Greak stuff?
Greak: Memories of Azur is a side scrolling single-player game with hand-drawn animations. You will take the role of three siblings: Greak, Adara and Raydel to guide them through the lands of Azur. Alternate control between them and use their unique abilities to escape from the Urlag invasion.
Greak is a Metroidvania style side-scroller where you control three different characters, each with their own fighting style. The game is set in a hand-drawn world and the story itself is actually a lot darker than you would imagine from such a charming looking game. But how is it overall?
The puzzle nature of the game include things such as switching between characters to stand on switches that open gates and so on. Combat is your standard fair of side-scrolling gameplay but can come across as a bit clunky as your companions won’t really help you unless you switch to them and while you can get them all to move together as a unit, you have to hold down a button the whole time and the whole thing can be frustrating to handle.
That’s not to say that there’s not a good game here. If you can overlook these odd game design choices, you’ll find an impressive experience here with Greak. The other bad news though is that it’s rather a short game and there’s even a trophy for completing it in under 3 hours, which will make it please the speed-running Metroid fans, but also highlights how short it could be.
The hand-drawn style of the game is simply adorable and runs at a solid framerate on PS5 with next to no load times. It’s an amazing looking game and it also has a great soundtrack to boot.
The Verdict
Greak: Memories of Azur is a decent side-scroller that is ultimately held back by a few odd design choices, but there is still an amazing experience to be found here if you can overlook them.
Score: 7.5