by Michael FertittaOne of the most common elements of a Metroidvania is the ability to augment your experience with equippable modifications, such as badges. These are a cornerstone of the genre, allowing the player to traverse a progressively expanding world by their own means while still providing just enough challenge to keep things fresh and satisfying.
Clockwork Ambrosia is a game that takes that concept and goes in a fascinating, different direction, focusing instead on letting the player modify their weapons. To put it simply, I absolutely enjoyed my time with this game and its weapon mod mechanics.
Iris, the protagonist, is thrown into things with very little explanation. While flying an airship to her destination, Iris is shot down and falls into what appears to be an abandoned city. After a brief altercation with a survivor, you’re left to fend for yourself and explore this broken world you’ve fallen into. Not much is known other than the apparent desertion around you, so it’s up to you to put the pieces together and try to find people who can explain what’s going on.
The backstory they give is fairly brief to start, but it gives me an excuse to explore the world and find out what’s going on. In my expedition into this underground wasteland, I’m greeted with gorgeous pixel art that’s reminiscent of games like Azure Striker Gunvolt. The animations on enemies, bosses, and the player are very fluid, making for a visually satisfying experience. Accompanying the fantastic visuals is a banging soundtrack! Every time I step into a new area, I’m always bumping my head to each track that plays.
Having said all that, there is one visual element where the game falls short, to the point that it negatively affects my experience: the map. Compared to the rest of the game, the map feels like it’s made of temporary visual assets. Despite the icons on the map, I still find it difficult to read it efficiently because it’s incredibly basic. It also doesn’t help that none of the areas are labeled, so I have no clue which area is what. There is also the issue of not being able to fully zoom out on the map, which is a tad annoying. However, on that last point, the lack of map zoom is one of the bugs the developers are addressing and will be fixed in a post-launch patch.
Another small issue I had related to the map was fast travel. About a third of the way through the game, you get access to fast travel via teleport crystals that are spread everywhere. This is a nice quality-of-life feature, but it might be a bit too nice because it lets me travel to locations I haven’t discovered yet, which takes away a bit of the exploration aspect of the game for me. I’m sure this is just a bug that will be addressed promptly after launch, but it was certainly one that threw me off in my playthrough.
The core mechanic of Clockwork Ambrosia is the weapon modding. Around the game’s world, you’ll find over a hundred different mods to put on several weapons you pick up. You start with the Pulse Breaker which is just a standard blaster, but mods can make this otherwise basic gun very powerful for boss fights. Everything from the amount of rounds fired to how many charged shots you can have at once can be modified, and this opens the door to swap around dozens of combinations to find the loadout that works for you.
I greatly enjoyed this feature, and I found myself adjusting my loadouts before each major fight just to see what combination clicked well with me. What also helps is having a sub-weapon in addition to your main, so you can swap between the Pulse Breaker and a Grenade Launcher on a whim depending on the situation. This made for some clutch moments in my playthrough where having both weapon types came in handy.
Clockwork Ambrosia is a solid Metroidvania experience. The weapon customization gives players near-infinite loadout combinations, significantly changing gameplay and lending itself well to replayability or even a challenge run for those inclined. From the weapon-modifying combat to the killer soundtrack to the beautiful pixelated art style, Clockwork Ambrosia is a game you shouldn’t skip out on. With an average playtime of about 15-20 hours, it’s a short but brilliant metroidvania that you’ll want to explore every inch of.
Clockwork Ambrosia
