• Price: $29.99 USD (currently on sale for $26.99 until November 16th)
• Developer/Publisher: Inti Creates
• Release Date: November 16, 2023

A review code was kindly provided by Inti Creates. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Did you know? In meteorology, a parhelion “is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Sun.” AKA “sun dogs”!

YOHANE THE PARHELION -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE– is a 2D Metroidvania based on a Love Live! Sunshine spin-off (interestingly enough, both the Yohane the Parhelion Anime and this game were initially announced for April Fool’s Day before ultimately becoming official). Starring Yohane/Yoshiko in a fantasy world, she must track down the other members of Aqours, as they’ve gone missing in some ruins.

Although this is related to Love Live! Sunshine, I don’t think you need to have read or watched the series in order to play this game. However, experience with the series may enhance your enjoyment of the game.

Accompanied by Lailaps the wolf, Yohane enters the ruins and must face the monsters inside. You can attack with her regular weapon or by using quick summon attacks; both normal attacks and summons cost Darkness Points (DP), with the exception of Lailaps, who costs nothing to summon.

DP costs vary between weapons and summons, but naturally the more powerful ones cost more. I found the default controls awkward for weapon attacks because it used ZR instead of Y/B/A/X, but thankfully you can remap the controls.

There are a variety of weapon types for you to choose from, including several types of swords, throwing knives, and crossbows. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of weapon you favor, as I didn’t notice any issues getting around or fighting based on weapons. (I mainly used the crossbows.)

That being said, the weapons you get do depend on the crafting – or “casting” – recipes you unlock. Monsters sometimes drop money or materials, and weapon recipes seem to unlock based on the materials you’ve acquired. You can also craft better armor and helpful accessories to increase Yohane’s health and DP. The game doesn’t have a leveling system, so your odds of success will depend on your coordination and your equipment. Oddly, there isn’t a mechanic for dodging or dashing (although you can duck and slide).

For the most part I think the earlier enemies are pretty easy, some missteps notwithstanding. (Sometimes literally, with lava and spike damage.) If you are defeated, Lailaps will carry you to Yohane’s home base area, where you can purchase healing items – but not equipment. “Musical Score” power-ups found in dungeons will revive you once you hit zero HP, but they appear to be pretty rare. Learning to recognize enemy attack and movement patterns will help you improve your performance in battle, decreasing your chances of being defeated.

I found some bosses more challenging than others, but not overly so. (I did wish they had HP meters to see how much more I had to go.) After defeating a boss, you’ll free one of the other members of Aqours and gain their help when used as a summon in or outside of battle.

You can’t access everything in each section of the ruins at first. For example, there’s a chest located on a ledge that’s too high up for you to access in the very first area. You’ll have to wait until you’ve obtained the right summon or items from special chests to get an unreachable treasure or get to the next area.

After rescuing each of Yohane’s friends and returning to home base, they’ll ask you to find something they misplaced in the dungeon. Finding each girl’s item unlocks a second summon ability for them, which can then be used to access even more items and areas.

There are 10 sections of the dungeon with different themes. Most rooms stay the same each time you return to the dungeon, but there are a few special areas that contain random layouts each time. As you continue to unlock more areas in the dungeon, the trek back to your last location would be quite long if not for the convenient fast travel points, which also heal you and save the game. (Enemies respawn afterwards.)

Even with the fast travel points though, you’ll find yourself doing a lot of backtracking to get to rooms and treasures that you missed in previous areas. It could be a little frustrating sometimes because A) I couldn’t remember what prevented me from accessing something in that room before and therefore B) I wasn’t sure if the new summon ability would allow me to get it.

My main issues with the game were that it’s on the shorter side, it lacks clear objectives/directions, and there weren’t many interactions between characters or even much plot. (I’d also hoped for more musicality, given the connection to Love Live! Sunshine, although the soundtrack is nice.)

However, I think they did a great job with the character models and portraits, and the dungeon backgrounds were lovely. The combat and use of summons to fight/help you explore were really interesting and fun. I enjoyed investigating every nook and cranny of the dungeon despite the occasional confusion. And technically the game runs smoothly, with no noticeable frame rate issues. It’s not without its (subjective) flaws, but overall I think if you like Metroidvanias there’s a good chance you’ll like this.

8/10