Fight, die, repeat. This is the fundamental gameplay loop in the majority of roguelite games on the market. How rewarding that cycle feels is paramount to creating an engaging experience that ultimately keeps players coming back. So how does Revita do?
Revita’s gameplay loop is built around climbing a clock tower. Each run consists of small rooms that spawn any number and variety of enemies. Upon clearing these rooms there is a random chance to have a power up, health, key, or other similar item that serves as a boon. These individual rooms culminate in a boss fight that must be cleared to progress.
What sets Revita apart is how the amount of health you have directly corresponds with how much you have to spend. Chests, shops, and shrines all promise you items, called relics, and power. But they come at the cost of your maximum health. It’s a great measure of how confident you are in your own skills, as well as how much you’re willing to wager on a new ability or relic.
Part of why this works so well is because of how strong you can become in Revita; at least with the right combination of relics. Your bullets can become larger, you can become immune to poison, and some relics will orbit around you to block attacks or fire their own, among other things. There are hundreds of relics that can confer any number of special abilities, with multiple combinations that make you a power house.
Each floor also has shrines that you can offer your hearts to in exchange for a relic. I loved this feature because not only could you offer as many hearts as you want, but the game actually tells you what you receive in exchange for them. More hearts doesn’t always translate to better, and I often found relics that worked better with my play style for one or two hearts. This was fantastic because RNG can be a killer and losing a run because of a suboptimal relic that costs half of your HP after 20 minutes of playing would really suck the fun out of the game.
It also means you can look at your options and decide if it’s even worth getting a relic. There were plenty of times when I knew I was under-powered, but I also recognized that the relics available weren’t worth more to me than the one extra heart of health I had. It goes both ways though, there were plenty of times when I was willing to take a risk on a good relic, even though it left me with just one heart of health.
Either way, I didn’t feel like I was being cheated out of a run when I died because I knew what I was getting into.
New relics can be unlocked with soul coins that you gather from defeating enemies and bosses. The one downside is that gathering soul coins can feel a bit tedious, especially in the early hours of Revita. There are so many relics to unlock and a 30 minute run may only gather around 50 or so coins. More expensive relics can cost 20+ soul coins, so it starts to become quite the time investment.
Along with that, the bosses at the end of each stage are always the same, so it can start to feel redundant. The saving grace is a feature that allows runs to be modified, along with some additional secrets which I won’t spoil here. However, I will say that it would be nice if these features were more readily apparent and accessible, since they are a massive boon to Revita’s replay value.
Revita has a couple of other minor quirks to overcome. The controls rely on using the left bumper to jump and the left trigger to dash, which is a control scheme that works for the game, but it does take some getting used to.
Another thing that takes getting used to is the interface.
Revita feels like a game meant for smaller screens; the character sprites feel large, especially compared to some of the smaller rooms. It makes some of the rooms feel a bit awkward and if you’re playing on an especially large TV, it might take some getting used to. But in spite of that, the graphic design is incredibly well done. The animations are fluid and the world is filled with charm.
There is a lot of content to play through and experience, which slowly becomes apparent with every passing hour of gameplay. It’s a bit of a time investment, but if you enjoy a good roguelike, it’s certainly worth it.
I really enjoyed the starting hub where you slowly add new characters to interact with, unlock new weapons and relics, and progress the lore of the game. It’s a melancholic train station where the train never seems to stop. The soundtrack is beautifully crafted, often with an ethereal feel that really captures the tone of Revita.
The biggest obstacle to overcome with Revita is the initial few runs. The first run feels sarcastically easy, which they use to kickstart the story. Upon completing the prologue run, you can start chipping away at those unlocks and overcome those aforementioned quirks. But as you do, you’ll start to see Revita for the gem of a game that it is.
I wouldn’t say it does anything revolutionary but Revita is a fun game with a lot of content to experience. Frankly, there aren’t many side scroller roguelikes that have really jumped out at me in the past. Oftentimes, they feel unpolished and unrefined, which I am happy to say is not how I would categorize Revita.
Revita has personality, and while there are some things I don’t care for, those issues are a clash with personal tastes more than anything. I didn’t come across any bugs while playing and everything ran smoothly and so, at the end of the day, Revita is a game that is worth the investment. Once you get into it, you’ll find yourself sinking in the hours.
