slash Metroidvania from O.T.K Games; this is their first game and was released on PC for Steam on the 13th of July 2018. With clear inspiration from Dust: An Elysian Tail and Odin Sphere, The Vagrant exists in an interesting space where good 2D hack-and-slashers aren’t that easy to come by. Still, with a mixture of the story and the gameplay, it more than manages to make up for where it lacks in the genre.
How to Download The Vagrant
You can download The Vagrant from Steam. To start your download proceed to click on the Download button at the end of the review. There is also a very interesting additional DLC download called The Vagrant Artbook which gives you an opportunity to enjoy the cool game’s graphical assets.
The Game Review
The story follows a young woman called Vivian, a woman who wishes to seek out the research her father left behind for her. By following that research, Vivian might just be able to locate her family and finally be reunited with them once more. Before Vivian gets the chance to make any real progress towards that goal, her ship capsizes, and she’s forced to shore, where she must figure out a way to both survive and discover a way to her long-lost family.
With the 2D aspect of the game, the gameplay revolves around a couple of main points, with the first being the exploration of the game. As the player explores the world, they will uncover more of the map, reveal more of the story, and acquire more skills to use as time goes by. Just like any good Metroidvania, exploration is the key to making any significant progress, without forcing the player to go through the same gameplay loop of combat over and over again.
Speaking of the combat, The Vagrant’s combat is something it once again shares with Odin Sphere, where the controls are relatively simple to get to grips with, but the combo potential is rather high. For the most part, the player will be using the same button to attack over and over again, but they can extend the combo by launching the enemy into the air and then using a myriad of skills on them to make the combo last just that little bit longer.
To keep players stuck in the game and to stay with the grind of acquiring gold, they can then go and purchase new weapons and armor, along with upgrades for the items to improve them across the board and keep things from getting too stale.
Aesthetically, the game clearly has a lot of detail and attention brought into it with the hand-drawn art style that the developer lovingly created. With this inclusion, it means all of the enemies have their own unique look to them, and the environments are designed to prevent themselves from getting too boring too quickly as well.
In terms of comparisons, easily the biggest one has to be Odin Sphere. The developer themselves have even gone on record to say just how much they enjoy that series, so it’s no wonder there are so many similarities between the two; with the combat and the aesthetics being the most obvious.
For anyone looking to get a new Metroidvania to have a good time with, The Vagrant has more than enough content to appease them, especially for any fans out there of the Odin Sphere franchise!
