Vigil: The Longest Night

 Switch
User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 27 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 27
  3. Negative: 9 out of 27

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  1. Tyler40k
    Oct 16, 2020
    5
    The game itself is excellent. It does a great job of combining Salt and Sanctuary with Castlevania like so many others have said. What they didn't say is that the switch port provides a terrible user experience and is in desperate need of a patch. The game consistently crashes, costing the user many hours in loss of data, even after saving. The initial load time is over a minute, withThe game itself is excellent. It does a great job of combining Salt and Sanctuary with Castlevania like so many others have said. What they didn't say is that the switch port provides a terrible user experience and is in desperate need of a patch. The game consistently crashes, costing the user many hours in loss of data, even after saving. The initial load time is over a minute, with entering houses and small areas around 5-10 seconds. Larger area changes can be from 15-30 seconds. There is also noticeable lag between button input and character action. Frame rate seems to drop to below 30fps often and changing gear can freeze up the game for 5-15 seconds. I often found the game to crash shortly after switching gear or using a "save item", which never worked even once. It's really a shame, because otherwise I love this game, and it tickles that Salt and Sanctuary scratch.… Expand
  2. Blahblubb
    Oct 18, 2020
    6
    I had- in still have- high hopes for this game. I love the design and overall atmosphere of it and the story is also interesting and intriguing so far. But i have a major issue with the performance. I am currently at around 5 hours play time and the game crashed already 6 times. This in itself would not be such an issue but the Problem is that the saving points aren't always working. WhenI had- in still have- high hopes for this game. I love the design and overall atmosphere of it and the story is also interesting and intriguing so far. But i have a major issue with the performance. I am currently at around 5 hours play time and the game crashed already 6 times. This in itself would not be such an issue but the Problem is that the saving points aren't always working. When i want to load the point where l last saved, the game data is just not there anymore. Instead there is the data from like 10 times before that last saving point. That resulted in multiple Boss fights i needed to repeat because the game just didn't save my data from after the fight. And now i even lost more than an entire hour of game play! I saved at least 5 times in time period. This is beyond frustrating, and i'm thinking about leaving the game until there are a couple of patches. (Sry about grammar and such, english isnt my first language)… Expand
  3. KimoiActual
    Oct 21, 2020
    5
    As much as I would love to praise this game for it’s Salt and Sanctuary feel and the overall setting, the technical issues are through the roof for the Switch version of the game.
    - Extremely long load times
    - Spells becoming permanently unusable even upon game reset - Random crashes - Music cuts out either during an area transition or randomly - Mistranslations though I’m not particularly    As much as I would love to praise this game for it’s Salt and Sanctuary feel and the overall setting, the technical issues are through the roof for the Switch version of the game.
    - Extremely long load times
    - Spells becoming permanently unusable even upon game reset
    - Random crashes
    - Music cuts out either during an area transition or randomly
    - Mistranslations though I’m not particularly upset with it compared to the other issues

    I’m going to have to give it a low score until a patch is issued. Until then, I’m going to have to put this game on hold.    … Expand
  4. Subject98
    Oct 20, 2020
    7
    I had high hopes for this game but I could smell that something was up. For the first several hours of playing I was really impressed and got hooked on it. Everything from the atmosphere and environments to the music and sound design, the sheer variety of gruesome enemies, the massive world size, it all definitely appeals to the Salt and Sanctuary fan in me in almost every way. It's veryI had high hopes for this game but I could smell that something was up. For the first several hours of playing I was really impressed and got hooked on it. Everything from the atmosphere and environments to the music and sound design, the sheer variety of gruesome enemies, the massive world size, it all definitely appeals to the Salt and Sanctuary fan in me in almost every way. It's very clear that this developer poured in tons of effort here and we could easily have a solid 9/10 game on our hands.

    Unfortunately, I wont be the first to say that the game has some blemishes in it's current state. While I don't think there is anything wrong with the level design itself (it's pretty dang good), the map is the worst thing in the game by far. With such a huge labyrinthine world full of secrets and npcs and a book full of fail-able sidequests to keep track of, you need a reliable map that clearly shows you where points of interest are, and rooms you haven't gone into yet. The problem is that the only clear borders shown are for the ground. Walls and ceilings are left open so that if you leave a section of the map unexplored to do something else, it will often be impossible to tell where the place even was if you even remember it at all. I know Salt and Sanctuary didn't have any map but the difference with that game is that it's locations were more numerous but smaller sized so it's easier to remember generally where things were. Plus there weren't really any sidequests in that game, it was just you and the world for the most part.

