DEVIATOR

About

DEVIATOR is a single player action adventure game. It was developed by Gami Studio and was released on August 1, 2024. It received positive reviews from players.

"DEVIATOR is a single-player Action game with wonderful gameplay and perfect graphics. Precise timing is key in the core combat mechanic of deflecting enemy attacks. Mastering this skill builds momentum, leading to a powerful enhanced state for your character. The game features a fantastical world with vivid 2D hand-drawn artistry, from lush forests to shadowy cities, leaving a deep impression."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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82%

Audience ScoreBased on 230 reviews

gameplay25 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

The game features beautiful graphics and a unique art style that, while reminiscent of Hollow Knight, stands out on its own.
The parry mechanic is engaging and adds depth to the combat, making battles feel rewarding and challenging.
Despite being in early access, the game offers a solid amount of content and has the potential for future updates to enhance gameplay.

The game is heavily criticized for its similarities to Hollow Knight, with many elements feeling like direct copies, which detracts from its originality.
There are significant performance issues, including crashes and unresponsive controls, particularly on the Steam Deck.
The gameplay can feel tedious due to health sponge enemies and a lack of variety in combat mechanics, leading to frustration during battles.

gameplay
91 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
70%
3%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players appreciating the parry mechanics and arcade-like features, but criticizing the lack of invulnerability frames and the overall reliance on parrying in combat. While some find the mechanics engaging and reminiscent of titles like Hollow Knight, others feel the game suffers from janky movement, glitches, and a lack of polish, leading to a less satisfying experience. Overall, the game shows promise but requires further refinement and quality-of-life improvements to reach its full potential.
- “While the art style closely resembles Hollow Knight, the game mechanics are exceptionally well-executed.”
- “The various parries add a lot of fluidity and intrigue to the gameplay.”
- “As someone who considers Hollow Knight and Grime to be the greatest metroidvanias ever, this game scratches that Hollow Knight-esque and parry-based gameplay itch quite well.”
- “Gameplay kind of blows.”
- “It's not interesting to follow, and the start of the game does not build up gradually in mechanics and severity, thus destroying any desire to keep playing and seeing how it will evolve (if it evolves at all).”
- “It's clear to all of us this is based mostly on Hollow Knight, and this game lags a lot; it crashed on the first 2 seconds of gameplay.”
graphics
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
54%
6%
The graphics of the game are visually appealing and well-executed, often drawing comparisons to Hollow Knight due to their similar art style. While some reviewers criticize the game for borrowing heavily from Hollow Knight's aesthetics, others appreciate its unique elements and overall stunning visuals. Despite the similarities, many players find the graphics enhance the gameplay experience, making it a worthwhile title for fans of the genre.
- “The artwork is amazing.”
- “Visually, it's stunning - clean, detailed graphics enhance the overall playing experience.”
- “Very promising hollow knight-like game with beautiful graphics and parry mechanics.”
- “I've already heard the many complaints about the eastern devs using an art style that is very similar to Hollow Knight...”
- “Has a lot of issues with delivering the information to the player (one player didn't even realize how to open the map, and all of us three were confused about a lot of the game's core mechanics), translation issues (sometimes I'd have no dialogue or a dialogue in Chinese, while other players had normal dialogue there), and quite a lot of copying issues (copying artwork from other games, mainly Hollow Knight).”
- “I think any Hollow Knight fan will love this game, as long as you're okay with it being a pretty blatant copycat, especially in terms of art style.”
music
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
57%
10%
The music in the game is generally described as chill and well-matched to the vibrant environments, enhancing the overall atmosphere. However, there are notable performance issues, such as soundtracks occasionally stopping or not starting at critical moments, which detracts from the experience. While some players appreciate the original compositions, others feel the music falls short compared to expectations set by similar titles like Hollow Knight and Ender Lilies.
- “The soundtrack is chill.”
- “Artwork and music and everything else is awesome!”
- “The dialogue is mysterious, and so far the notes and journal entries are sparse but detailed, painting a rich environment that is absolutely gorgeous to the eye, with a perfectly matched soundtrack.”
- “The game crashes at the menu about 3 seconds after the music kicks in.”
- “The music needs work; on one of the bosses, the music didn't even start until a couple of seconds into the fight. On another boss, the background music for the area didn't stop playing and just had an overlay on the boss music.”
- “There's little about Deviator that hasn't been lifted directly from Hollow Knight - the art, music, much of the combat, skill progression, UI, enemy design, SFX, etc. It's so nakedly obvious that I almost feel guilty playing it.”
story
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
74%
13%
The story has received mixed reviews, with many players finding it lacking depth and coherence, often describing it as bland or cryptic. Some appreciate the mysterious setting but feel that the narrative fails to engage or explain the character's motivations adequately. Overall, the consensus suggests that the story feels like an afterthought, detracting from the overall experience of the game.
- “So far I love the story, gameplay, the art and look of everything. The only thing I didn't like was from my own fault of not checking that I was buying an incomplete game. It needs to be finished up, smoothed around the edges, quality of life upgrades, and things missing altogether added in. Once all that happens, it'll be a top-tier game.”
- “All of the classic tropes are there (minus leveling up, which sadly is my favorite aspect of a good metroid-vania title), all wrapped neatly in a mysterious story set in a foreign world.”
- “By the rough estimates, early access offers around 30-35% of the main story, featuring 4 locations, 4 main boss fights, and 2 optional ones.”
- “The story is just... another bland cryptic anime nonsense with no explanation whatsoever.”
- “I wish it demonstrated why our character needs to do what they need to do or why they went on a quest to begin with, how they got to the location at the start of the game, etc. Just show us why we should care about our character in general.”
- “Whatever's happening with the story seems like an afterthought, but I don't really care.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious and time-consuming, often requiring excessive hours to progress without a compelling plot or engaging exploration. The lack of powers and labyrinthine environments further contribute to a frustrating experience, making the grind feel more like a chore than an enjoyable challenge.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “It took me about 4.5 hours to get through the early access, and then the rest of the time was spent grinding for pysi or whatever it is called.”
- “Combine this with no plot (right now), the exploration didn't feel much fun due to being very 'labyrinth' and with little to no powers; it made the 2 hours I played very tedious.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, users report a generally stable experience with occasional bugs and glitches, which are expected to be addressed in future patches. Most players have not encountered significant issues or crashes.
- “Occasional bugs and glitches (will get patched surely).”
- “Occasional bugs and glitches (will get patched surely).”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The game currently experiences some performance issues, particularly with soundtracks intermittently stopping. However, there is optimism that these issues will be addressed and optimized by the time of the official release.
- “Some performance issues: soundtracks sometimes just stop working.”
- “But probably this will get optimized when the game actually releases.”
- “Performance got fixed.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The atmosphere is significantly enhanced by a melancholic classical tune that permeates the game, contributing to a deeply immersive and emotionally resonant experience.
- “There is sort of a melancholic classical tune that runs through everything—really helps develop the atmosphere.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express frustration with the game's controls, particularly regarding movement responsiveness after certain actions, which detracts from the overall emotional engagement and immersion in the gameplay experience.