Vigil: The Longest Night

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 32 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 32
  3. Negative: 2 out of 32

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  1. Curunir
    Mar 22, 2021
    10
    Wonderful soulslike metroidvania with gorgeous artwork, lots of exploration and huge locations, interesting NPCs and sidequests tracked in a log.

    I'm hard-pressed to think of any negatives with this one, everything about the game is smooth, fun and great to look at.
  2. davoz28
    Nov 5, 2020
    8
    I went into this game expecting more Souls and Sanctuary, which vaulted in my fave soulslike/metroidvania ever. What I got was something very different with definite influence, but unique in story and gameplay. Didn't know if I was going to like it at first, but the controls/mechanics are solid. Music is better than SaS, but the controls are a bit less refined. There are more npc's andI went into this game expecting more Souls and Sanctuary, which vaulted in my fave soulslike/metroidvania ever. What I got was something very different with definite influence, but unique in story and gameplay. Didn't know if I was going to like it at first, but the controls/mechanics are solid. Music is better than SaS, but the controls are a bit less refined. There are more npc's and quests, I'm not sure of my opinion of these yet. Will update with more playtime.… Expand
  3. wokenoodle
    Feb 10, 2022
    6
    The best descriptor that comes to mind when I think about Vigil is “unfocused’’. An unfocused story and worldbuilding that comes off as too cryptic at some points and too basic at others, disparate visual elements that don’t bland together, directionless level design with paths that feel either too short or too long, and the combat that's... uh... going somewhere? Like, it’s functional,The best descriptor that comes to mind when I think about Vigil is “unfocused’’. An unfocused story and worldbuilding that comes off as too cryptic at some points and too basic at others, disparate visual elements that don’t bland together, directionless level design with paths that feel either too short or too long, and the combat that's... uh... going somewhere? Like, it’s functional, animations are alright, encounters might be tedious, but in a tactical way, and you get competently paced progression in the form of skills and equipment upgrades. But there’s no one central thing, no one deliberate design feature that would define the experience, it’s all just so mind-numbingly... decent. And forgettable. And so is the rest of the game, for me. Nothing will find a place in my memory apart from a few bosses, that were more of a spectacle than a fun challenge, a couple of mildly peculiar levels, and the fact that you play as a Hot Babe, that seems to be important to many for some reason.

    I will remember that I played Vigil: the Longest Night, an unfocused Metroidvania.    … Expand
  4. robomartion
    Oct 16, 2020
    8
    Of all the recent Dark Souls inspired games from Mortal Shell, to Hollow Knight, to Dead Cells, to Blasphemous and of course Salt and Sanctuary, Vigil the Longest Night best captures the essence and gameplay that are vitally important to making a game like this work. The bosses feel challenging but not drawn out and the distance between check points is fair. The atmosphere and music is topOf all the recent Dark Souls inspired games from Mortal Shell, to Hollow Knight, to Dead Cells, to Blasphemous and of course Salt and Sanctuary, Vigil the Longest Night best captures the essence and gameplay that are vitally important to making a game like this work. The bosses feel challenging but not drawn out and the distance between check points is fair. The atmosphere and music is top notch and what Vigil: The Longest Night lacks in production value and polish it makes up for in really capturing what Dark Souls is meant to be: frightening, challenging and in the end rewarding

    For me it was considerably better than Death's Gambit and Blasphemous which although they have the polish don't have the gameplay or atmosphere to successfully drive home the Dark Souls experience. Vigil the Longest Night is on the opposite end of the spectrum where the polish is barely passable but has the gameplay and atmosphere which ultimately ends up being more important. I personally would rather this grittiness at the cost of polish to the sleek but cartoonish nature of Hollow Knight in a Dark Souls inspired game. The character progression is also intriguing and makes you feel like you are playing something like Diablo at times. The save system lets the game down somewhat as rather than resetting like in Dark Souls you will be going to back to previous save file and starting all over. Although this works it means that the only thing you take with you from your previous attempt is your personal experience and making progression in the game such as finding items or opening shortcuts that carry over after death won't be a thing. There are also some bugs and criticisms of responsiveness for example when rolling to avoid enemies that could possibly be improved. There are also some spelling errors in items names and the dialogue is bog-standard so you might just end up skipping through it. Where Dead Cells had the polish and responsiveness it didn't have the allure of what's around the corner or the RPGness (the attachment to your character) to keep you playing which Vigil: The Longest Night undoubtedly has. If you enjoyed Salt and Sanctuary and didn't mind the lack of production value of that game and are dying to dive into a similar experience again, Vigil: The longest Night will not disappoint. I think it is one of the best Dark Souls inspired games we have seen as it really knows what the formula is and how to make it work where other titles in the business of 'Souls-likes' have (even if perhaps knowingly or intentionally) deviated.    … Expand
  5. Gaming_JinX
    Oct 31, 2020
    8
    One of the best 2D action platforming games that is reminiscent of Metroidvania & Soulslike games like salt & sanctuary.Game-play is solid but can be clunky sometimes, combat is technical and methodical plus the visual and art style look gorgeous to look at. Level design & progression feels good.And also the sound and music amp up the atmosphere of the game...
  6. KonstantineKein
    Oct 26, 2020
    9
    Really good game! 25 hours of adventuring, discovering new areas and items, leveling up and full of old school platform/souls actions :)
  7. realnewshere
    Dec 14, 2020
    1
    Can you make more boring game than this? I think you can't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  8. Zafarion
    Oct 18, 2020
    6
    I played for about 3 hours and despite my score, I liked the dark atmosphere, beautiful 2D graphics and music.

