Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus
- July 17, 2024
- Squid Shock Studios
- 8h median play time
2024’s incredible lineup of indie titles continues to grow, and Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus deserves to be right near the top. It’s a picture-perfect Metroidvania, impeccably designed and gorgeous in motion. Do not miss this.
Get on Steam
Get on Xbox Games Store"Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus" is a hand-drawn adventure game inspired by Japanese folklore, where you play as a celestial fox named Bō. Using your legendary bō staff, you'll traverse a 2.5D side-scrolling world filled with Metroidvania elements, encountering mystical creatures, facing massive monsters, and uncovering an ancient prophecy. Your agility and acrobatic skills will be tested as you navigate through the platforming challenges of this hauntingly beautiful realm.
Reviews
- The game features stunning graphics and visuals, with a beautiful art style inspired by Japanese folklore.
- The gameplay mechanics, particularly the aerial combat and platforming, are unique and engaging, allowing for fluid movement and combos.
- The game offers a good balance of challenge, with well-distributed save points and checkpoints, making it rewarding for players who enjoy skill-based gameplay.
- The platforming can be excessively punishing, with some sections requiring perfect execution and leading to frustration when mistakes are made.
- Boss fights can feel tedious due to their high health pools and repetitive attack patterns, making encounters longer than necessary.
- The game lacks a robust map system for marking secrets and areas of interest, which can lead to confusion and aimless backtracking.
- gameplay137 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 68 % neutral mentions
- 2 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by its unique focus on aerial combat and platforming mechanics, heavily inspired by titles like Hollow Knight and Ori. Players enjoy the fluid movement and dynamic combat, particularly the pogo mechanic that allows for mid-air jumps and combos, although some find it frustrating due to difficulty spikes and certain mechanics feeling unbalanced. Overall, the game offers a polished experience with beautiful visuals and engaging mechanics, though it has room for improvement in level design and boss encounters.
“The gameplay is unique with the air combat; it's a very smart idea to build the whole game on this aspect.”
“The art style is gorgeous, the world is enticing, exploring is fun, combat feels great, and gameplay is overall very polished.”
“The movement mechanics are incredibly satisfying, and the world is both charming and visually stunning.”
“The gorgeous art, characters, and music aren’t quite enough to save it from the gameplay, which I found rather tedious; overall, it wasn’t for me.”
“Despite all the effort clearly that went into both the mechanics and visuals of this game, I can’t help but feel like it’s so much missed potential, because of the fact that it uses Hollow Knight as such an extreme crutch.”
“However, in the sense of the gameplay, the devs filled this piece with full of unnecessary annoyances for no reason.”
- story91 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game's story is generally perceived as light and somewhat predictable, with many players finding it unengaging or meandering despite its unique art direction and character design. While some appreciate the incorporation of Japanese folklore and the interlocking quest structure, others criticize the excessive exposition and frustrating quests, particularly the challenging "fragile egg" quest reminiscent of Hollow Knight's "delicate flower" quest. Overall, the narrative is seen as serviceable but lacking the emotional depth and investment found in similar titles.
“A beautiful dive into Japanese folklore with an original story attached.”
“The artwork is beautiful, the music is driving, the story is engaging, and the gameplay is smooth and fun.”
“The story is fine, you can follow along nicely if you explore well enough.”
“I can't drag myself to read anything else about the story; it didn't catch me, so when I got into the city, which is full of walls of text and NPCs, I really didn't want to be there.”
“The game feels like it could use more testing; way too many frustrating elements, and the story mostly comes in long yet clumsy texts without much purpose.”
“I certainly tried to care about the story, but when the vast majority of it is 'look at this wall of text', I quickly got tired of it.”
- graphics87 mentions
- 59 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have been widely praised for their stunning beauty and charming art style, often compared to the aesthetics of titles like "Okami" and "Hollow Knight." Players appreciate the hand-drawn visuals, smooth animations, and the immersive world inspired by Japanese mythology, which enhance the overall gameplay experience. Despite some minor issues with cluttered visuals during combat, the overall presentation is considered top-notch, making it a standout in the metroidvania genre.
“The art style is gorgeous, the world is enticing, exploring is fun, combat feels great, and gameplay is overall very polished.”
“Beautiful art style and world inspired by Japanese myths, smooth controls, and platforming that feels amazing.”
“The graphics are consistently convincing and seem like a skillful development of the Okami style, coupled with the style of Hollow Knight.”
“Despite all the effort clearly that went into both the mechanics and visuals of this game, I can’t help but feel like it’s so much missed potential, because of the fact that it uses Hollow Knight as such an extreme crutch.”
“Sometimes the visuals can be a little too cluttered in combat, but that is a minor issue, and only relevant in a couple of boss fights.”
“This also happened when I first launched the game, and two of the little animations that display the developer logo and whatnot also had bugged out graphics.”
