Pseudoregalia is a game with highs and lows. Drawn in by its fantastic retro aesthetic and Metroidvania nature, I first picked up the game with considerable enthusiasm, only to set it down an hour and a half later with almost all of said enthusiasm zapped away. I was frustrated by the platforming with its weirdly difficult walk kick, and by navigation as I seemed to run through the same few rooms over and over again. I felt like I was just wandering around aimlessly, but not in quite the same sense as many other Metroidvanias... Whereas in something like Hollow Knight, I felt free to explore the world without any “correct” place to go whatsoever, here in Pseudoregalia, I felt as if there was somewhere I was definitively supposed to go, I just couldn’t find it for the life of me. Needless to say, it wasn’t the greatest first impression.
Picking up the game again the next day though, I ended up falling in love with it as I played more. Notably, I found some more of the game’s core abilities, and finally started to get the hang of the wall kick, too. As I gained more movement options, an incredibly fluid and satisfying moveset was revealed to me. Pseudoregalia is one of those rare gems where simply moving around is a blast. The game’s platforming focus became so much more interesting, seeing how I could creatively chain these moves together to get where I needed to be. Most challenges in the game have no single definitive solution; it’s all up to you as the player to find your own way to conquer them using the tools that you have. In fact, there were even some pieces of my moveset I beat the game without ever even knowing I had! The simple joy of movement in this game and the open-ended nature of it make me eager to jump back in and play again. It’s a short game, which suits it well for replayability and all, but also means the experience ends infinitely sooner than you’d like it to. Let it be known that I’d kill for a New Game+.
Speaking of the open-ended nature, it’s... also an element with highs and lows. Exploration is impressively open (and rewarded by a slew of minor upgrades), but any progression into new territory is usually preceded and followed by an intermission of walking in circles through the same rooms trying to get your bearings. Part of the problem is that most rooms don’t stand out from each other enough in order to construct a strong mental map of any given area. I became particularly frustrated near the game’s end, running all over the world trying to find the last two McGuffins left, only for both to be hidden behind completely unremarkable rooms that I had visited earlier, before I had the abilities necessary to traverse them, but which I had completely forgotten about with time. If the player needs to remember someplace in order to return to it later, it has to actually be memorable! On top of all this, I found myself taking the wrong exit out of an area because I forgot which one led where, and ended up having to trek all the way back through that area again to get to the exit I should've taken in the first place. Ideally, these important areas should be made to stand out more, but the most pragmatic solution for the game as a whole is to just add an actual map. And I get that for some games it's really important that they don’t have a map, but I would not consider Pseudoregalia to be one such game. The amount of frustration that could be averted simply by being able to see where in the world I am and which directions I have and haven’t already explored would massively outweigh any downside that could come from the addition of a map.
Even if wandering through these areas can at times become grating, I have to commend their atmosphere. The early 3D graphical aesthetic is fantastic, and special kudos has to be given to the soundtrack as well, which manages to both fit in with said aesthetic great as well as characterize these areas perfectly. The first time I entered the Underbelly and was hit by that deep drone as I stood over a dark, descending chasm, I was hit with some kind of feeling, for sure. Then the drums kicked in, and we started groovin’. Needless to say, the rest of the soundtrack is great as well (“Outside the Castle Walls” has collectively stolen everyone’s hearts... and now that I think about it, I wonder if the title is a Super Mario 64 reference?). From the very opening, there’s such a sense of mystery that overhangs Castle Sansa. I was desperate to learn what exactly happened here... and was disappointed to finish the game and find myself with so many unanswered questions (and not in any satisfying sense!). I kept finding little pieces of paper scattered around in odd places, yet no matter how hard I tried to read them or pick them up or do something, anything with them, my efforts were futile. The game feels like it has a gaping hole in it... there’s something meant to be here; I can feel it, sense its outline! But the game’s lips are sealed over what it ripped out.
Pseudoregalia is an insanely fun game, by pure virtue of how it feels to play. It’s a game that I’m itching to dive right back into, and a game that I’m certain will only get more fun the more I play it. It’s such a shame that the difficulty of navigation brings the game down, as otherwise, I would not hesitate to rate it much higher. Stick with it past your initial frustrations, and you will have a fantastic, one-of-a-kind experience with Pseudoregalia.
As it turns out, my prayers have been answered! Fairly recently, the creator of Pseudoregalia came out with a new update, and I’ve had a blast quickly replaying the game with it. Titled “the map update”, its biggest addition is, as you’d expect, a map. Getting your bearings as to where you are and where you were is so much easier now, and it’s also much easier to tell when you’ve explored all that an area has to offer. As another nice touch, the one major key that was hidden in a super obscure location has had the path to it turned from a tiny little hole in the wall to a much bigger opening placed front and center stage in the start of the area. Overall, it’s telegraphed to be an important place to remember much better. With all of this, I can say navigation is infinitely better, and I don’t really have any inhibitions to recommending Pseudoregalia anymore. Plus, the update also adds a bunch of fun little time trials scattered across the map to unlock a plethora of new outfits for the protagonist. Now’s a better time than ever to give the game a shot.