Elsie | PS5 Review

Meet the Mega-Woman Mega-Man inspired Metroidvania roguelike that is "Elsie". This unabashed take on the Mega-Man franchise features a mostly female ensemble of androids brought into existence to solve humanity's issues with catastrophic global change. The first batch, of which would be the elementally controlling guardians created to control nature's fury. A role quickly gone wrong due to their mysterious abandonment of the project and the subsequent invasion of an invading robot army. 

Built by Dr. Grey these androids that are now problematic must be dealt with, and thus she creates a counter to their efforts in the form of a more powerful new android known as Elsie. It is through Elsie that Dr. Grey aims to right her wrongs, and find out what happened to the wayward androids she had previously entrusted to safeguard humanity.

At the Sapir Wharf, a docked destination resort, Dr. Grey leads Elsie where she needs to go, and helps her in her ongoing efforts to face off against the former androids by allowing for the establishment of vendors that each act as an extension of the perk based gameplay which has each run a playing out like a randomly generated roguelike experience. 

You'll find Dr. Grey serves as a scrap vendor at Sapir Wharf wherein she uses collected scraps to add permanent skills to a skill tree of boosted mechanics based abilities centered around three core functions. Those core functions being the gun, the mini-laser, and energy reload. That and all the Metroidvania movement options at Elsie's beckon call.

Aside from Dr. Grey you'll find the gargantuan robot Hebbi who unlocks other Sapir Wharf vendor stations and features for the proper currency. There's Hebbi, and a bird-like humanoid who acts as the resident blacksmith. A vendor who allows for unlocks of weapon and ability based features beholden to gunplay, and overall performance. A star gazing angel also takes center stage at Sapir Wharf as a vendor who allows for the unlocking and enhancement of spells. Needless to say you'll need to get deeper into the game and grind to find and unlock these additional vendors, and that's where the gameplay loop comes in.

Gameplay, itself, begins through the elevator entrance at the dead center of Sapir Wharf. Entering it will take you and Elsie to the first stage with a connected series of sectional rooms filled with enemies and various looting opportunities. All that plus a final boss fight. Killing enemies nets you Bits currency that can be spent at shop vending machines while looting chests, which sometimes require keys, will net you scraps, perk upgrades, and ArcLight coins among other things. Leaving the free perk gallery rooms to offer up a choice of one of three random perks that will boost gameplay mechanics and build upon them. Perks of which can be upgraded through a perk found there. Stacking these perks will create a build centered around damage, defense or improved mobility/mechanics. Either that or a blend of the three. 

In addition to perks you will need to put to use a few inherent abilities to traverse these Metroidvania inspired stages including a wall jump, wall slide, aerial dash, ground pounce, and downward thrust bounce. These in tandem with a parry that can be doubled down upon to not only stop bullets, but to break shields on shielded enemies are tools of the trade. That and ultimate attack that boosts movement and damage for a limited time are of great help in dire situations. Something that comes in handy during the boss fight at the end of a stage's run. By defeating a boss using these key features you'll be left with two choices of places to go, and each new area varies according to environmental theme as well as enemy design. Opening up opportunities to meet new NPCs, and vendors for Sapir Warf.

Aside from the run routine Elsie's playthroughs are restrictive in that Elsie has a certain amount of health to begin with, and weapons/spells that require energy collected from enemies to keep working. A sort of stamina meter for gunplay and spell casting. Two of her main abilities including the mini-laser and reload mechanic also runs on a cooldown timer making them less available than the main weapon. As Elsie levels up through enemy killing she'll be prompted to pick a random perk from a selection of three. Helping buff her stats and performance as she goes.

The Presentation ...

Elsie is a colorful pixel sprite based platformer done up in traditional Metroidvania design with Metroidvania traversal in mind. It seems to be geared towards a more female appreciative audience as themes throughout hint at girl boss character archetypes. Each confident in their talk, and capabilities as contributors to this unraveling story. There's also elements of roguelike features intertwined with these short lived stages that are sectional in nature leading to a final boss confrontation, and a branching path choice. 

The soundtrack is lighthearted, and fitting of a game obviously inspired by Mega-Man. It has the kind of vibe that adds to the futuristic theme. If I'm not mistaken the game also has voice-overs for the cast of mainstay characters, and they are all done well. Adding to the conversations being had between return runs.

The Verdict ...

Once you get past the needless first several playthroughs that each slow drip the mechanics to you, you will get into the meat of what is a competent, but brutally challenging take on the roguelike genre. You'll find that the Metroidvania mechanics are perfectly executed, but with some looseness that seems to correct itself. The roguelike elements on the other hand serve as a reason to repeatedly grind the game, and perhaps to a fault as it artificially restricts progress behind a paywall even though that paywall doesn't require real money.

You'll spend hours grinding for currencies needed to unlock the features which will make a full playthrough possible. Mind you, taking no damage in each run is nearly impossible due to the stage layout, and enemy positions. That and the required boosts from paid for unlocks. This is only occasionally offset by health perks and things that buff health like shields. 

For me "Elsie" is a middle-ground quality experience that could have been better with less emphasis on the grind, and repeat playthroughs. It's not bad, mind you, but it's not perfect either. If you don't mind it's faults, and want to see what it's all about Elsie is priced to sell, and reasonably so. It comes out today on the PSN store!