Review : Possessor(s) : A Devilishly Good Time

At first glance, Possessor(s) appeared to have everything I enjoy in games these days. Developed by Heart Machine (of Hyper Light Drifter fame), this is a side-scrolling, indie Metroidvania experience with a narrative focus and a visual style that is familiar while still feeling fresh.

I adore the fundamental elements of the genre: interesting exploration rewarded with collectibles and powerups, metered discovery of new abilities across multiple areas of the game world, and the Eureka! moments when you return to those previously unreachable areas to plunder their secrets. But I want to experience all those things, not be forced to miss out because the boss treated me like a dodgeball practice target in high school gym class.

I’m happy to report that, by and large, my initial glance turned out to be true; Possessor(s) is an enjoyable Metroidvania that does a lot of things right and is simply fun to play, with a great story to go along with it.

Sympathy for the Devil

Players inhabit the shoes of Luca, a teenager living in Sanzu City, circa 1992. The opening cinematic shows a cataclysmic explosion that creates a rift through which an army of demons pours out, decimating the population and leaving Luca grievously injured. You gain control at that point, dragging Luca’s legless body out of the rubble, a bright red smear on the pavement, flames crackling all around her, as she spots another person crumpled against a nearby wall. This is Rhem, the story’s other protagonist (and a demon), who proposes a deal with Luca: he will give her new legs and save her life if she helps him get back to his world. Luca really wants to find her family and the demon who killed her best friend, so she agrees. Rhem takes possession of Luca’s mind, and the game begins in earnest.

This unholy buddy cop setup gives an interesting hook for the game’s story, and the interaction between Luca and Rhem is definitely a high point of the experience. I really enjoyed the banter back and forth as the duo learns more about each other and the situation in which they find themselves. It seems Sanzu City is a factory town of sorts, owned by Agradyne Corporation, and it quickly becomes clear that they do a lot more than make batteries. You uncover the lore through emails accessed at computer terminals and through conversations and memories that unravel Luca and Rhem’s histories. I found the dialogue quite well-written and engaging, even without voice acting.

Along the way, Luca and Rhem will meet various NPCs who operate as quest-givers, merchants, or just provide a bit of exposition. The cast is varied and interesting, from human survivors to other demons and the people or items they’ve chosen to possess in order to survive the apocalypse.

All the parts come together to make a deep and interesting narrative that pushes you through the game to discover what Agradyne is really up to, if Luca can find her family, if Rhem can get back to his world, and how they will both be changed by the journey.

The Sound and the Fury

Possessor(s) has a familiar feel to its presentation, with the dialogue screens, in particular, reminding me of Hades. But the graphics, themselves, feel refreshingly unique. Heart Machine has plenty of experience with stylized visuals from its previous titles, and it uses that knowledge to good effect here. It’s like a playable anime, with crisp and fluid animations everywhere you look. Climbing, dodging, whiplash-swinging, and, of course, the various combat-related animations, like weapon swings and enemy attacks, are all top-notch. The icing on the cake is the moments throughout the game where the camera pulls way back, showing the giant rift that caused all the trouble, or a wider view of the ruined city with your character just a tiny speck on the screen.

The real visual star was the environments and various areas of Sanzu City. Given the demon-vomiting rift in the middle of town, the place is understandably a wreck, and each location around the town sells that idea with aplomb. Shattered concrete, broken stairways, wrecked subway cars in their underground tunnels, the library at Luca’s high school, and even forested parks with underwater areas to discover are just a few of the locales you will visit. Rain is an ever-present feature in the city, and it drips down the remaining intact windows and splashes in puddles on the streets.

It is a joy to explore this large, interconnected city, with hidden passages, breakable doors, and areas that can only be explored later in the game once you’ve acquired various abilities, in true Metroidvania style. You’ll want to take your time checking every nook and cranny; most deliver collectible items and power-ups as a reward for your diligence.

The entire soundscape is well done here, too. The aforementioned rain, the impact of your weapons, the scream of enemies as you pound them into submission, and the mechanical whirring of doors and energy weapons all work together to put you into the world. The soundtrack is good as well, with smooth jazz and other subdued tracks complimenting the action, never overpowering what is happening onscreen.

Super Smash Demons

All the audio and visual treats would just be empty dressing if the meat of the game – traversal and combat – weren’t on par with everything else. Thankfully, that’s not the case; Heart Machine clearly put a lot of effort into getting those parts right, and it shows in the variety of tools, weapons, and abilities at your command.

Traversing the large, interconnected world (one of the hallmarks of any Metroidvania) feels great; jumping and dashing are responsive with no hint of input lag. Early on, you’ll receive the whiplash ability which acts as a grapple hook to let you grab onto points in the environment and swing across large gaps to avoid enemies and reach higher ledges. Alien vines act as ladders throughout the levels, and giant leaves act as jumping pads to go flying even further, especially once you get the downward smash ability that also lets you break through certain floors to access other areas. Your dodge/dash is the most crucial ability you have as combat is heavily predicated on your skill at dodging. You can dodge through most enemies, and avoiding their attacks in the front only to attack from behind is the key to victory in most confrontations, especially boss battles.

