Capsule Review: Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt
A cute little (less than an hour) bullet hell rendered as an old-school RPG with minimalist plot, graphics, and sound. As Princess Remedy, walk across the towns and dungeons of Hurtland, gathering powerups and healing everyone you come across. Healing mode is a quick single-stick shooter (you continually shoot the direction you last moved in). There are some difficulty spikes, especially if you don’t take the intended path and get into some healing attempts before you’re supposed to, but punishment is very low - failing to heal someone just kicks you out of the heal attempt with your own health restored - right away, you’re ready to try again. The control scheme uses a single context-sensitive button, which is a bit awkward and doesn’t seem necessary. The ending is silly and cute.
Originally made for a game jam, then polished up and released for free. There’s also an inexpensive sequel that takes the ideas further.
I Stopped Playing When: I finished the game.
Three Stars: Good. I liked the game enough to finish it (or just play it a bunch, for games that don't end). I recommend it to most genre fans.