I have a rule that I apply to my life that when I download a cracked version of a game that if I am still playing it and enjoying it after 3 hours of gameplay, I go and buy the game. I think that outright theft of games, especially indie games like this one, is really bad for the overall industry and this is a method that I think a lot of gamers employ and this is good.
There have been quite a few games in the past where I was tricked by the trailer into thinking that the game would be great only to buy it outright without trying it only to discover that it was a piece of crap or buggy as hell. I do not feel bad about not paying for these kinds of games and there are some medium sized studios out there such as THQ Nordiq that knowingly put incomplete games to market. They should not be rewarded for this sort of behavior and I do not feel bad about stealing those games because I quit most of the time before even getting 1 hour into the game.
Greak: Memories of Azur has made it well beyond the 3-hour threshold and I am still really enjoying it. Plus it is only $10 or so, so it's not like it is breaking the bank or anything.
The game is a relatively simple to control side-scrolling metroidvania adventure game of sorts. I wouldn't say it is a true metroidvania game because the powerups are very few and very far between but there is still some reason for backtracking once you find additional characters since they all have different strengths and weaknesses.
You are a family of 3 siblings Greak, Adara and Raydel and like many other games like it, there is an evil plague that threatens the land. While your primary objective in the game is initially to just find your family members, it quickly turns into a quest to save the land, unsurprisingly.
Combat is relatively simple and some of it I would say is downright unnecessary such as the bow and arrow that the main character "Greak" has. It is damn near useless and too time consuming to even use. Of course this could just be my general lack of ability talking, but it has been my experience that there isn't much reason to even use this especially since you are limited in how many arrows you can carry.
According to developers Team17, all of the graphics are hand-drawn, which is quite impressive to me. These days I appreciate this sort of thing a lot more than I do having 4K realistic graphics. The music and sound is nicely done and while there are a few cutscenes they are limited in scope, which is always nice in my book. Nothing ruins a game faster in my mind than a game that tries to be a movie, especially if the cutscenes are unskippable.
Controlling 3 characters simultaneously can prove to be a bit tough at times, especially during boss fights. I say this because the AI will never dodge or block and if any of the characters die, the entire group loses. It can be a real pain to try to keep everyone alive but then again, this is all part of the strategy.
On the 3rd boss you encounter my secondary character kept getting absolutely worked by the boss as she would simply stand there and take damage and this quickly resulted in my party's death well before I was able to do any sort of meaningful damage. It wasn't until I decided to use my brain a bit and discovered that there was one very key element that I wasn't utilizing and that was getting the secondary character behind me and using the shield when Ankar would charge. Once I figured this out he was really easy to defeat.
Sometimes if the boss fight seems too difficult it is because you are approaching it entirely wrong. I know this is true in most games and I feel like a fool for not being able to figure this out faster.
Overall the game is simple enough that I think most people will be able to play this. It doesn't utilize all the buttons and at least to me, this is a good thing. This is why I have a tendency to enjoy games like this a lot more than something like say Witcher 3 because that friggin game utilizes every single button on the controller.
The only downside that I can think of, and this is purely subjective of course, is that there is a lot of written dialogue in this game and thankfully you can hold down the buttons to speed it along.
I have played around 5 hours of this game and from what I can tell it looks like there is only going to be around 5 hours more. For $10, I still think this is a worthwhile purchase and who knows? Maybe there will be some DLC in the future.