My final appointment of day three at PAX East was with Team Crescendo. team Crescendo was showing off their game, Memoria Wake. The interesting thing about Memoria Wake is that the game is an isometric soulslike game as well the game taking place in a dream.
We play as Nilo, who is trapped in a dream-like world. There are slight traces of memories in each level like the first level has baby blocks and toys attacking Nilo. The other demo level I played took place in Nilo’s college years and the boss encounter was with his college advisor.
Lucky for us, we have our trusty umbrella that we can use to attack and parry/block enemy attacks. There are other weapons to collect/use during gameplay but in the demo, they were difficult to use and equip. There was also a save file that went right into the Advisor boss fight and I though we had the water gun and wrench weapons but I couldn’t set them. The platforming in the levels was good but there were times where it was very difficult to see where Nilo was. I walked off quite a few times cause I couldn’t see elevation. You have a dash dodge which will be very helpful. The first time you have to use it on a falling bridge was tough as it felt the bridge was falling way too fast. You learn that you can run right after that and I think if you learned to run before dodge rolling would have been better.
The Advisor, or the boss of the demo, was a really tough boss. So much so, that the devs said they made it easier for PAX East. It didn’t feel easy at all and I didn’t beat it. I tried a few times and got the pattern down but in phase two, he does a ton of damage and you don’t have a large amount of HP. Lucky for you, there is a way to heal your HP. Think like Hollow Knight where you attack and gather material to heal health. This will not only help for boss fights but the whole game too. The game wants you to parry but I found going to town on enemies much easier. I am not the greatest parry-person in games like this. During the Advisor fight, I found that you can reflect his attacks with your umbrella. A negative on that was that you take damage when you reflect.
Memoria Wake is an interesting take on the soulslike genre. I would like to see the game further along in the build as there is a lot to build from. If I had more time, I’d go back and kick the Advisor’s ass but PAX East ends soon.