The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia review

Recommended

by João Carvalho

Product received for free the first goal of typing game has always been to learn to (better) typing on the keyboard while having fun. But where initially the fun side was very limited, over time different studios have tried to offer more ambitious games by adding other gameplay elements. I think for example at modern dream and its typing of the dead overkill where you have to fight undead by typing words instead of shooting directly at the screen with a pistol or more recently at fishing cactus and its excellent Epistory (whose second episode will be released at the end of the year) that put forward the adventure side with a big part of the game dedicated to exploring and discovering the world. The Textorcist: the story of Ray Bibbia goes even further in the intersection of improbable genres, it associates typing game and bullet hell. Yes Yes, as in a shmup you have to avoid hundreds of shots! You are here directing an Exorcist fighting against demonic forces and trying to evac a conspiracy going back to the Vatican. To hunt creatures, Ray must read passages from his Bible. So you have to enter Latin phrases while your opponents attack you. Your right hand will be on the arrows of your keyboard to be able to Dodge while the left one will move around to validate the letters. It will take a little time to adapt, because even a person accustomed to write without looking at the keys would have trouble fetching the P with the left hand without being mistaken. Obviously, the goal is to take advantage of every downtime to type in two hands and be much more effective. The more you type fast and the more points scroll but beware, the slightest mistake is punitive. The game returns a letter back and if you do not realize it soon enough you can quickly chain the mistakes, especially since I really insist on the fact that you have to type the sentences in a screen overloaded with enemy shots! When you get hit, Ray drops his book. This is not too serious, except that you are no longer protected and if you have a new attack you lose a point of life (you only have three per fight and they are long enough). Another subtlety, if you put too much time to recover it, Ray loses the thread of his incantation and must start again at the very beginning of his sentence, a real catastrophe in the somewhat advanced levels. Graphically the title is very nice with a well mastered pixel art. Boss fights are really interesting and the developers have found a lot of ideas to vary the pleasures (vomit that hides the letters to seize, hitting the ground that mixes the letters...). By cons attention, the Textorcist is very difficult even for a player who manages well with a keyboard. If I were to find a negative point it would be at the level of heavy and forced humor. Jokes and references are chained together without ever stopping, even when there is no real place. But hey, this is really a detail because the heart of the game is excellent. I really liked the demo released a few months ago, the final version is better at any point with much more diversity and memorable boss fights. The typing game/bullet hell mix works perfectly and it's a delight to see developers take risks by attempting something original, Bravo to them! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gReni22tAMs