    This game tries to be a 2D souls in several aspects and that was what attracted me, but fails in something: after half an hour, you reach a somewhat big village with lots of NPCs to talk, some of them offering subquests like "deliver this item to another NPC, etc".. In this    I played for about 3 hours and despite my score, I liked the dark atmosphere, beautiful 2D graphics and music.

    This game tries to be a 2D souls in several aspects and that was what attracted me, but fails in something: after half an hour, you reach a somewhat big village with lots of NPCs to talk, some of them offering subquests like "deliver this item to another NPC, etc"..

    In this village there's also dozen of notes to read with lots of ingame philosophical sentences and lore, but also lots of useless readings like NPCs diaries with nothing important, but you need to read if you don't want to miss anything.

    It's nothing compared to Firelink Shrine in DS3 which has so few NPCs.

    So, after 3 hours you spend most of the time chatting with NPCs/reading notes rather than exploring/battling, I find all of this boring if I was expecting a Salt & Sanctuary/Souls-like game or even a more traditional metroidvania.

    JRPG/Elder Scrolls lovers might like this approach, but it's not for me.    … Expand
  9. Dragonflame1994
    Apr 23, 2021
    10
    The best way I can describe this game is "What if Bloodborne was a 2D metroidvania?" Bloodborne is my favorite game of all time and Castlevania is my 2nd favorite series so it's only natural that I loved this game a lot too and I love this game so much that it has quickly become one of my all time favorite metroidvanias and I've played far too many metroidvania games to count in my 20+The best way I can describe this game is "What if Bloodborne was a 2D metroidvania?" Bloodborne is my favorite game of all time and Castlevania is my 2nd favorite series so it's only natural that I loved this game a lot too and I love this game so much that it has quickly become one of my all time favorite metroidvanias and I've played far too many metroidvania games to count in my 20+ years of gaming experience.

    The combat is very enjoyable and has more depth to it than most Soulsvania style games I've played. You have 4 basic types of weapons which are one-handed swords, two-handed axes, dual daggers and bows. Due to some nice skill trees you can unlock many moves and attack combos for each weapon type, also there's a lot of unique weapons of each type that you can find which have powerful special attacks that you can do by inputting a fighting game like button combo ala up, down, square etc. Also the stamina management system is pretty unique seeing as how you basically have 2 full stamina bars, when you deplete the blue one you deal less damage and take more damage, but you don't fully suffer from exhaustion and a small stun lock until you deplete the yellow bar and I barely ever had that happen to me. It's a very fair and fun system.

    The story is fairly straightforward, you play as Leila, a Vigilant and the last of her order which is tasked with stopping an ancient curse plaguing the land. While this in itself is a simple premise, all the things happening in the background and the lore you can find detailing many events and mysteries is what really makes the story interesting and let's just say that things get very dark and Lovecraftian. There are also many side quests to do for characters in the main town hub which are worth completing due to giving actual story content and dialogue which fleshed out the world or characters more, there's even a quest that's a big tribute to Salt and Sanctuary

    The level design is top notch with tons of little secret areas and items to discover and tons of variety in the design with everything from flooded towns to vast forests, underground catacombs and everything in between. I have to mention I love the overall art and monster design as well.
    One of the biggest reasons this game was put on my radar in the first place was due to the music being composed by Jouni Valjakka, the guitarist/vocalist of the Finnish melodic death metal band Whispered, one of my personal favorite bands and I can say the OST did not disappoint in the slightest. A lot of it is very mystical and atmospheric sounding which is very befitting of a horror themed metroidvania, but there are a few times, especially near the end that the music gets quite upbeat and adds some melodic electric guitar metal flavoring which is just as amazing as it sounds and the whole OST in general sounds like it wouldn't be too out of place among Michiru Yamane's discography which is about one of the best compliments I can give anything.

