While Elemental Rage clearly benefits from an open-ended plot (yes, that astounding payoff leaves the ending completely in the player’s hands!) its approach to storytelling combines with the iOS game tradition of auto-saving in a way that leaves it open to a rather unique, but hard-hitting, flaw. Should the player choose the path that leads to the “bad ending”, the game ends interestingly but prematurely, and thanks to the game’s auto-save there’s no going back once that choice is made. In other words, choose the bad ending at the branch point and you’ll have to start over from scratch if you want to see the good ending. Players will likely feel conflicted between wanting to see how the good ending pans out and having to lift Huna up by the bootstraps again. A much appreciated update would include a way for the player to keep multiple manual saves on-hand, or, at the very least, canceling the auto-save that occurs between the branch point and the boss battle that ends the game’s “bad ending” path.
Elemental Rage‘s aesthetics are a treat all around, with the exception that the block-constructed castle environment starts looking very repetitive after a few hours no matter how many vines and regal wallpapers are employed as decor. The game’s most important plot points are conveyed with very nice art stills, and the orchestrated soundtrack courtesy of Forging Sounds Productions had me wondering whether René Dupéré or another Cirque du Soleil veteran might be on their composition team! The animalic squeals of defeated ghosts also rank at the top of what I would consider the most profoundly disturbing sound effects work employed in iOS gaming.
iFanzine Verdict: Oniric Games’ “Metroidvania” offering sticks close to that genre’s 2D adventure conventions for the most part, but adds in a less-than-subtle dash of challenging classic platformer action that leaves the game feeling more like a classic platformer that doesn’t use retro graphics to emphasize the point. Anyone interested in checking out this title will be well-served by an appreciation for old school platforming challenge as well as open-ended exploration; and if you do, you’re in for one heck of an interesting story, too!
[xrr rating=4/5]