Lotus Lantern Rescue Mother Review – Hades in China
| Tags: Reviews
| Author Thealchemist
Here’s our complete hands-on Lotus Lantern Rescue Mother review.
Lotus Lantern Rescue Mother is an upcoming action rogue-like game by the developers Unstable Games. It will be released on April 12th on Steam under the publisher 663 Games. Fans of Hades will feel pretty familiar with all the gameplay that’s been revealed about the game so far.
But is it a straight-up rip-off? Or is Lotus Lantern unique enough to claim a spot on your digital library?
Here’s our complete Lotus Lantern Rescue Mother Review to help you decide for yourself!
*Reviewed on PC, Copy was Provided by the Publisher*
Contents
Story, Graphics, and First Impressions
Ask any action rouge-like veteran, and they’ll tell you – the story isn’t really the main focus in these types of games.
In Lotus Lantern, you play as Chenxiang, a disciple of Sun Wukong, the Demon Monkey. When the game starts, you decide to go for a stroll down Mt. Hua, but as you clear two rooms, you come across a Demigod who tells you that you need to rescue your mother.
That’s the entire premise of the game. Every time you die, the story advances slowly, revealing further details about the plot. As you go further, you’ll come across many other characters from Chinese mythology.
As for the graphics, we really couldn’t find anything worth complaining about. It’s clear that the devs put in a lot of time and effort behind it. Every new region you get to feels unique and has charm.
Fast and Responsive Combat
For action rouge-like games, the combat design is the most important thing and Lotus Lantern does it in style! Movement feels fast and smooth and while the game doesn’t feature double dash like Hades, the dash that it does have feels pretty quick.
You’ll be able to weave in and out of enemy attacks and projectiles without any hassle while getting in plenty of hits of your own. The enemy variety is nice, and while they aren't really “damage sponges,” their health bar does take a bit of effort to whittle down. But once you get a couple of meta-progression upgrades under your belt, things become easier.
We wouldn’t say the combat in Lotus Lantern is difficult to master, but it does take a while to learn what’s going on. Some enemies will hurl projectiles, some will dash, and some will explode, leaving an AOE damage on the ground. So, you’ll need to understand what each enemy does if you want to come out unscathed.
Each level will have two bosses: one mini-boss and one main boss. After clearing each room, you get to pick certain upgrades for your character to make you stronger for the following rooms. But in true rouge-like fashion, you lose the upgrades when your run ends.
A Good Arsenal of Weapons and Artifacts
Combat wouldn’t be all that cool if you only had a single weapon to wield. In Lotus Lantern, there are a total of 7 weapons that you can use, each with its distinct set of abilities, strengths and weaknesses.
Each of these weapons feels completely unique and forces you to play a different way to get the most out of it. The secondary Technique effects from each weapon are also quite useful and allow for a versatile play style.
For example, the Enigmatic Splendor weapon that you start off with is a 3-hit combo sword. However, each successful hit with the weapon also creates flying swords that hone in on enemies.
All of the weapons also come with an Active Skill. The Active Skill of Enigmatic Splendor, Thousand Blade, lets you summon multiple flying swords that track and damage enemies all around the room.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg; you also get access to a plethora of Artifacts in Lotus Lantern. They act like active special abilities that you can use when you have enough Energy. You gain Energy as you hit enemies, and once you accumulate enough of it, you can press the button for an Artifact to use its effect.
You start your run with a single Artifact that you can choose, but during your run, you can have up to four of them. There are four Artifact varieties in the game: Heaven, Earth, Man, and God. These Artifacts can further be upgraded using divine shards that you can come across as rewards for completing each room.
Add them all up, and the combat variety in Lotus Lantern is pretty impressive.
A Variety of Room Completion Rewards
One thing that Lotus Lantern Rescue Mother does exceptionally well is how they set up the room and the rewards you get for completing them. Before you enter a room, you get three rewards to choose from.
Once you clear the following room, you will be able to access these rewards. They can include elemental damage upgrades, Technique upgrades, Divine Sensibility, Regeneration, Artifacts, and more.
Since you choose the rewards beforehand, you have more control over the build you’re working towards.
In-Depth Meta Progression
In Lotus Lantern, every time you die, you lose all the things you pick up. However, if you manage to find Divine Sensibility during your run, they stay with you. This item serves as the in-game currency to upgrade your character using the Lotus Lantern.
The upgrades from Lotus Lantern act as permanent buffs that are active every run. You can permanently boost things like your Attack Speed, Movement Speed, Critical Chance, etc from the Lotus Lantern.
Lotus Lantern Rescue Mother Review – 9/10
Lotus Lantern borrows heavily from Hades, but that isn’t a bad thing. The artwork is fantastic, and the story is solid for a game of this genre. But the combat is the true standout of the game.
Every death feels meaningful and allows you to experiment with different weapons and builds. If you’re a fan of Hades or any other action rogue-like games, don’t think twice about picking this one up when it drops on April 12th! Good luck!