    All in all Vigil is a game that wears it's influences and inspirations proudly on its sleeve, but it wears them well and just as great as the games it is influenced and inspired by and really all I can say is if you're a fan of Castlevania, Bloodborne, Lovecraft, Dark Souls, Salt and Sanctuary or all of the above you'd be a fool to miss out on this game.    … Expand
  10. Babutto
    Sep 15, 2021
    9
    Great game!

    Pros.:
    - Nice story. Pretty easy to keep track of but still, tragic.
    - Gameplay is neat and smooth. Had no problems at all.
    - The second arc was entertaining - had to explore a lot. And you just can't stop exploring.

    Cons.:
    - Music is kind of repeating. I turned it off.
    - No chance to make marks on the map.
    - Some quest bugs - do not appear.
  11. NoIdeaName
    Dec 20, 2020
    8
    PROS:
    -Almost open world exploration with lots of interesting side quest.
    -Your decisions matter on the story
    -Simple and yet amazing gameplay

    CONS:
    -You will need a gamer PC to play this game, I run games like Code Vein and RE2 without issues but has problems running this game on my PC.
    -Underwhelming endings
    -“True” ending locked behind a boring nonsense side quest.
  12. samstrummer90
    Mar 5, 2022
    7
    Un pedazo de juego. Bonito visualmente, corre fluido, buena banda sonora, historia interesante, multitud de misiones secundarias en un juego que recompensa la exploración, un mundo enorme y con su arte y enemigos propios en cada zona, tres niveles de dificultad a elegir que se pueden cambiar en mitad de la partida... Este juego coge la fórmula soulsborne y metroidvania y no hace otra cosaUn pedazo de juego. Bonito visualmente, corre fluido, buena banda sonora, historia interesante, multitud de misiones secundarias en un juego que recompensa la exploración, un mundo enorme y con su arte y enemigos propios en cada zona, tres niveles de dificultad a elegir que se pueden cambiar en mitad de la partida... Este juego coge la fórmula soulsborne y metroidvania y no hace otra cosa que bordarlo.… Expand
  13. d00msday4421
    Sep 8, 2021
    7
    for a indie game is good, but is's a indie and i see it, a good progression of your pg, but it's very easily breakble, a combo weapon and poof, all destroyed one shot. and the game is boring because the control system is too slow and not responsive (there is one start animation, and is very easy roll through the enemies and take damage). the secondary quest are boring fetch quest, and infor a indie game is good, but is's a indie and i see it, a good progression of your pg, but it's very easily breakble, a combo weapon and poof, all destroyed one shot. and the game is boring because the control system is too slow and not responsive (there is one start animation, and is very easy roll through the enemies and take damage). the secondary quest are boring fetch quest, and in the hub, is easy get lost and bye bye npc...... but the game is not too ugly, if you have nothing to play, vigil can be your choice. for me salt and sanctuary is more better of vigil. but is my personal vision of things.… Expand
  14. HolyFoxx
    Jan 9, 2022
    7
    Game chơi ổn. Gameplay tốt, không nhàm chán, boss khó vừa đủ, nhưng game chưa là game Metroidvania xuất sắc. Âm nhạc cũng không ấn tượng lắm với mình.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. GameOver.gr
    Nov 13, 2020
    80
    A competent soulsborne 2d platform that would be an ideal choice especially for those which thoroughly enjoyed Salt and Sanctuary.
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  2. IGN Japan
    Nov 12, 2020
    80
    Vigil: The Longest Night is a Soulsborne 2D Metroidvania action-RPG. While the game is a bit rough around the edges and has a lackluster story, both exploration and battles are full of surprises, creating a satisfying experience.
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  3. Hey Poor Player
    Oct 27, 2020
    80
    Recommending Vigil: The Longest Night is incredibly simple: if you’re a fan of Metroidvanias and you loved Salt and Sanctuary, you can’t afford to pass this one up. With a stunning art style and design that delivers all the right spooky notes and diverse boss battle tactics, Vigil: The Longest Night has my vote for one of the greatest hidden gems of 2020.
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