A Brutally Tough Experiment: A NanoApostle Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC

This is going to be one of the strangest reviews I've ever written, and it's for reasons I don't want to give away too early. We'll get to why I'm opening this all cryptically later, but some intros are in order first. NanoApostle is a boss rush game with Souls-like elements that was recently released on the PC and Nintendo Switch by way of publisher PQube. It's a game that wears its insane difficulty on its sleeve, and it's also one that made me question how I write reviews in general. Don't worry, I'll quit being vague soon, but I wanted to paint an accurate picture of what you're going to see in this review. Anyhow, we're going to be looking at the game on the Nintendo Switch, and we're just going to jump right into it without any further intro.

NanoApostle opens with a young girl waking up in a research facility with no memory as to who she is, or how she got there. She's technically not alone though, as a sentient being known as an "Apostle" is attached to her. Said Apostle acts as her only line of defense and offense, and together they make up a killing machine that is apparently the highest goal of this research facility. She eventually meets another test subject named Wenny, though she mentions existing only as an AI-type being. This makes one wonder if our hero is in a similar predicament, as the opening of the game showed her to be gravely injured. Names are important, and our heroine is given the name Anita, and her Apostle is named Kuro. The pair hope to find a way to leave the prison-like facility, but that involves fighting their way through several dangerous machines hell-bent on their destruction. Besides that core story, there are several flashbacks to a past life before Anita arrived at the facility. There is talk of a war, and even a person who may be behind Anita becoming a test subject in the first place. This is usually the part of the review where I reference how the plot grows from those opening bits, but refrain from giving too many details in the hopes of not going into spoiler territory. For reasons that will become clear soon, I can't really do that here. I wasn't able to see most of the story for myself, and I instead experienced it by looking it up online later. Despite this, I have to admit that the story is the best part of the game as far as I'm concerned. It's probably the only part of the experience I enjoyed throughout, and I wish that it belonged to a different game so I could've seen more of it firsthand. It's quickly becoming obvious that this isn't going to be a standard review, and things are only going to get more interesting as we move to discussing gameplay.

I'm not even sure where to begin the discussion on gameplay, as I had quite a difficult time getting into NanoApostle. I guess I have to accept that this isn't the game for me, but it's also my job to report on my overall experience too. Obviously I have to back up a bit to truly explain it all, so I guess I'll do that now. Let me preface what I'm about to say next by stating that I've played plenty of Souls-like games before this one, and I'm no stranger to overly difficult games in general. I like to think of myself as something of an experienced gamer, and I went into this one having particularly high hopes. It had a neat concept, and the visual style was appealing. Despite going in with nothing but positivity, NanoApostle managed to pull off the rare task of actually breaking me by the end. I knew something was up when I died in the opening tutorial fight, and then got completely stuck on the first boss. I say "first boss", but it's actually the first regular enemy encounter in general. NanoApostle is a boss rush game, which means you cut directly to the chase and don't bother with the added fluff of stages preceding said boss encounters. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it did mean that I was able to play pretty much zero percent of the game before I found myself hopelessly stuck. And hopeless it indeed was, because The Berserker killed me in a matter of seconds on my first try, and it didn't get any better from there.

Before I continue my story, let's actually back up further and take a look at how NanoApostle handles combat. At the start of each encounter, Anita has the ability to perform basic melee attacks and dodge most attacks from the enemy she's facing. Landing several melee attacks fills up a meter that allows her to perform a ranged attack. The meter allows for three of these ranged attacks to be stored at once, and the meter continually goes up as long as you keep on the offensive. Said ranged attack not only damages the enemy, but also "infects" them. This infection mechanic allows for Anita to recover some of her life during combat, but the entire process is a bit too cumbersome to rely on. You also have the ability to heal yourself a limited number of times in combat, but it requires stopping everything to do so. Think of the potion-drinking animation from Dark Souls and you'll understand why healing can sometimes leave you wide open for an attack. Besides the two basic attack patterns, Anita can also deflect certain projectiles, and parry certain attacks. Parrying an attack at the exact moment an enemy is about to strike can leave them stunned, as can deflecting a projectile. This leaves enemies open for devastating attacks, and even allows for the use of a hookshot-like weapon if you're at a distance from them. Parrying and reflecting are both important skills to master, but some attacks can only be dodges. These types of attacks are marked by an exclamation point above the enemies head, and they're usually the most powerful attacks you'll face as well. As you might expect, every aspect of the combat system requires precise timing to be pulled off effectively. Being off by even a slight bit can cost you dearly, and will usually beginning of a run that ends in failure. Now that we have that long explanation out of the way, let's return to my experience with the game.

