opinion: In Itorah, I actually have to solve the disappearance of humanity. But all I really want to do is stop and admire the hand-drawn landscape.
Games are a bit like food: Everyone has different tastes, but fortunately there’s something for everyone. One person likes spina…er shooters, but for the other there’s nothing like freshly peeled role-playing potatoes or even a complex strategy salad.
So please forgive me in advance if you don’t share my enthusiasm for Itorah. Metroidvanias are like garlic, you either avoid them with a vampiric dislike or you can’t get enough of them. I’m the latter (in both cases, sorry to my fellow humans!).
That’s why I’m going to tell you why I’m so excited about this impulse buy (thanks to community member Kaimanic for the recommendation!), even though objectively speaking the game has some obvious weaknesses.
Table of Contents
Not a good starting point
The young lady called Itorah has a problem. Well, actually two of them. First, she is chased by a pack of hungry spiders and taken prisoner in their dark caves. She barely manages to escape when it turns out that she is probably the last human being on earth. So Itorah sets out to uncover the secret behind the disappearance of her fellow human beings.
Wait, wait: How did she actually manage to escape from the spider’s cave? I’m glad you asked! As chance (aka game design) would have it, Itorah made the acquaintance of a talking weapon, a kind of great axe, during her captivity. Not only is it extremely talkative and equipped with a somewhat too healthy ego, but it can also dish it out pretty well.
In no time at all, the crawling creature is lying lifeless on the ground and we can trudge to freedom. And there, a breathtakingly beautiful game world awaits us that rivals even Ori and the Blind Forest.
Don’t believe me? Then take a look for yourself – but don’t forget to read on afterwards!
Very good prospects
Those who have already read my paean to Monster Boy should know that I have a soft spot for quality hand-drawn 2D graphics in games. Itorah almost makes me burst into tears with rapture in this regard.
I can hardly walk ten metres without stopping again and marvelling at the surroundings. What the German indie studio Grimbart Tales offers my spoiled gamer’s eye here is in no way shy of international comparison.
Huge mushrooms, lush green grass, mighty trees, a temple entrance bathed in soft light from the evening sun – no matter what I see, it looks like a perfect Sunday fairy tale. Itorah’s style is strongly influenced by Mesoamerican culture and looks a whole lot better in motion than on screenshots.
You don’t believe me either? Once again I have the right evidence at hand and present you with just under four minutes of professional gameplay (cough) from Itorah:
How does Itorah play?
Let’s get to the gameplay. Anyone who has played a Metroidvania before will have no trouble finding their way around Itorah. You hop, roll and climb through the game world called Nahucan and fight all kinds of enemies. They have individual attack patterns, so you have to adapt quickly to new situations and, above all, dodge them at lightning speed.
In the course of your adventure, you naturally become stronger and stronger, unlock new abilities and can improve your cheeky weapon with materials you find. Basically, Itorah doesn’t offer me anything earth-shatteringly new, but it’s like a schnitzel: you know what you’re getting, and it tastes good.
The game also hardly shows any weaknesses when it comes to comfort features. If your life energy drops into the critical range, you can heal yourself at the touch of a button. This ability recharges itself after a few defeated enemies. The map is easy to read, so you won’t get lost in the world of Nahucan. This makes Itorah ideal for newcomers to the Metroidvania genre.
Semi-good control
The biggest weakness of Itorah? It’s quickly named, because you’ll be confronted with it after just a few minutes of play: The controls. If you start this game expecting to hop as elegantly as in Ori and the Will of the Wisps or expect the surgical precision of a Hollow Knight in the fights, you will be disappointed.
When Itorah strikes with her weapon, it always feels a little imprecise. At times she strikes normally, then suddenly she pauses to charge a heavy blow, and is hit by the enemy as a result. The dodge roll also doesn’t always give us a good sense of where the manoeuvre will land us.
It also happens from time to time that the young lady suddenly ducks instead of running by mistake because you hit the analogue stick a millimetre too imprecisely. In order to rule out technical causes on the controller, a second copy was used, with the same result. Such control quirks are annoying and could have used a little more fine-tuning.
For whom is Itorah worthwhile?
Whether you can have fun with Itorah or not depends, as so often, on your expectations. This game is the first work of a small team and you can see that in a positive and negative sense. Yes, the lack of polish is obvious in some corners, and the game doesn’t pull up any trees in terms of scope either, because you should see the end credits after only about six hours.
But for me personally, the passion that goes into this gem is omnipresent. I’ll turn a blind eye and overlook the fact that my punch misses the mark or that I roll into the middle of an enemy instead of putting a safe distance between us. If you’re in the mood for a charming little adventure, no more, but no less, you’re in good hands here.
You can buy Itorah at (Steam) or (GOG) for about 20 Euros each. If you want, you can also buy the Save the World Edition, which costs 10 euros more. In this case, 10 per cent of the proceeds will be donated by the developer to the organisation (Survival International), which supports indigenous peoples.
Summary of the Reda
It’s not often these days that I buy a game on the spur of the moment, even more so just based on a recommendation in our comments section and a few pictures. But in the case of Itorah, I have to say: Thank God!
You can definitely tell that the game was created by a small team. The gameplay could have used a few creative quirks far away from the genre standard. The game world could be more varied in the long run. And the controls are sometimes an even bigger enemy than the five-metre-high boss opponent who is about to strike.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Itorah won my heart in the almost six hours we spent together. This was mainly due to the beautiful graphics, which are appropriately complemented by the mostly subtle but harmonious background music. But I was also taken with the world itself. At last, no fantasy monotony and no sci-fi action fun, the world of Nahucan seems unspent and is full of smaller and larger secrets.
That is why I am now closing the circle at this point. What began with a recommendation to me, I end with a recommendation from me to you: Give Itorah a chance.
