TEVI

TEVI is a fantastic 2D Metroidvania. One that is fun to play for just about all levels of gaming ability, but it’s also a replayable one and has plenty of content you can run through, backgrounded by beautiful visuals and fun music. An easy recommendation for the action platformer fan and then some.

TEVI is a challenging metroidvania game full of magic, humor and rhetoric that will make you forget about the clock and get completely immersed in the world of Az1. It has a modern pixel art design, a selection of difficulty levels, and a gameplay and level design that go hand in hand at all times. However, it lacks subtitles in more languages and some areas are not very clear to explore.

TEVI is a pleasant surprise that hopefully doesn’t fly under most radars. Even with my gripes, I can comfortably recommend TEVI to anyone looking for a solid Metroidvania with a bullet hell twist.

Sure, Steam is overflowing with metroidvanias. But TEVI carves out distinction with an invigorating sense of autonomy. From determining what order, you want to confront bosses to customizing your own arsenal for the game’s adorable bunny-girl, expect an exceptional sense of freedom.

TEVI blends the soul of Metroidvanias with the heart of a bullet hell, and the result is unforgettable. Despite a lacklustre soundtrack and some repetitive enemy encounters, this is a rich, feature-filled adventure packed with fun characters and sweat-inducing boss fights that you owe it to yourself to play.

Much like Tevi herself, the game is a bit of a work in progress. There’s good and there’s bad, but overall I feel the good outweighs the bad. It’s a fun, challenging, original game with amazing art and wonderful characters. Yes, there’s also elements that felt rougher, but none so egregious it held the entire experience back. If you’re willing to put in the time, you’ll find a great adventure here.

TEVI offers up an adorable and fascinating world. The movement feels great, exploration is rewarding and the soundtrack is fantastic. Combat is unfortunately a bit too flat and unbalanced and there are a few tone issues. Still, TEVI is a cracking Metroidvania and the world is a delight to explore.

The fast-paced bullet-hell boss battles in TEVI are satisfying, but its Metroidvania design is just okay. The levels are too similar and have some problems that detract from the fun. Despite these flaws, the overall quality of the game is still impressive.

If you like your bullet-hell games challenging but fair, you'll enjoy spending time in Tevi's expansive, colourful world.

Without doing anything new, Tevi is convincing in its proposal: a metroidvania with role-playing touches, bullet hell and even "souslike" (yes, its difficult and you can make it even harder). Once you bite the fishhook and start to play, it will become harder to go away.

The gameplay flows nicely from combat to exploration and back again, and the regular bosses and mini-bosses provide a strong challenge with only the occasional overpowered one in the latter half of the game turning into a task similar to chopping wood in a hailstorm, endlessly hacking away at a massive health bar while dodging its bullet patterns as best possible. The regular flow of new abilities keeps the lengthy playtime from growing stale, and there’s always a new area to explore as the world map keeps growing with freshly-discovered biomes. Top it off with the detailed pixel art and a strong soundtrack, and Tevi is a must-play for anyone who’s ever loved a little bullet hell in their fast-action combat metroidvania.

TEVI is not only a super fun and well-constructed addition to the metroidvania niche, I think it’s also definitely helping to usher forth the modernized 2D side-scroller renaissance that’s breathing new life into the most classic format of gaming. Development teams across the globe are contributing more and more to it, and I’m so glad to see that CreSpirit is continuing to do what they do best, and having little Tevi lead the way.