Like so many stories, Nymph’s Tower begins in an alien outpost afloat in an acid sea. That’s also where it ended for me, but more about that in a bit. Exactly why or how our protagonist ended up in this rather hostile locale is a bit of a mystery. Thankfully, navigation – while taking cues from the Metroidvania subgenre – remains relatively simple throughout, courtesy of a neat little map, and as for getting around… well, how do you feel about jetpacking?
If you plan on playing Nymph’s Tower, hopefully, you absolutely adore it, because any navigation along the Y-axis is handled by way of activating such a gizmo, expending magically regenerating fuel. Although since it only replenishes whenever your feet are firmly planted on solid ground, you won’t get far early on. This is, unsurprisingly, where the Metroidvania inspiration comes into play: scattered throughout this somewhat labyrinthine cave network are fuel upgrades, which increase your capacity, enabling longer bursts and in turn, access to previously just-out-of-reach ledges.
Now, remember what I said about the sea being made up of acid? Yeah, that goes for any and all pools of liquid in the game, so better get used to tapping that jetpack to hover across increasingly great distances, above and below spikes. Because your health is also rather finite, and unlike your fuel, does not replenish automagically. The only way to heal is to reach and activate a checkpoint, although these are mercifully plentiful and never overly far apart. You might not need these all that much early on, but as you progress, the terrain does get more and more treacherous, much like the boss battles. This was where my playthrough ended rather abruptly, too.
An exploration platformer about scaling a tower and discovering its secrets.
One boss in particular simply got the better of my patience after multiple attempts and lots of pew pew. Oh right, forgot to mention: you do get a gun, although to say it’s overly effective would be an exaggeration. I won’t spoil the encounter, although I will say this: the type of fight is easily my least favourite in a 2D platformer and in Nymph’s Tower, well, it was easier than a similar battle in a certain other indie game… yet still not doable with my skill set and/or patience. Darn shame too, as I was having a lot of fun blazing through the game up to that point, only really annoyed by one other very minor thing.
Try as I might, there was no way I could figure out why upon turning the character from left to right or the other way around… the camera would jump ever so slightly, and in a rather jarring motion that certainly took some getting used to. Could just be me. Hard to say. But enough negatives. How about that lovely, yet dreary, art style and the eerie, atmospheric music (hint: trailer below)? In spite of my gripes with it, I’d totally recommend attempting to scale Nymph’s Tower.
Nymph’s Tower is available on itch.io, for free.
