Developer: MOKKOGRAD
Publisher: MOKKOGRAD
Year: 2025
Genre: Platformer
System: Windows
Virtue’s Heaven is a 2D Metroid-like where you explore a world that has been ruined by capitalism and you set out to eliminate those that caused that destruction and free your friends. Unlike a lot of games in the Metroidvania genre, you do not get powerups that allow you to explore new areas. You have all of your abilities at the start of the game and destroying bosses will give you keys to open new areas and make you stronger. My experience with the game was one where I didn’t initially click with the game, but when I figured out how I was playing the game incorrectly it became one of the most satisfying gaming experiences in a long time.
My initial experience with the game was that I was very impressed with the art and music, and thought the combat system, which is based entirely on melee attacks, was an incredibly interesting approach. However, soon it felt like the game was becoming too difficult. The combat started to feel like a slog because the character was not doing much damage and enemies were too strong. I knew it was me doing something wrong though, since the game had put so much thought into every other aspect, that I just got annoyed with myself for missing what was probably an obvious detail and then got distracted by other things and put the game down for a month.
Cut to a month later and I finally came back to the game to see how I would do with the game this time. Pretty quickly I saw that I was correct and missed an obvious detail. The game expects you to go back to town after defeating bosses to get an upgrade to get more health and be able to use more of the powerups you’ve obtained, which you get from freeing your friends. This time the game really clicked with me and I was so happy with how great the game felt. The combat was still challenging but very fair and it was immensely satisfying to keep getting more upgrades after beating bosses. I kinda hate the term juice for describing the feeling of sound effects and other effects that happen when the player interacts with the world, like an explosion after defeating an enemy, but folks, it’s got very good juice. Some of the best explosions in a video game to be honest. The game’s anti-capitalist theme was obviously a big selling point to me too. It feels very rare to see it in a setting like this so I really appreciate the developer taking the big swings with the story it’s telling. It’s not really a game that sets itself up for a sequel but I think there’s some really interesting directions that it could go in if they do decide to make one, which I would certainly be the first in line to buy.
I should point out that the initial bounce off the game was entirely my fault. The game is very generous with reminders on other aspects of the game and I was probably playing the game and not feeling very patient, which is the wrong mindset when going into a new game. I could have also played the game at the wrong time, when I wasn’t in the mood to learn a new ruleset. This has happened to me before. One of my all time favorite games, Morrowind, is one that I had initially bounced off of but when I came back and was more patient, it really clicked with me and I loved it. I think this was a similar experience. I don’t necessarily like to say that it needs to be appreciated on its own terms, because that might make it sound like you need to accept the shortcomings of something. These weren’t issues with the game. I had just played it at the wrong time. I think it’s even harder now when there’s just so many games that it’s hard to be patient and understand what the game is doing. It’s not like it’s doing anything radical here, I’m not expected to learn a brand new number system like in Riven, but it was still very easy for me to get distracted to jump to something else.
It feels a little silly to write about this massive journey I took with a game that’s ultimately only 4-5 hours long but if a game takes you on an adventure, you have to write about it folks. I’m so glad I came back and recognized what I was doing wrong because it’s a game that I now love and hope more people check out.
Stumbling over this post was a delight, thank you so much for writing this.
Seeing your post and your specific struggles with the game in the same week where I wrote about “Evil Games” is also interesting, because the reason for your struggles are because last January I wrote “Be Evil” in my Design Notes, when I tried to figure out a way to finish the game.
And “Being Evil” here meant to just get rid of whatever progression gating was still left in the game and to just be okay with the fact that players might get lost, or miss some information (though it does tell you after your first boss to return home AND there’s a blinking heart icon on the map). In that sense it’s also good to know that you did find a way forward.
P.S.: I personally hate the term “juice” for all the gamefeel-related stuff, because it feels too wet for me. I think “crunchy” would be a closer fit to how I think my action games feel, but “Crunch” has a very different meaning in videogames, so I tend not to push back on that too much.
“though it does tell you after your first boss to return home AND there’s a blinking heart icon on the map”
Look, I’m not very bright. Although I did figure that there was something like that that I was missing given that so much care was put into everything else in the game.
But you’re right that crunch makes way more sense to describe how the game “feels” if it wasn’t already used for something else.
Anyway, thank you so much for making the game. It’s hopefully obvious but I thought it was great.
My comment about you missing the information wasn’t meant as a negative, my apologies. I’m just personally amused each time I hear these stories, because I’m soo anxious about this and it still always happens. But this is also why I’m now leaning very far towards just allowing players to exist in these situations where they may have missed, or misunderstood some information, when previously I was deeply afraid of it leading to people disliking my work.
At the end of the day, if people manage to get past their confusion, it ends up with a more meaningful connection I think?
In a way your story is similar to something I encountered while playing FANTASIAN: Neo Dimension this past week, where I accidentally entered a higher-level area that was framed in such a way that I assumed I couldn’t escape it, until I’ve cleared it.
This lead to two days of very intense exploration and figuring out a way to grind experience, without losing too many resources, until I noticed that actually I could just leave.
I guess what I’m saying is: Mistakes make things more interesting, as long as the game gives them the space.
nope nope, I didn’t read it that way at all. Just poking fun at myself. You’re good