Another early boon granted to Luca is the ability to parry attacks, which you’ll use most on those flying projectiles, sending them back at their issuer to end their day, or explode them to remove an obstacle. And cannons litter the walls of some areas, requiring multiple parries in a row to defeat them.

The game’s dev team has been open in saying they were going for a Super Smash Bros. feel with the combat, and you can certainly recognize those roots in each encounter. Each swing of your weapon can be aimed, so air-juggling a hapless foe is a tried-and-true tactic here, as is a downward smash in mid-air that sends your foe flying into the ground, causing extra damage. Smashing them into other baddies pays dividends, too, as they can damage each other (a feature I’d like to see in more games), making your fight easier.

There is a bevy of weapons for you to find as you progress. Your first pickup will be a set of kitchen knives, giving you the quick-but-weak starter weapon. After defeating an early boss, you’ll acquire his weapon of choice, a baseball bat, with a slower swing that deals more damage. There are others out there for Luca to discover, but I won’t spoil them, as that’s part of the Metroidvania magic.

Some weapons have upgrade slots, known as affixes, to which you can add buffs, like health regen and increased chroma drops from your enemies, giving a welcome touch of customization to the game.

You’ll also find special attack items as you progress, and the era of the game’s setting lends some enjoyable cheekiness. Picking up a computer mouse gives you a devastating upward attack that works well against taller and airborne enemies. A cell phone unleashes an electric shock AoE attack that can stun enemies, and leather gloves let you do a suplex grab attack. You can equip up to three at once, but there are way more than that to find and purchase throughout the game.

Speaking of purchases, the venerable item shops are manned by rats, and you’ll find them sprinkled throughout the world. They offer various collectibles and things like upgrades to your healing item’s number of charges and potency. These are all paid for by the game’s currency, chroma, which is dropped by every enemy you slay.

The enemy designs are great. With demons inhabiting everyday objects, there’s a lot to choose from, so you’ll be fighting traffic cones, flying books and globes, and even actual demons, like floating skulls that cackle as they shoot what look like exploding mines. Some of them fly, some are big, some skitter along the ground, some toss projectiles and can stun you if you get too close, and some occasionally sport a blue shield that requires carefully planned attacks and parries.

It all works together to make a satisfying level of action; combat is energetic, sometimes frenetic, with projectiles flying everywhere and enemies warping across the screen with devastating velocity. However, it avoids the extremely punishing difficulty that is now common in some corners of the genre. You need skill to win, no doubt, and some optional bosses certainly ramp up the challenge, but it never feels unfair, impossible, or worthy of a thrown controller.

The Lost and the Damned

I have a few issues with the game at large, though they fall into the “damning with faint praise” category for the most part. The fast travel system is handled by a quick ride on the subway system, with a station in each area of the interconnected world. The fact that the game has fast travel at all is appreciated, but it leaves a lot to be desired. With relatively vast distances between the stations, you’ll still be doing a lot of running across the same areas. Because enemies respawn each time you save your progress, you’ll be faced with the prospect of fighting enemies repeatedly or having to go out of your way to avoid them. The extra chroma is good for your bank account, but it might quickly grow old for some.

This could be fixed quite easily with the save point system, however. There are a lot of these spots, which is great as they also allow you to bank all that wonderful chroma you receive, keeping it safe for later use when you run across a vendor. However, your most recent save point is where you will spawn when you die, even if it is all the way across the map. If these save points could be used as an intra-level fast travel system (similar to what Dead Cells offers), you wouldn’t have to worry about running across three or four areas if you forget to save ahead of a fight. It might not get you all the way back to your death point, but it would certainly help.

The upgrade system is rather opaque early in the game, leading to confusion on how you upgrade your various items, like your healing item and weapons. You constantly collect trinkets that say they are for upgrades, but they are meaningless until you find a weapon upgrade vendor, which doesn’t happen until you’re several hours into the experience. It’s not dissimilar from how other games handle this chore, but it would be great to have something letting you know how it all works.

A bit more helpfulness regarding environmental puzzles would have been great, too. I was stuck for several hours due to walls that had alien-like tentacles growing on them. It was clear they were breakable, but totally unclear how to do it. At that point, you’ve already received a downward smash ability to break through floors, so I assumed these breakable walls needed a power punch or other such ability that I just hadn’t found yet since the look of both obstacles was similar. It turns out you must use the whiplash to break them, but there was absolutely no clue it could be manipulated with that item, as other items, like crates that can be moved with the whiplash, have a visual indicator telling you so. Even a bit of dialogue from Luca, remarking on the obstacle, might have lit the way to understanding and been most helpful.

A Devilishly Good Time

I really enjoyed my time with Possessor(s), minor quibbles aside. Combat and traversal are quite enjoyable, with a wide variety of tools available to aid your destructive tendencies and keep things fresh even after many hours. There is ample reason to chase 100% completion, plumbing the world for all its secrets and goodies. The story made me want to keep playing, and there were plenty of late nights spent just wanting to see what was in the next area because the game simply looks fantastic.

Heart Machine is a talented group of developers who deserve the plaudits they’ve earned with their previous works and those they will hopefully get for what they bring to the table here. Don’t miss Possessor(s) when it drops on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox consoles on November 11th.

Thank you to our PR partners, Heart Machine, and Devolver Digital for review access to Possessor(s). You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here.