The Painted World Prevailed
Visually, the world of GRIME II resembles a blend of The Neverhood and Oddworld. It remained empty until "fragile" creatures divided it into canvases. Deities painted all living things, but one Fragile created intelligent beings who began to create art themselves, filling worlds. Thus began the "War of the Fragile," in which they themselves lost.
The victorious inhabitants of the canvases divided into warring factions. Some rejected violence, while others lived by battles. But without the ambitions of the Fragile, this world is doomed to slow decay.
The game begins with a thought that Ripple of Waves brought to life in the form of a shapeless Egg. It, as usual, is divided into Albumen and Yolk. The player, as Albumen, travels the world, fights, and communicates with others. Yolk, on the other hand, sits inside, urging the protagonist to devour prey — to make the body stronger. After all, the Egg must eat well to hatch.
Unfortunately, the game only creates an illusion of choice. Albumen can pity its prey and resist Yolk's eternal hunger, but for a complete playthrough, it will still have to become a monster.
Colorful World
Even from birth, the Egg runs and jumps well. It will learn to wall jump, pull itself up with a drawn hand, and swim on walls. Many locations only require acrobatic tricks — there are almost no enemies there. They are not as sadistic as their counterparts from Hollow Knight and Silksong — throughout the 30 hours of playing GRIME II, they feel like a break.
Locations in GRIME II are colorful and massive. They are full of secrets, to which hands emerging from walls and floors beckon. Resources needed for equipment upgrades are hidden in the background.
Alas, the map does not mark secrets or obstacles that you will have to return to — you often have to place markers. I did not mark the resources located on the spikes, and then it turned out that they can be picked up with an ability — you need to find three pieces of flesh to learn it.
The map of new locations is initially closed — you need to activate hidden seals to open locations and fast travel. Respawn/teleport points are rare and far apart. In Hollow Knight, the situation is not always better, but at least you can find cartographers by their singing!
Devouring and Parrying Enemies
Many enemies inhabit the locations, differing in appearance and behavior. Most are well-designed, while some are boring and passive.
The only blood-sucking map is "Colorful Reef," where unbalanced and annoying flying creatures reside. There are also scoundrels who attack across half the location — they will specifically infuriate you, be prepared.
In battle, you need to use the environment — collapse columns on enemies' heads or launch spikes with bombs. With parrying, you can deflect most attacks and projectiles. The hints say that red attacks cannot be parried, but there is an ability that allows you to do so a little later.
Powerful enemies can be devoured to use their forms in battle and to advance the plot. However, this mechanic is not particularly useful against bosses.
Half of the bosses are beautiful, elegant, and interesting to fight. You need to constantly move, parry, and use the environment. After several deaths, you memorize attack combinations, and victory becomes guaranteed. The fight with "Four Blades" is brutal, and the battle with "Fleeting Caress" resembles a dance.
The other half is terrible. The bosses encountered in the story are easy and can be simply shot from a distance. Optional bosses often use cheap tricks, as "Tangible Face" does. In the battle with "Facegoo," the camera goes crazy on the left side of the arena — it's impossible to adequately time a parry.
Egg's Equipment
During the playthrough, you can find and buy a whole arsenal of various weapons and armor. Weapons differ in attack speed and type of additional attack. Armor sets provide passive bonuses and increase stats.
But there's no point in using the entire arsenal. Heavy weapons are too slow, and they don't stun the enemy. Light weapons deal too little damage. Mostly, you have to rely on dashes and parries. For most of the playthrough, I used one set of weapons and armor that I got almost at the very beginning.
Healing has a similar problem. You can choose bonuses that increase weapon damage or restore stamina. But the most effective is ordinary instant healing.
Diagnosis
GRIME II has a problem — a lack of complexity. It simply has too many unnecessary mechanics. You can easily complete the game with one set of weapons or armor, or without using enemy absorption in combat. And this affects replayability and the desire to try something new.
However, the main mechanics are excellently executed. Responsive controls make exploring locations pleasant and relaxing. Almost all enemies are memorable for their unusual appearance and attacks, challenging you and making ordinary battles interesting.
Most of all, the game captivates with its world. In each location, you want to stop to examine the background. The history of the world's creation and development is interesting to read. Even the main character stands out, in whom two entities conflict. You want to keep moving to find out what's around the next corner — and how it all ends.