Once you clear the tutorial, you're given your first boss encounter as well as two side missions. The side missions are essentially the normal gameplay stages you'd expect before facing a boss, but they honestly aren't any easier than the boss rush part of the game. I was ultimately able to beat the missions given at the start, but the rewards for doing so were so minimal that I basically wasted my time. Each mission and boss encounter have several goals that can be met, with some of them unlocking permanent upgrades and abilities. These goals include things like completing a run without being hit, finishing within a certain time frame, and so on. Basically they were all goals that were left incomplete for me, since simply getting past the core challenge was more than enough for me as it was. The ironic thing is that doing well in these sections can make the game easier, but it was a mechanic I was never able to test out on my own. Moving back to my encounter with The Berserker, I spent over an hour trying to kill him, and I even went back to the tutorial in the hopes of mastering the perfect dodge. After well over twenty tries, I finally beat him, only to realize that the entire struggle I'd been having up to that point was just with his first form. The battle continued from there with no checkpoint or healing, and it's no surprise that I died almost instantly as I was not ready for the stronger attacks they had in that form. The long loop of trying to beat him and failing began again. From there I spent another hour trying to beat the second form, only able to get to even get to it maybe a quarter of my runs. I guess you can say that I was getting better at the game as I played, but the brutal difficulty meant that I was not having a bit of fun during that time. After hours of this, I decided to look up the boss online, and realized that it had another form that I hadn't even seen yet. It was then that I realized I was cooked, and I had to throw in the towel then and there. The game had broken me, and I started to wonder how I was even going to be able to review it.

What followed from there was a mad online hunt to learn more about the game. I watched playthroughs online, checked out other reviews, and even looked up the game's community on Steam. It was at this point when I realized that it was mostly loved by everyone who played it, with only a handful of negative comments existing at all. Most of those mainly referred to the game's short length. That's the other thing by the way, even though I can't report on it for myself for obvious reasons, the game can technically be beaten in a handful of hours if you're more skilled than myself. I'm no stranger to short games, but its short length made me feel that the difficulty was put in place simply for padding. Either way, my research made me start to feel like that 1 dentist out of 10 who hates the toothpaste. NanoApostle is the furthest thing from beginner-friendly, and it's only really playable to the most hardcore of the hardcore. Basically the type of people who complain that Elden Ring is too easy. There may be some people reading this that are throwing around a "git gud, noob!" or two, but that's my honest opinion. I'm no casual player, but I couldn't get past this game's first challenges. My dissatisfaction with the gameplay experience even twisted my views on things I had previously liked. Suddenly I was realizing that the game's world is made up of bland, similar-looking locations, I found that the characters where boring and lifeless, and the lack of exciting music or voice acting was suddenly staring to get to me. I did manage to see the rest of the game I missed via videos online, but I don't think it would be very fair of me if I judged it more than I already have based on those alone. Ultimately this leaves me in a rather weird place as far as the review goes, as I have to finish it, but I don't know if it's right that I do so.

Even though this review is slowly falling apart at its seams, I'm going to go ahead and close it out in the usual way. First off, I think it's obvious that I can't give NanoApostle a recommendation. Sure there are plenty of people having fun with it online that I can see, but I noticed a pattern in several reviews. I watched positive video reviews that mentioned being stuck on the first boss too, and even read a couple written ones where the author admitted that they were stuck and couldn't beat the game. I won't call out names for reasons of my own, but it made me wonder which of us is actually writing the incomplete review. Coming in at $19.99. NanoApostle isn't pricy if you're into the boss rush or Souls-like genres, but there are far better games out there that won't test the limits of your sanity. Even allowing for hardcore players finding enjoyment here, the vast majority of players will be as frustrated as I was, if not worse. This is a game that I'll never pick up again, and I'm actually glad to say that. NanoApostle forced me to write a review that I have plenty of mixed feelings on, and I can't wait to put it completely and totally behind me. Hopefully the next game I look at will be better. See you in the next one.

Check Out NanoApostle on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/nanoapostle-switch/

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Story: A
Gameplay: C
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: C
Value: B

Overall: C

Pros:
+ A challenging game that's perfectly suited for the Souls-like players who think Elden Ring was too easy.
+ The story is intriguing and drew me in instantly. It ultimately was my favorite aspect of the game.
+ The graphics and visual style are appealing, even if the game's locations are limited.
+ Can be a rewarding experience if you're a skilled at reaction-based gameplay.

Cons:
- The insane difficulty makes this only truly playable by the most hardcore of the hardcore. I was stuck on the first boss for hours.
- The game's music doesn't do very much to heighten the overall experience, and the lack of voice acting is very noticeable.
- If you're looking for more than a series of boss fights, you might want to look elsewhere.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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