Decline’s Drops Review

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Fast Facts

Where Are We Dropping?

Decline’s Drops is an action-platformer that combines the collecting secrets elements from Yoshi’s Island with an intense, fast-paced, platform fighter combat system. These two ideas seemed polarising, yet the charming visuals and novel concept hooked me. Was my trip worth the fare? Find out in this Rapid Review.

To begin my adventure, I was introduced to the world and given justification as to why a little old marionette like me was facing off against giant behemoths. It is a silly premise, but it was cute. I thought the simple yet charming nature of the story was a great inclusion. The premise does not extend very far though. There is some dialogue with the boss characters, but apart from that, the story does little to maintain my interest. It sets the scene, but it does not take the stage.

Instead, the core focus of the game is on the levels and the combat. However, before diving into that, I think it is important to understand what differentiates Decline’s Drops from other similar titles. Innately, what stands out is that despite featuring plenty of collectables, the game prides itself on combat. At the same time, however, the game is easily accessible. Levels have generous checkpoints, there is no limit on the number of retries allowed, and there are items available to improve the main character even further. The combination of these things makes Decline’s Drops fairly easy to complete. Instead, there is depth found in mastering the combat system and uncovering hidden items within each level. While I enjoy these two things, I found that the combination of them did not impress me as much as I had hoped. 

What Bridge?

One reason that stands out is that these things happen separately from each other. There are segments where I fight a bunch of enemies, sure, but I can always wait until after I dismantle them to uncover the game’s secrets. Moreover, since the secrets are unrelated to the combat system, I could complete levels sloppily without much penalty. To me, it seemed like a missed opportunity for these concepts to be as completely unrelated as they were. 

However, despite that minor disappointment, I want to emphasize that both of these mechanics individually worked very well. Each stage has five different heart pieces within it. While some pieces are challenging to find, I never felt that they were hidden unfairly, or required any sort of guide. Often, I found these collectables easy to find, yet sometimes I needed to play the level multiple times. I thought this balance was good. These items kept me engaged without frustrating me. Also, if I collected all the heart pieces in a given world, I unlocked a challenging level. This made collecting those items mean something.

On the other hand, learning the combat in Decline’s Drops was rewarding in and of itself. There were various moves to learn including special moves which required mana, and smash attacks which had me holding down the attack button. As someone who enjoys platform fighters, this move set felt excellent. I enjoyed wave dashing and parrying in the game too. The movement is great and there is fantastic depth in the different strings I could pull together. I also appreciated that my character was fast. When I was not searching for collectable items, I could dash through stages very quickly. It felt great to do. I had a lot of fun learning the main character.

Who’s That?

However, as interesting as the combat was, it is only captivating when there are solid enemies to eviscerate. In Decline’s Drops, I was content with the enemies but not overly impressed. I did find that the enemies were amply varied throughout the game, and I enjoyed taking each foe out. Yet, they were not perfect. Many of these foes could be taken out in similar ways, making each blend more than I would have liked. This made it easy to go on autopilot while fighting which made these segments less memorable. I was especially disappointed by this because the game encourages calculated play with a combo meter. Typically, this is a great motivator. However, this did not reward me like finding collectables did. The feature did not aggregate my rankings over the level, and it did not display anything anywhere. Once the combo ended, it practically never existed. 

Despite feeling completely fulfilled in how the combat rewarded me, I do not want to understate that the combat was mechanically deep and engaging. This was seen expertly in the boss fights too. Every five or so levels I got to face off against a giant monster. These fights encouraged me to leverage every tool in my arsenal. They were fun, rewarding, and truly encouraged me to master my main character. 

To supplement the core gameplay, Decline’s Drops features a lovely world to explore. Visually, the scenery is stunning. From traditional grassy fields to cybernetic fields inside a simulation, this game does a great job of translating important information and catching my attention. I also greatly enjoyed the animation behind my main character and her attacks. She looks stunning, and it was a lot of fun to see the different capabilities I had, and how that looks coming from a marionette.

What Wood You Do?

The soundtrack was also standout. It was charming and peaceful, like main main character typically is. It features soft charming notes and a wonderful melody to keep me on my way. The designer here did an excellent job. 

As a whole, Decline’s Drops is a beautiful game. The art, style, and combat blend nicely into a package that is simply fun. I enjoyed learning how to master my main character and uncovering different secrets. I did feel that I could have been rewarded a bit more for skilful gameplay, but even just exploring the game and finding secrets was already very enjoyable. Decline’s Drops is a lot of fun, and I recommend it.

Rapid Reviews Rating

4 out of 5

4

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