Revita [Switch]
Developed by BenStar, Revita is a fun, charming roguelite that sees you take on the role of a nameless blue-haired little dude as he awakens upon a train pulling into Memoria Station. You are introduced to The Caretaker, who looks after the tree within the station, and he will provide you with further information and lore as you progress, as well as gifts with each flower that blooms on the tree. Touching on heavy themes such as grief, loss and suicide, these topics make up the foundations of the game, with each of the areas being related to this. There are seven areas, each with a variety of levels for you to work through, culminating in a boss fight with one of the stages of grief, such as Denial or Anger.
You’ll meet - and rescue - various characters that you will be able to then interact with via The Station; such as The Tinkerer, who can build new areas in The Clocktower for you as well as upgrade the visuals of The Station, and The Imprisoned who wants you to bring them Prison Keys in return for item unlocks; there’s also folk you can interact with within the Metro, such as The Apprentices, who’ll recycle Relics for you, giving you a free upgrade at the Blacksmith (otherwise he’ll make you pay in heart containers!). If you meet them in the Station, they’ll trade you Soul Coins for Materials, and vice versa. As you go, you’ll uncover more of the story, gathering new information and lore about this mysterious place - as well as the characters within (including yourself).
The visual style of Revita is gorgeous, with a really nice chunky pixel look and fantastic use of lighting - both from environmental lights and the light reflecting from the bullets that you fire, as well as the glowing lights from the Metro and the elevators as you get close. Enemy and NPC designs are interesting, with the bosses having uniquely crafted looks to represent the stages of grief. Moving through each of the areas, you’ll notice differences in the environments, as well as the enemies within, such as living blocks of ice in the Arid Athenaeum and bee-adjacent creatures in the Hollow Hives. With a phenomenal soundtrack, perfectly blending melancholic vibes with more chaotic tracks for when things start to get intense, and good use of this to highlight secret areas by fading out when an entrance is near. The music evolves through each area too, which keeps it from feeling stale - and the tracks are all a joy to listen to.
The controls feel a little unusual to begin with, though you can adjust them to preferred options - but it warns you that the game has been designed with the pre-set controls in mind. Your jump gets a boost when shooting downwards and you’ve got a dash ability that allows you to blink forward, becoming temporarily invulnerable, making it crucial for bypassing walls of enemy fire in the often very tight rooms. Additionally, you can ‘focus’, exchanging the souls you’ve collected to replenish your health a tad, and this can be done as and when you like - providing you’ve filled the meter enough. If your health is already full, then focusing will actually bump it up a little further - which is super useful, given that hearts are currency in the game, leading to a lot of risk and reward. You can pick up Celestial Weapons that can be used actively upon charging, granting you access to abilities such as using a bow and arrow, or a grappling hook, with each of these aligning with the zodiac. At shrines, you can offer hearts as a trade for various upgrades, such as a Triple Shot, or a Mug of Coffee (speed increase) to name a couple - the more hearts you’re willing to trade, the ‘better’ the trade will be, giving you access to a higher caliber of items.
There are tonnes of secrets to be found, ranging from secret rooms that you’ll need to break walls to access, to ‘secrets’ that will unlock after meeting certain criteria, such as jumping 500 times, etc. Finding Synergies - powerful bonus effects from picking up items that work well together - is another key aspect to the gameplay that makes things that much more enjoyable, and is something we always love to see in a roguelite as it can make for some exciting and overpowered runs. There are challenges available that refresh daily and weekly, giving you other things to try out - which can help to break things up a bit after a few unsuccessful runs! There are loads of collectible hats to find, with some being given as rewards and others being available to purchase from gacha machines once unlocked, and with each completed run you will gain Lucent Shards, which can be used to increase difficulty.
Our only slight gripe with Revita is that the areas can feel a little bit repetitive to begin with, due to very simple room layouts that don’t change too much as you move through the floors, until you get to a fully new area. However, as you progress you’ll discover and unlock new room types, so this can help to shake things up slightly, from Cat Rooms, where you can adjust your stats; Challenge Rooms, where you’ll be given a task to complete (often within a certain amount of time, or without damage); to Observatories, where you can pick up the Celestial Weapons; and more. If you’re a fan of challenging roguelite games such as The Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon, then there’s a pretty great chance that you’ll love Revita - which you can pick up digitally on the Switch eShop for £15.29 - and although we do really wish it had an Xbox release, it works perfectly on Switch. It’s such a fun game, and so completely jam-packed with stuff that we’ve yet to discover everything, and that’s yet another thing that we adore about it, as it really encourages you to keep coming back to learn more and more, preventing it from feeling like you’re repeating the exact same thing every time - making it a superbly fun, rewarding experience.
In the end, we decided to give Revita the Collecting Asylum rating of 10/10.
Are you interested in Revita? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Plan of Attack for the Revita Switch review code!
