Summum Aeterna Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

Summum Aeterna Switch NSP Free Download Romslab is a roguelike platformer game, serving as a sequel to the game Aterna Noctis. You play as the King of Darkness in Summum Aeterna, a Draculaesque villain who sets about conquering the many worlds within his reach. He uses his immortality and the variety of weapons at his disposal to slay anyone who sets out before him. Light on plot and heavy on difficulty, Summum Aeterna will either be your dream roguelike or your nightmare platformer, with mechanics and game design choices that seem to lie somewhere in between brilliant and frustrating. ROMSLAB.COM Best Switch Games

Summum Aeterna Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

The art in Summum Aeterna is pretty, if under-stylized. While I’m not personally a fan of the hand-drawn, almost anime aesthetic the game goes for, I won’t pretend like I could have done better myself. However, a stylized pixel look might have been better for conveying the tone of the dark worlds you venture into. I feel the characters would look much like paper dolls if not for the smooth and detailed animation given to them. The platforming controls can feel a bit loose, especially when it comes to jumping. I’m not sure if it’s an intentional feature, but the length of your jump depends on how long you hold down the space bar.

Summum Aeterna: A Journey into the Eternal Unknown

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best at 2D platforming, but the slipperiness of the movement feels kind of unintentionally awkward. It’s usually not too big of a hurdle, but it can become kind of annoying when dealing with environmental traps. The worst is when a run is cut short because you can’t get over what is apparently a traversable platform of spikes, sent back to Famished Town because your horizontal leap fell short. Summum Aeterna uses the word “roguelite” in its branding, but I would say that the roguelike features play a pretty heavy role in the gameplay. Each level you visit is procedurally generated, with different boons and buffs being able to be found across the map. ASTRONEER 

Summum Aeterna Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

Weapons generally feel really good to use and can be upgraded with augments or flat-out replaced. These augments can do things such as add poison damage to your attacks, which is my personal favorite as it plays into the kiting style the game led me to adopt. There is a litany of buffs and debuffs in the game, but they’re not well explained. It isn’t clear what buffs stack or what stacking them actually does until you really take some time to play around with them. Unlike other roguelikes, you can take on these levels as you see fit rather than setting out on a linear path and restarting each time you die.

Eternal Mysteries: The Intriguing Storyline of Summum Aeterna

As far as weapon collecting and upgrading, as well as permanently upgrading your character and other general roguelike features, the game does this all pretty well. You can get a generous amount of resources from a level if you spend a good amount of time there. However, I feel like the Metroidvania and roguelike aspects clash with each other to make a game that doesn’t work quite as well as the balancing seems to expect it to. Like any Metroidvania title, learning the layout of maps and enemy attack patterns is the key to victory. Animal Farm Parking 

Summum Aeterna Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

Unfortunately, Summum Aeterna’s roguelike elements fight this necessary learning curve. With each level being randomly generated, learning the layout of maps and traps is simply impossible. Since you’ll be jumping between worlds frequently, the game kind of fights you on learning attack patterns as well. Each location has unique foes with new patterns to learn, so good luck preparing for one when you’re always in another. This would be less of a problem if not for the game’s inherent difficulty, with enemies hitting hard and fast and taking out the supposed King of Darkness incredibly quickly.

Beyond Mortal Limits: exploring Summum Aeterna’s Gameplay

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best at these kinds of games, but Summum Aeterna feels slippery. The platforming controls, which are far better if you’re using a controller, I should add, feel like you’re always falling short of the exact movement you wanted to do. Overcoming the game’s inherent challenge can be super difficult when you aren’t given adequate time to learn your enemy’s attack patterns, and collecting resources to boost your own stats can be a fool’s errand when levels are over faster than they take to get into.

Summum Aeterna Switch NSP Free Download Romslab

It feels like, in some areas, the game fights itself, but I’m certainly no King of Darkness myself. Maybe I just need to get good, but the amalgamation Summum Aeterna feels a little messy in places, with a difficulty curve I’m personally not able to overcome. Summum Aeterna is a game with charm, even if it is a bit rough around the edges. At worst, the game’s roguelike and Metroidvania aspects feel like they clash, and at best, it feels like it was designed for a caliber of player better than me. Criticisms notwithstanding, Summum Aeterna is still a game worth checking out if it interests you, and my experience might not necessarily reflect yours. Akane 

Add-ons (DLC): Summum Aeterna Switch NSP