Itorah

This is a tough one to evaluate. I'm giving it a thumbs up, because I did find value in it, but it's really quite mediocre.

The presentation is nice, from drawings to animation to music. There is some very good use of the parallax effect to create a sense of depth, and a few spectacular set pieces.

The story is OK, I guess, but the pace of its telling is awkward. There's a long ending cut-scene in which "all is explained" but it left me with more questions than answers. The basic elements draw on native Mexican religion and mythology, but unfortunately it's more for style than substance. And there's some sci-fi thrown in, too.

Itorah plays like a standard metroidvania, with all the expected power-ups and backtracking. Annoyingly, though there is a map, there is no world map and no fast travel. It's not very thrilling to go and collect a chest from way back once you get the power to retrieve it. Combat is also just OK. It's rather stiff, which seems to annoy some reviewers, but it's an intentional part of the challenge and can be satisfying to master. There are also a handful of decent boss battles.

The game starts very easy, but towards the end ramps up the difficulty with challenging platforming and stronger enemies, so you'll really want to work on getting upgrades.

To sum it up, if you've played all the other metroidvanias on your wishlist, then Itorah could be a "why not". But I'd put it pretty low on that list. There are much better examples of this genre.