➤ Lone Fungus, the review of the fungal metroidvania developed by one person 🕹

A mushroom with a mission: bring life back to its missing peers. Can he revive his lineage?

After a year in Early Access on Steam, the cute Green cap created by the Swedish developer Basti is ready to be shown to the public in its version 1.0. There is no doubt that there is a real increase in the representation of mushrooms in video games, but on some occasions it has happened by chance to find a mushroom as the protagonist of a video game adventure. That's why we play Lone Fungus with great interest, Metroidvania born thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign and self-published on Steam by its developer.

The story of Lone Fungus is that of a passion that becomes work: After dedicating himself to creating video games as an amateur during his adolescence, Basti dedicated himself to music and visual arts in adulthood, and then had the idea of launching into the development of a metroidvania in December 2019. Now Greencap has turned big and is ready to enter the market after having benefited from the advice of supporters and buyers of the early access version, thanks to very effective exploration mechanics to create dynamism and fun, while the Achilles heel of the Production is undoubtedly a design. Unexciting visuals, both for enemies and environments.

We tell you about our experience with mushrooms in Solitary Mushroom Review.

A mushroom alone in control

Lone Fungus, the review of the fungal metroidvania developed by one person — Equipping different spells will cause Greencap to change the color and appearance of his hat.

For those who know the magical world of mushrooms well, it is undoubtedly alienating to encounter a solitary mushroom, but the presence of Greencap as the only mushroom still alive in his fantasy world is fully justified from a narrative point of view. The latest exponent of the most enigmatic of the Kingdoms of nature must reach the top of the world to regenerate his peers, with the help of talking fungal statues that offer him clues on how to proceed. The statues are visually inspired by mysterious Mayan mushroom stones, truly unique artifacts endowed, according to many scholars, with ritual importance.

Basti's main source of inspiration was Hollow Knight, and it is likely that the idea for a mushroom-based metroidvania was born crossing the Fungal Caves of Nidosacro, where fungi lead a life based on collaboration and identification in a larger whole, beyond. the individual members of the group. In Lone Fungus, on a stele we read that it is the duty of the mushroom sample defend their Kingdom, as the basis of the life of all other living beings: however, the unique way of interaction with the animals and plants present on the stage - as is logical in this genre of video games - is based on conflitto. Therefore, the choice of a mushroom as the protagonist of a metroidvania is strange: Greencap certainly has a charming design, but it does not exploit the wealth of messages and meanings that could be extracted from the mushroom universe.

A metroidvania for all tastes

Compared to other exponents of the genre, Lone Fungus can stand out as excellent entry point for beginners: Far from the inflexible difficulty of Hollow Knight, the video game produced by Basti offers good results. five levels of difficulty, one of which is fully customizable by the player, which can increase Greencap's hit points, increase the number of available platforms for easier exploration, make bosses' HP visible, and much more. We greatly appreciate this almost personal attention to the player, also present in the Learn mode, accessible through the fungal temples scattered around the map: in this section there are "safe" rooms in which, without running the risk of running out game, you can practice with spike jumps, parries, and other complex mechanics to master, all peppered with advice written by Basti.

The map is endless. and the design of the rooms is the real strong point of the production: the promoter had the excellent idea of including a large number of what he called Mushmover, platforms of various kinds that "color" the navigation in the levels providing various possibilities for jumping, bouncing, braking or propulsion with the sword. At many times we find Lone Fungus stimulating because of the endless exploration options, even particularly fast ones, it can offer; This speed makes the inevitable fun and never frustrating. recoil Typical of metroidvanias. At the same time, the extent of the map and the variety of biomes present manage to create continuous stimuli, as long as you do not disregard a design that is not always very artistic.

mushroom barrel

Greencap's weapons and magic are not only tools for exploration, but also for combat. Here we come to the really weak part of Basti's work: the enemy design. Ugly things to see and The movements are difficult to read. - there are often no animations to anticipate an attack, which creates an unpleasant feeling of unpredictability - they don't even shine in boss fights, where you find yourself facing large gears, masks, butterflies or fireballs with very little to offer That is, both from a visual point of view and from that of combat mechanics. In short, it would have been necessary to continue working on animations, aesthetics, and enemy variety during Lone Fungus' early access year.

Good progression in the acquisition of skills: it is not limited to the "basic" sword strike, but new movements and magic are acquired that progressively enrich the experience, which has a total duration of twenty or more hours and, in our case, was not plagued by any type of error. The idea of changing the color and appearance of Greencap's hat depending on what magic he has equipped is nice (selectable from the small temples scattered around the map). Furthermore, by finding certain objects or performing actions, not necessarily virtuous (such as falling a large number of times), new mushrooms are unlocked with which to face the adventure, replacing the initial Greencap: the change is purely cosmetic, but not a pleasant one. addition for fans of completism and trophies of various types. Basti has also composed a soundtrack that doesn't particularly stand out, but that decently accompanies the experience. We would like to point out that there is currently no translation into Spanish. the texts are in English.

Conclusions

digital delivery Steam Price 19,99 € Holygamerz.com 6.0 Readers (7) 8.7 your vote

Lone Fungus looks at Hollow Knight but is not a clone of Team Cherry's masterpiece: Basti demonstrates a firm desire to offer an experience adaptable to any skill level, opening metroidvanias to access by those who are not experts in the genre. The Swedish developer's video game is fun in its exploration, but fails to stand out in combat and is held back by a monotonous and unfortunate design of the enemies; It's also a shame for the protagonist mushroom, who turns out to be just another solitary hero and has very little mushroom. We recommend Lone Fungus to anyone looking for an accessible entry point into the genre; veterans have higher quality degrees they can fall back on.