Valfaris: Mecha Theron Review

It’s hard to put into words just how kick-ass it feels to play Valfaris: Mecha Therion. Between the thumping heavy metal soundtrack, the rush of bullets and explosions on screen, and the tough but fair gameplay, it’s the kind of game that grabs us by the horn and drags us into an adrenaline spike like very little else. 

In genre tradition, stages cap off with a screen filling boss – and a hell of a lot of fireworks

The original Valfaris featured similar heavy metal tributes in its presentation, but consisted of 2D action platformer gameplay. Mecha Therion mixes this last part up, instead putting our hero Therion in a flying mech suit for some scrolling shooter/bullet hell fun. It’s familiar fare to those who’ve played one of countless genre examples; the screen scrolls right, enemies swarm in (from both sides here) and we blast away until either them or us explode.

What makes Valfaris: Mecha Therion stand out for us is the sheer awesomeness of the accompanying soundtrack. Its big, meaty metal riffs smash and rip through our speakers as the bullets and enemies provide their vocals. It is – and do take this lightly – one of the most enthralling musical experiences I’ve had in a game in a long time. I couldn’t help but head bang along as I played, and I’ve definitely pushed my headphones to the limit these last few nights.

These close up button mashing moments show off the great polygonal art and colours very well

Outside of this aspect, Valfaris: Mecha Therion is a great example of the scrolling shooter genre. It’s a game not afraid to empower the player at frequent intervals across its four hour campaign. New weapons and perks are collected at several points in each level, and each offer a tangible benefit. We can only take one of each out with us but can stop at checkpoints to swap out any kit we’re not liking.

Hitting all enemies in each wave also builds up a Blood Metal meter, the currency used to upgrade weapons, and in conjunction with rarer Blood of Valfaris pickups lets up buff our weapons to screen-filling amounts. My favourite weapon – the Man’o’War flamethrower – ends up firing huge swaths of fire as well as lava rocks out, making quick work of even the biggest enemies. 

It’s not possible to upgrade every weapon fully, so it’s best to focus on one or two, but there’s enough leeway to experiment without fully stitching yourself up with a weapon you don’t like.

Heavy Metal spirit flows throughout, from the awesome soundtrack to album cover-like shots such as this

Levels are long-ish, varying between 20 and 40 minutes, but they never feel overly drawn out or unfair thanks to regular checkpoints as well as a huge variety of scenery even within each level. Boss fights can be tough bastards, especially early on, but are usually checkpointed and occasionally even skip small lead in areas to get us straight back to the fight. There are a few that resort to cheap tactics at times, such as a sudden instant kill attack or moving faster than we can at close range, but after a few attempts these can be overcome with a bit of planning. Only one or two were less fun to play (looking at you Heart of Jelly), but otherwise there wasn’t one that wasn’t a fun challenge to overcome.

Conclusion

Valfaris: Mecha Therion is a shining example of the scrolling shooter genre, with explosive action, over the top bosses, and one of the most exhilarating soundtracks in a game I’ve ever played. Crank up the volume, grab a beer, and this is an evening of gaming well spent indeed.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.

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Good
  • Excellent soundtrack
  • Fun weapons and upgrades
  • Brilliantly pitched difficulty
Bad
  • Occasional cheap boss tactics
9
Excellent
Written by
I've been gaming since Spy vs Spy on the Master System, growing up as a Sega kid before realising the joy of multi-platform gaming. These days I can mostly be found on smaller indie titles, the occasional big RPG and doing poorly at Rainbow Six: Siege. Gamertag: Enaksan

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