Telmari Review: Brave soups – Bitwares

Telmari is a girl who lives very calmly and happily with her sunflowers, which are threatened when a giant, demonic tree appears on the horizon. Accompanied by a cat who claims to be an ancient and powerful entity, she will embark on an adventure to stop this threat.

Developed by Phoenix Blasters, Telmari It is available on PC.

A LONG WAY AHEAD

Telmari It is a platform game with puzzle elements in short level format, with mechanics that require a lot of skill on our part. With more than 100 levels throughout this adventure, we can compare this format to Super Meat Boy Like something similar, once we reach the end of the level we quickly move on to the next one. The product has an art and graphics style that is not my favorite, and the levels do not have much variety among themselves, as we progress it seems more like a recolorization than a new area. But it looks nice and works, perhaps in the resolution it uses everything looks a little small, which is why sometimes some empty spaces left on the screen disconcert me.

After a couple of tutorial and introductory levels, we find the aforementioned cat, who in turn claims to know the solution to the problem of the simple plot of Telmari: Reach the core of the demon tree and cast a fire spell, something he can do. For that, they must first arrive together, and the cat doesn't feel like it. They make an agreement in which, under healthy competition, they will see who arrives first.

This small interaction adds up to a fun mechanic from then on, in which each level will be an optional “race” against the cat, who will pass the level automatically and with less effort than us. Setting as its time the “par” that the developers consider it should be to give us recognition. I reiterate that this is optional, since we can take our time and pass each level leisurely if we like.

The levels are short, the size of our screen and the objective is always to exit to the right. They are full of various verticalities and obstacles so that each one is challenging and different.

They can be finished in a few seconds if we know exactly what to do, of course, but there are many of them and they are not going to make it easy for us. The game keeps track of how many times we die, if we beat the cat and the time it takes us to complete each level. If we want to leave everything perfect and complete, we can replay it and make it completely right.

Telmari He has no superpowers or superhuman abilities, his speed of movement and height of jumps do not surprise anyone. But to move she uses the help of a bow that shoots arrows from traps. We can shoot them without much delay and they remain attached to the walls, floors and ceilings of the levels, where they can be used as “springs” to jump higher and gain momentum as well. It is one of those things that is better to see and play than to explain.

Although something similar has already been seen in Quackshot, Telmari Use this idea for a totally different and much faster gameplay. The pads withstand a couple of jumps and last a few seconds stuck to the walls/floors, visually they shake a little before coming off, as if to measure by eye and plan. The bumps give us a quick boost, so in addition to planning it requires execution on our part when making the corresponding platform, each jump we make from bump to bump is going to give us a boost of speed, and we have to be careful with Do not accidentally touch vines.

Of course the roots that threaten our sunflowers are going to be the first thing that can kill us when they touch us (we can also reset the level easily like this), and they act as “pinches” in this type of game. But the most difficult thing to deal with are the enemies, who more than enemies are going to be moving obstacles that can kill us. Not only do our pads not affect them, but if they touch a previously placed pad they will break it. Some levels are quite annoying as we have to wait and move around these bugs.

TWO STEPS FORWARD, THREE BACKWARDS

There are limitations that make some situations much more challenging than one imagines. For example, we cannot shoot a shotgun at point-blank range from a wall, this will distance us from it without leaving the shotgun on the wall. I'm sure some speedrunners can use this as a movement mechanic, but it is a drawback for a casual approach to solving a level. We also can't shoot down without taking some dash, so we can't conjure a spring below us as easily.

One point that I don't like at all is that the levels don't reset “completely” when we die. What happens is that the enemies continue their course while we respawn, so when we start again, if we play the race against the cat, we will inevitably be in a different situation than when we started from scratch. So manually I sometimes found myself dying to reset the level with the enemies in a fair position to be able to beat the level so that at the same time I can beat the cat. This is something 100% personal since with patience and waiting the levels can still be passed. “That bad-tempered cat is not going to beat me,” I thought at first, but my patience quickly ran out. The levels already reach a degree of difficulty in the first minutes of play that requires very elaborate planning on the part of the player. There is little room for improvisation, the levels must be faced with planning, a lot of trial and error as well. Once this is done, we can execute the solution for each segment to move on to the next.

Conclusion

Telmari may attract more casual players due to its friendly appearance, who may be surprised to find themselves with a much greater challenge than what is evident at first glance. Recommended if you liked Super Meat Boy and are looking for a similar challenge within the platformer genre.