Our own Talune Silius plays and reviews Perennial Order
Link to game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1411020/Perennial_Order/
Total Playtime: 9 Hours 8 Mins
Death Count: 372
Best Boss: The Abysm
Worst Boss: Oak Devil
Perennial Order has been in my sights for about a month now. After talking with the developers, I became interested in this plant-based boss rush game for a while. And when it was released last week, I just knew I had to jump into the bushes and see what it was all about. For those that have never heard of this little indie game, you take control of a Perennial Knight, a combination of bone and plant. You were created for a purpose yet unknown to you. The only thing you do know is that you have been ordered by an unseen voice to track down and kill the multiple horrors that are destroying the hauntingly beautiful world. And you are off, with nothing but your thorn at your side.
Perennial Order is played out like a glorified boss rush. You have your typical charms and memory slots that you can find by completing task and killing bosses. The world itself is also very vast and pretty, branching off in multiple directions as you head out to track down the bosses. But there are no enemies to fight other than the 15 bosses plaguing the world. The gameplay loop is usually to head to one of the many zones, find lore spots, talk to NPC’s that are being harassed (or worse) by the beast, track down the beast (with a few side secrets), and take on the boss in glorious combat.
The world and art direction of Perennial Order is gorgeous. There was a lot of care put into the design of each of the many areas you will traverse (from snow-capped mountains, to the abyss below, to burning forests). Every area of the game has a story to tell and does a great job of setting up the atmosphere of what is coming. There are secrets hidden all over and even in my playthrough, I’m sure I missed a few things here and there. To add to the scenery, many of the locations change in one way or another once the boss has finally been bested. You can tell a bunch of time and effort was placed into the design of this isometric world.
My only complaint is the length of traversal through some of these areas. There is a sprint ability you can unlock fairly early on to ease the travel. But there are no fast travel options. If you are getting beat down by a boss and want to try somewhere else… or you are trying to return to an area to chat with an NPC… Or look for one of the hidden side quests… it can feel a little tiresome to return through the areas. This problem can be compounded in the massive main town. The city is built like a massive loop and can take some time (even when sprinting) to navigate to the next major area.
But a game like this is only truly as good as the combat. And this is where your mileage will vary. Let me get this out of the way: every single boss fight in the game is unique in it’s own way. Mechanically speaking, no two bosses play the same way. One boss will play like a dual where the only way to win is time your blade to parry the enemy. Another boss might have you down in the darkness avoiding the light shining from the boss. Yet another is a boss that plays like the bullet hell Ikaruga, where you lose the ability to dash, but can change your color to match the bullets being fired at you. The bosses in this game do not mess around. They all have multiple phases (some with visual changes). Worst of all, you die in a single hit.
This is why I say your mileage for this game will vary. The fact that you die in a single hit means that you have no room for error. Many attempts against the boss will end in instant death. Luckily the load times are almost instant and you are always put right outside the arena. But due to the fact that each boss is unique in its design, means that you will likely die a dozen times or more before you can even begin to learn which attacks do what. Most of the attacks are fair once you understand the tells. But take a boss like the Oak Devil. In it’s second phase it has an attack where it leaps out of the mist and instantly grabs you. The reaction window is very narrow leading to many deaths before you learn to be able to counter it.
Boss Rushes where you die in a single hit are nothing new. Bullet hells have been doing this for years, and even games like Titan Souls mimics much of what this game does. My issue is that the boss fights in this game can take a while. The developers chose to remove most UI elements (other than a charge bar). This means that you are never sure how many more attacks you have left on a boss. A lack of health bar means you can die over and over to a boss not knowing if you are even damaging the thing. There are audio cues for phase transitions, but when you are fighting a boss for hours, it can start to feel like you aren’t hurting the boss. It can also be very disheartening to see the second phase 25 times just to die because a single swipe.
If you aren’t deterred by constant deaths, the bosses are very unique and have “Mostly” fair move sets. It is fun to see what eldritch plant/zombie horror you will fight next. But at times, the constant deaths made me go from loving to absolutely hating certain bosses. A good example of the this would be a certain cheating chess giant in the mountains. You play a game against a god who does not like to lose. In concept, I loved the idea of fighting on a chess board against this sore-loser. Each piece moves like an actual piece in chess and your goal is to kill the king. Each round, he changes up the pieces while the cracks begin to form.
The problem was that it was hard to focus on up to 16 pieces all moving at the same time. And when you died, you had to redo multiple phases over and over. The board was also small and there wasn’t many places to move. I died a total of 123 times before I beat the boss over the course of 3 hours. There was zero room for error and nothing made me more mad than to get to his 6 queen cheat round, only to die and have to do it all over again. It was an interesting concept that left me feeling hollow by the end.
One hit death is a very touchy subject and won’t be for everyone. At the end my playthrough, I think I enjoyed aspects of the overall experience. I would have loved to play these bosses again with a bit more skill. But I personally was not a fan of dying within 4 seconds of starting a boss only to have to start it again. I may just need to git good. But the “Zero Room for Error” may turn off many players.
The developers have put a lot of heart into this indie game and they deserve the praise for what they have done. I would recommend trying out the game if you have the time. It’s not a very long game (made even shorter if you can down the bosses). I absolutely loved the design of some of the areas and bosses (the abyss was a standout for me). But another part of me is glad that I am finally done as my sanity has a hard time recovering after so many refights.
But that is just my take on Perennial Order. As a game I found it satisfying while also frustrating. It is a game for only the hardest of players. If you like boss fights and don’t mind dying over and over, this might be the game for you. At the very least, you will be supporting developers that have a lot to offer to the indie market.
