Visually and aurally similar to an old school installment of Castlevania, built with gameplay that rewards speed but allows patience. The most fun and rewarding gameplay loop is one based on the risk-reward calculus of when to ride your momentum forward and when to play defensively.
The itch store page provides what would have been the back of the box, or maybe instruction manual text, if the game had come out in another era: “Undead hordes are swarming the countryside and endangering townsfolk, and you’re the only one who can stop them! Make your way through flesh-hungry skeletons and track down the NECROMANCER who’s raised them to put a stop to this once and for all.” There are maybe six or seven text boxes in the entire game. A little bit of tutorializing, a really clever joke, and just enough exposition to make the ending work.
Pyromancer is a great looking game. The basic enemy types are pretty straightforward, but they look very good in motion and their death (redeath?) animations are super satisfying. You’ll face skeleton skeletons, crawling skeletons, bat skeletons, and floating skull bone shooting skeletons. Each one takes just one hit to defeat. Your basic tools are a standing melee, a crouching melee, and a jumping melee. You can also enter “the legendary fireball motion” from the ground to shoot a projectile or from the air to do an uppercut.
Each special move costs one health pip out of your starting three, but each level also has one hidden permanent health up and health regenerates. I found that the projectile usually wasn’t worth it (since landing and standing still kills your momentum), but the uppercut was great for mobility, hitting airborne bosses, and reaching the hidden powerups.
Pyromancer has three main levels (two with bosses) and a final boss encounter. Other than the permanent health upgrades you can find hidden in each level, you start the game with your entire toolkit at your disposal and it’s surprisingly deep. The projectile will let you clear an enemy you might be worried about colliding with if you try to melee it, making platforming a little bit safer. The uppercut acts as an i-frame attack and rocket boost, helping you race through the levels if you’re confident enough to Just Keep Going. The crouching hit doesn’t seem to have quite as much range, but it’s fast.
The game passively encourages you to go for speed by way of a timer in the top right corner and a results screen, but gives you tools to play safely if you’d prefer. You can adjust your default health and regeneration speed or just play it a little more slowly for safety. Also there’s no special ending or secret hidden behind going fast – it’s just a little bonus if you want to engage with it. And the game gives you lots of tools if you want to do so.
You can spend time getting the health upgrades, or you can skip it. I could see this being a game that would really appeal to what I’d call a casual speed player. Someone who’s interested in the idea of speedrunning (or at least comparing scores to friends) but doesn’t want to learn a ton of tech. The decisions you can make are pretty clear, the momentum of the character feels good, and there’s not much penalty for doing the “wrong” thing if you just want to clear the game.
Your uppercut or just standard air melee will help you control the angle and speed of your falls. Every enemy only takes one hit to kill, so a well timed jump attack will mean you’re always safe during platforming without having to stop. Spike damage is always one less than your max health, so you can make the choice between pressing forward or waiting for one hp to regenerate. You can choose to challenge the bosses aggressively or methodically depending on your risk tolerance and remaining health.
Dying just restarts the level, none of which are overly long. In the grand tradition of “Dev Medals” or “Dev Time,” the store page challenges you to beat the dev’s best time of “a little over six minutes.”
Accessibility
Players can adjust default starting health and regen speed. There isn’t a way to simplify the fireball motion in the settings, though you can complete the game without it. Most players should be able to clear the game without much issue if they make use of the options.
AI Disclosure
No generative AI was used in the creation of the game or soundtrack.
Verdict – Pyromancer
Pyromancer is an extremely tight package that accomplishes a lot in just 15-20 minutes. More importantly – it’s just flat out fun. Beautiful visuals, excellent soundtrack, and a fresh take on a more classic type of game. It feels great to smash a skeleton open and it’s very funny to me that the coins they drop are totally useless.
I don’t think the developer’s goal was to make an earnest speedgame, but there are just enough bits of that here that I wish there was a bit more. Some combination of a quick restart button, leaderboard, and more detailed results screen (showing what options you selected for health and regen) could really encourage continued speed play.
If you prefer to play more methodically, the game is actually very forgiving. Spikes don’t kill you, there is platforming but no bottomless pit deaths, and health regenerates at whatever rate you choose. If you just want to see what the game has to offer, you’ll probably be successful even if you aren’t super comfortable with platformers.
Pyromancer is “pay what you want,” so everyone with 20 minutes and a PC controller should at least try it out.
Reviewed for PC via itch.io
Developer/Publisher: elliesprites
Pros
- Gets a lot done with very little written text
- Beautiful sprite work and excellent sound track
- The most easily accessible “speed game” I can remember playing
Cons
- All the bones of a speed game, but lacks a few key features that might really encourage the growth of a little speed community
Review covers version 1.0
-
Great
