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While it absolutely has some visual appeal, the familiarity and general lack of spark in play makes it underwhelming
Afterimage is one of those games that does a great job of selling itself if you simply see shots or some video of it since it has a fantastic look, but once you play it for a while the love affair is a bit tougher to sustain. Considering the depth of the Metroidvania space on the Switch eShop, it pays to set yourself apart from the crowd, and this is unfortunately Afterimage’s greatest weakness. While its competition has exciting combat, brilliant storytelling, or progression systems that help you feel like you’re fine tuning your character, these are all areas that it struggles in by comparison. While there’s a fair variety of weapons, which each do have their own sort of feel, combat more often than not is generally bland and repetitive. What story there is to me usually ended up feeling like run-of-the-mill fantasy adventure babble, to the point that I was usually just skipping to get back to playing and not feeling like I was missing out on much. Finally, while there are upgrades that you’ll be able to choose from as you progress, most of the time they feel too easily earned and lacking in enough oomph to take the experience to the next level. If you’re a fan of the great art style, the game is certainly playable, just don’t expect it to stand up to the competition of its brethren already out there.
Justin Nation, Score:Fair [6.0]