    Bottom line, this game definitely needs a better map, just adding clear borders so the player can see what's a dead end and what isn't would improve it tremendously. As it currently exists I've decided to stop playing for now as I do want to explore as much of this world as I can but just trying to find anything late in the game is too overwhelming to be worth it.

    Much of the other stuff holding this game back may only apply to the switch version. It doesn't seem like anyone is having too many issues on PC, but on Switch, on top of bad load times it crashes once in a while and sometimes deletes some of your most recent saves from the save point you're currently at, and reverts to when you last saved at the previous save point, almost like the game went back in time.

    There are also some item glitches as well, changing equipment causes the game to freeze anywhere between 1 and 10 seconds. The worst however is that spells can break forever on you. There was a spell I really liked that I was using often but suddenly it stopped responding to the A button for no reason at all. I literally can't use it anymore even after resetting the game.

    While problems like these don't ruin the whole experience, it's still unacceptable to release a game that has issues like these. To the dev's defense though, this is not nearly the only switch version of an indie game that's come with all sorts of jank. They almost always provide inferior experiences than when they release on other consoles so I kinda wish this idea that the switch is the best place for indie games would die already.

    In conclusion, I think this is a really great game with a rough launch, so I hope there are some patches in the pipeline. Considering how much care went into making this game, it would be a shame for it to fail over some surface level scratches. I would recommend waiting for a patch to fix some of the issues or just get it on PC or wait for other console releases, if they happen.    … Expand
  5. JFaraday
    Aug 16, 2021
    7
    Engaging story, plenty of weapons to choose from and playstyles to go for, spooky lore, and some fun boss fights. However, the loading times dampen the momentum quite a bit, as you have to wait several seconds between doors or sections of areas. Yes, a few seconds might seem like not much, but it stacks up when sometimes you spend less time in an area than a loading screen. But if you haveEngaging story, plenty of weapons to choose from and playstyles to go for, spooky lore, and some fun boss fights. However, the loading times dampen the momentum quite a bit, as you have to wait several seconds between doors or sections of areas. Yes, a few seconds might seem like not much, but it stacks up when sometimes you spend less time in an area than a loading screen. But if you have the patience for it, Vigil can be a fun game to sink a few hours into here and there. Somewhat buggy at times though, true.… Expand
  6. Ginger_Avenger
    Nov 16, 2022
    6
    Switch version - I actually had no problems, although I played it in early 2022. This was a very good game I learned about from Iron Pineapple's channel. Exploration was really fun in this Metroidvania, and I thought the equipment and combat challenges were pretty well balanced. It is the kind of experience that is fun in the offing, but it doesn't reverberate in the memory all that much.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Universo Nintendo
    Dec 19, 2020
    70
    Vigil: The Longest Night has incredible art and a fantastic set. The common enemies and the scenarios are a bit repetitive, but the bosses make up for it in visuals, creativity and immersion, in addition to bringing great combat. Some gameplay and level design flaws can discourage exploration in search of unknown places of the map, but the thought-provoking story and well-crafted side quests make the game worthwhile in spite of everything.
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  2. NintendoWorldReport
    Dec 17, 2020
    85
    Vigil: The Longest Night absolutely holds its own, both in 2D adventure games, as well as in the glut of Souls-alikes that have emerged in recent years. It’s fast, fun and rewarding to players who manage to overcome the initial similarities to FROM Software’s series, and manages to carve its own unique take on the formula, with strong narrative and combat hooks to support it. If only those load times could let us get to the action sooner.
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  3. Starbit
    Nov 4, 2020
    70
    Vigil: The Longest Night is an interesting metroidvania-type with a gorgeous-looking visual world and some intense combat moments. It's also unfortunately affected by long loading times and some technical issues which could really use an update to correct. All in all, a good work but which needs some tweaking on its technical aspects in order to stand out among its peers in the Nintendo Switch catalogue.
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