Noreya: The Gold Project is an underappreciated Metroidvania that brought back fond memories of my early gaming days.
Metroidvanias have always been a part of the genres I have dabbled into from a very young age because of their accessibility. It started from playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night out of curiosity as a child, and after thoroughly enjoying that experience, I found myself taking notice of other recent 2D platformers that involved combat like Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Dead Cells.
At one point, all I ever played were Metroidvanias because my little school laptop could not handle any of the latest games at the time. It did not mean the games I played felt like a compromise, though. Given how mature the genre has become, there are full-fledged experiences made by large game companies and indie developers alike.
For example, the recently released Nine Sols brought gamers a formidable 2D souls-like experience and of course, there is Nintendo who practically invented the genre, coming up with a new Metroid game next year.
Noreya: The Gold Project invoked the feelings I had when I played my first ever Metroidvania. Developed by Dreamirl and published by PixelHeart, Noreya seems to be the first paid game made by this developer and I can say that they have created a wonderful world while striking the right chords—at least after I was able to get past the early game section, but that part comes later.
Noreya: The Gold Project is set in a place called Noreya, where you follow the footsteps of Kali who is a fighter. When you begin Noreya: The Gold Project, you are treated to a beautiful hand-drawn animation of your character walking through the woods with her companions until you are ambushed by these shadowy creatures who appear out of some bushes. You see Kali’s companions get taken down one by one and then herself, too.
As she is stabbed by one of these creatures, the color of her body fades into black and she becomes the red hooded character that is brandished on the cover of Noreya: The Gold Project. After these creatures leave the scene, Kali rises, and you are given control of her.
As you take in the pixel art beauty of the first area, your companions who have deformed into crooked dark creatures stray away from you one by one. In the following areas, you fight darklings shaped like them, hinting that the things you kill were once people which certainly gave me mixed feelings.
In this world, it seems that the God of Greed is the disruptor of peace and is the one who took power over the dominion of the Goddess of Light. I was quite drawn in by such a strong introduction. In the first area, I was given the visual eye candy of a pixel meadow of gold. Starting out, I had only the ability to jump, swing my sword, and the ability to use up my gold to heal.
Being a Metroidvania, I expected a mechanic where I could get more abilities as I progressed, so this was no surprise to me. While I loved the music and visuals Noreya: The Gold Project brought to me, I was immediately caught by surprise at the difficulty. Having started in Normal mode, I did not expect myself to struggle that much.
I noticed that the best way to approach enemies at first was to poke them and then run or jump away from them when they attacked since games like these don’t have a way to dodge usually. As I progressed, I found myself at a statue of the God of Greed where I could use the gold that I acquired from killing enemies to get new skills that improve my combat abilities.
Later on, after I beat the first boss, I discovered that I could also spend my points on the skills offered by the Goddess of Light. Here, I was informed that I had a choice in who I prayed to, and it would affect the ending and the map itself.
Offering two unique worlds to explore that change depending on who you pray to is a really cool idea, especially since the platforming in this game is tight and satisfying to pull off. When fighting bosses, I found it essential to pull off tight jumps to dodge projectiles and debris from the environment. When exploring, parkouring through the levels and pulling off wall jumps felt swift and natural.
Even though the early stages of Noreya: The Gold Project felt quite unforgiving, especially due to the lack of defensive options, the combat system goes through a remarkable transformation as you progress. Having no skills at all at the start was tough to deal with and I can see how players may misunderstand the healing mechanic to be essential and spend too many points recovering lost HP instead of getting new skills.
It is not necessarily clear that death in this game isn’t as serious, since when you die you are just sent back to the beginning of the level you entered, and you never have to run too far back.
Plus, the neutral skill tree, which adds things like more moves to your sword and damage also contains the skill to fast travel. Letting players pick between being more powerful or fast traveling is an odd choice. Given how the puzzles in this game involve a decent amount of backtracking, fast traveling should be a core mechanic.
It is a stretch to accuse this decision of being a way of increasing the length of this game, but it is tough to see it any other way. Lastly, there not being any knockback to any of your attacks made the combat very tough. I found it difficult to work with even well into endgame after filling up a decent amount of the skill tree.
Once you see past these issues, Noreya: The Gold Project rewards you with a satisfying progression curve. As you get more skills, the combat feels more and more fun. I think the endgame was done almost perfectly, but the beginning was a bit rocky. There has already been a patch that increases the gold drops in the beginning areas of the game to address the problem, so that is a great sign that other issues may also be addressed eventually.
In later parts, the boss fights felt easy enough. What the game asks of you during the fights is usually quite clear, however the Giant Worm killing you in one shot was one that nearly made me lose my marbles. The non-combat-related challenges were also very fun to play through. The solutions were not in your face, but then it did not feel unfairly hidden either.
After finishing Noreya: The Gold Project, I felt that the game tried to find the fine line between being difficult, while also being accessible for everyone. Maybe that perfect balance has not been found yet. Those seeking a casual experience and those deep, combo-heavy combat systems both may find themselves wanting.
But if you are looking for challenging platforming, intricate level design, and a visually stunning pixel world to explore, this Metroidvania feels like a hidden gem. I do wish the story played more of a part though, since the idea of Greed vs. Light and being given the choice of siding with one of them is a cool premise, but this was only used as a means of creating a backdrop for this game.
Noreya: The Gold Project is a lovingly made Metroidvania that does indeed stand out from the countless other titles of this genre that come out each year. With its cool mechanics, interesting ideas, beautiful visuals, and an endgame that makes you feel like a badass, Noreya: The Gold Project is a solid Metroidvania that reminded me of my early days of gaming and it is a game that should not be overlooked.
