Grimvalor 12+

This game borrows heavily from the Souls series in terms of its gameplay, structure and overall tone, and attempts to deliver the same level of challenge. However there are a number of deviations from the Souls formula that make this game considerably more forgiving than the legend that inspired it: no stamina limit, no xp loss on death and some very generous I-frame when dodging (which more than makes up for the lack of a block function), along with the addition of several very un-Soulslike features like a world map, a quest log and the clear division of the story into “Acts”.

That said it’s still no cakewalk; the enemies in the game deal massive damage (especially the archers; I hate those guys!) and will mercilessly punish you for sloppy play. One rather odd feature is that the energy that fuels your special abilities can only be recovered by killing enemies, which requires the game’s bosses (including the world bosses known as “hunters”) to constantly spawn adds in order to give you a means of recovering your energy. This often leads to a buildup of enemies which can very easily stunlock you to death; however once you’ve mastered the game’s dodging mechanic you should have no trouble.

All in all it’s not quite Dark Souls but it’s the next best thing. Good luck on your journey, but be warned - you’ll die many times before you reach its end!

What an excellent 2D platform hack and slash game. Probably not the most original game on the market (this is the first game like this I’ve played in years) but it’s extremely playable without getting too bogged down in the complexity of character building or weapon changes before battles or being too interruptive. Resting only takes a couple of seconds to rejuvenate your health and soul magic but here you can level up, upgrade weaponry, add to your attributes and then it’s off you go hacking, slashing, jumping, puzzle solving and looking for new weapons until you can level up again. You have the obligatory end of level guardians to defeat along the way with some neat game play and zippy manoeuvrability makes Grimvalor a very joyous experience, by the end level my character had enough mastery with combined special trinkets that its was pretty much flying around like a superhero. The actual story itself is a bit naff but the playability heavily outweighs it...which is the way it should be really. I really enjoyed it and finished it in 3 days with 25 hours of game play clocked. Looking forward to Grimvalor II or an expansion.

Grimvalor definitely borrows heavily from Dark Souls. It’s a challenging 2D platformer in which the enemies pack a punch and big bosses act as significant roadblocks to progress. However the developers have been extremely canny in what they borrow from Dark Souls and what they ignore. This is a game that has been built from the ground up to work on mobile. There’s no stamina bar, allowing you to dodge frantically when under pressure. Your character can move at a decent lick, climb walls, jump high, all of which helps mitigate the lack of precision that virtual controls inevitably bring. This means that, in comparison with other games, its relatively easy to get away from tough situations to recover your health. The controls are as slick as any I’ve seen on mobile and I almost always felt that skill was the defining factor in both my victories and defeat. There’s plenty of hidden things to find and the levels reward careful exploration. This will probably be my mobile game of the year.