- music64 mentions
- 55 % positive mentions
- 41 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received widespread acclaim for its beautiful composition and ability to enhance the overall atmosphere, particularly with its fitting themes inspired by Japanese mythology. Many players noted that the soundtrack complements the stunning art direction and gameplay, creating an immersive experience that resonates well with fans of the genre. While some found the music to be merely pleasant, the majority praised it as a standout feature that elevates the game's artistic presentation.
“The music and sound effects, and the art are breathtaking.”
“The unique Japanese mythology art style and setting allow it to differentiate from others in the genre and make it a beauty to look at; the theme soundtrack adds to this as well with areas and bosses getting great soundtracks that are catchy and intense when they need to be.”
“The music is great, and sometimes the game sounds line up with the music and it's just amazing.”
“Music: the soundtrack, to me, is nothing to write home about.”
“That doesn't mean I think it was bad, more so that I was never really caring about the music as I played the game.”
“Visuals, music, and general movement are all on par with HK, but the world is noticeably smaller.”
- grinding35 mentions
- 3 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 97 % negative mentions
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, particularly in the late game where platforming challenges and boss fights become repetitive and require excessive backtracking. Many reviews highlight issues with imprecise controls and long stretches between respawn points, leading to a sense of unfairness and a lack of respect for the player's time. While the game features beautiful art and enjoyable mechanics, the grindy nature of certain sections detracts from the overall experience.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“The gorgeous art, characters, and music aren’t quite enough to save it from the gameplay, which I found rather tedious; overall it wasn’t for me.”
“The stretches between respawn points are just absurd, and it is pointlessly tedious and feels like the game doesn't respect my time when it sends me ridiculously far back in the middle of even close to the end of a platforming section.”
“The last third of this game just felt like they swapped gears and said, 'What if we made the game tedious instead of fun to pad out some numbers?'”
- atmosphere8 mentions
- 88 % positive mentions
- 13 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its stunning visuals and complementary music, creating a masterful and immersive experience. Players appreciate the beautiful scenery and fluid aerial combat, which enhances the overall enjoyment and challenge. Overall, the art, music, and atmosphere are consistently rated as top-notch, making it a must-play for fans of atmospheric platformers.
“The art and music really complement the atmosphere of the game very well.”
“Every area contains wallpaper-worthy scenery, and the soundtrack composed by Moisés Camargo complemented the atmosphere perfectly.”
“The atmosphere is beautiful, the gameplay is fun and not awkward at all.”
- emotional7 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Reviews highlight a mix of charm and challenge, with some players finding the game emotionally engaging while others feel a lack of connection to the story. The fairy tale-like atmosphere enhances the experience, but emotional scenes may not resonate deeply, leading to a somewhat flat emotional impact.
“Delightfully charming, challenging, and emotional.”
“Perhaps rather fitting for the game's overall fairy tale-like vibe, but it does mean that scenes which require emotional build-up tend to fall a bit flat.”
“Their designs are fantastic, but I have zero emotional connection with the story.”
- character development5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 40 % negative mentions
The character development in the game is visually impressive, with standout designs and beautifully crafted biomes that enhance the overall aesthetic. However, reviewers note that while the art style and cutscenes are well-executed, the game lacks deep lore and substantial character development, focusing more on platforming elements than narrative depth.
“Character design is on point; it's what I expected and more in some cases, and the artistic cutscenes are very well done.”
“Really fun character designs, and each biome is beautifully done.”
“The style of things is obviously inspired by Hollow Knight in the respect of character designs, but it definitely does its own things given the setting it adopted.”
“Without spoiling anything for those that still want to play the game, I simply wouldn't recommend getting your hopes up for any deep lore or character development.”
“The style of things is obviously inspired by Hollow Knight in terms of character designs, but it definitely does its own thing given the setting it adopted.”
- stability2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is mixed; while it runs well on the Steam Deck and features cloud save functionality, players report it being somewhat clunky and buggy.
“The game runs great on the Steam Deck, and the addition of cloud save is a fantastic feature.”
“I've experienced no crashes or major bugs, which really enhances the overall gameplay experience.”
“The stability of the game is impressive; it runs smoothly even during intense action sequences.”
“Kinda clunky, kinda buggy, kinda dull unfortunately.”
- humor2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highlighted by its engaging and amusing gameplay, complemented by the presence of cute and funny side characters that enhance the overall comedic experience.
“Very funny to play!”
“The cute and funny side characters add a delightful charm to the game.”
“The humor throughout the game keeps the experience light-hearted and enjoyable.”
Critic Reviews
Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus Review – Gorgeous Teal, Lacking Zeal
While not a path best left untrodden, Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus is a title that struggles to find its way to its full potential.
50%Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus
Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus excels at its goal of delivering a commendable and exciting title.
0%Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus Review
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a game where charm meets challenge and a passion for Japanese culture is expressed with artistic flair. Its emphasis on platforming skill over exploration gives it a distinctive profile in the Metroidvania crowd and, while that might not be everyone’s cup of tea, for many, the appeal will blossom like the trees in Sakura City.
80%
