NanoApostle

The boss fight has long been a staple of the video games industry. More than just a tougher enemy at the end of a stage, the boss battle was a way to let the developer’s show what they are capable of. It was also a way to challenge the player, forcing them to use everything they learned in the level to take down a massive foe. The new game NanoApostle doesn’t bother with creating long levels or taking you on some grand adventure, because it’s entirely focused on these boss fights. One after another; all while a small girl pieces together her memories and become a real badass fighter. Are boss fights enough to make this action game worth playing? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review NanoApostle by 18 Light Game Limited.

The developers would like to call NanoApostle a boss rush game, but for most players, there’s not a lot of rushing involved. This is the kind of game where you could, in theory, beat it in maybe an hour or two. But will you? Probably not. Instead, you’ll be introduced to a boss, spend a bunch of time learning its patterns and weaknesses, and then replay the fight until you gain the upper-hand and win. After you do all that, you’ll move onto the next fight and, you guessed it, do the whole thing all over again.

Of course, that’s the charm of a game like this. It wants each battle to feel at least a little bit hopeless at the start, that way you’ll get the satisfaction of seeing improvement as you slowly inch closer and closer to defeating the opponent. It hopes that you’ll stick around long enough to try out different strategies and use a variety of augmentations to win the fight. And for those patient enough to master the moves and parry the attacks, you’ll bathe in the glow of success. But don’t get too comfortable, because the next fight is going to be even harder.

There is a story here, though it’s clearly not the priority. You play a young girl named Anita who mysteriously wakes up in a futuristic biochemical weapons lab without any memory of who she is or where she came from. She’s immediately introduced to what is elegantly described as a semi-autonomous combat nano-prosthetic known as Apostle, which is there to help turn Anita into a fighting hero. The two of them, along with another young woman, Wenny, will work together to solve the boss problem and, if they’re lucky, get a history lesson through a series of devastating flashbacks.

What you need to know is that there was a special program set up by the military to create nanomachines that could be equipped on soldiers to make them bigger, better, faster and more powerful. This is what Anita is going to need to use to gain the upper-hand on the game’s six challenging bosses. She’ll start out with only a couple of these expansion modules to choose from and only one or two spots to place them. As she goes about defeating the bosses, she’ll unlock more slots and augments.

There are twenty-four of these enhancements overall, but only seven total slots to fit them in. This means that you’re going to have to make some tough decisions about what you’ll need in each fight. You’ll find that while many will boost your strength and abilities, they’ll often come with side effects. For example, there’s one that will increase the size of your weapon, but will decrease the speed of the attack. Another augment will allow you to gain more energy, but your dash move has a much longer cooldown.

What you’ll quickly discover is that there’s no one-size-fits-all for the enhancements, because what you’ll need will change from one boss to another. Although there are only six bosses to fight, each one is wildly different from the last. You may be able to defeat one of them through sheer willpower and aggression, but the next one will require more of a strategy. You may have to stay back and wait for the right time to pounce. One of my favorite battles will use your fears against you, adding a whole new gauge to the game. This is a spooky fight that can get inside of our hero’s head, if given the chance. How you go about battling this foe will be completely different from what you needed in the last fight, and it forces you to relearn your strategy every time.

What I like about this game is how it’s constantly rewarding the player with new moves and abilities. Beyond the different augments, there’s a surprising amount of depth to the simplistic gameplay. A lot of the game revolves around you hacking and slashing with a light attack, all while filling up an energy gauge that will let you infect the enemy from afar. These two attacks work in concert, as you will need to hack away at the enemy in order to fully infect them, which will lead to them losing a lot of health very quickly.

What you want to do is parry as many attacks as possible, which will often stagger or stun the opponent, giving you a chance to get in some free hits. You’ll also use a grappling hook to take off even more damage, along with two different types of charge attacks. And yes, all of this gets augmented in different ways when you add the various modules. A lot of this game comes down to you learning and memorizing how to use each of these moves to their fullest.

Now, while NanoApostle doesn’t have levels, per se, it does have a number of training missions that are the next best thing. These are short obstacle courses that will either have you dodging or fighting your way through a series of increasingly difficult stages. While they don’t really add anything to the story or lore, these stages are a good way to mine for experience points that you’ll use to buy the different augments. They are also a nice change of pace after all the boss slaying.

While I ultimately enjoyed this game, I did wish there was a little more to it. The six bosses are all unique and fun to figure out, but there aren’t enough of them. This is a game that could have used another three or four bosses. Maybe one or two that were as big and impressive as the beast at the start. While some of the later bosses are certainly cool looking, the game never goes as big and over-the-top as you might initially expect. That’s a shame.

I’m also not a huge fan of the arenas we fight in. I was hoping for the same type of variety that we saw from the bosses themselves, but instead we get a lot of bland, dark and boring stages that don’t do much world building. All of that is left for the lackluster story bits, which includes a lot of reading and some disappointing cinemas. I do like the throwback pixel graphics and some of the boss designs are truly inspired, but NanoApostle is surprisingly restrained.

The good news is that boss fights are memorable and satisfying. The game is just challenging enough so that you’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment after every win. Some of them will be hard fought and come down to who can get in that final hit. That’s genuinely thrilling, especially in those final few stages. For those who enjoy sharpening their teeth by playing through different stages, those genuine thrills may be too far apart to keep them interested. However, if you’re looking for a challenging boss rush game with a cool science fiction story and stylish enemies to dismantle, then you could do a whole lot worse than NanoApostle.