Dark Souls Meets Hollow Knight: A Morkull Ragast's Rage Review

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox Series, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam)

It's been a while since I've reviewed a Metroidvania title, and the one we're going to be looking at today is a game that I've been following for over a year now. Morkull Ragast's Rage is a 2D Metroidvania game developed by Disaster Games and published by Selecta Play. It's out now on the Nintendo Switch, XBox Series, PlayStation 5, and PC. We're going to be taking a look at it on the Nintendo Switch here, though it seems to be very similar across the board. There isn't really a need for further intro, so let's dive right in!

Morkull Ragast's Rage places you in the role of the titular Morkull, who is a villain who knows he's in a video game. He wants to escape said video game, but the developers have trapped him in a dungeon known as the Ragast. Morkull isn't afraid to break the fourth wall, and he addresses the player directly from the very beginning. He asks you to help him escape, and he plans to take over the world from there. Escape from a video game may sound impossible, but Morkull is definitely going to try. To this end he's going to need to gather up some of his former allies, and take out any who stand in his way. It's a cool setup that isn't without its funny moments, but it ultimately is a bit too thin of a story worth mentioning. There aren't a lot of dialogue bits that expand upon the premise, and I guess that makes sense since there really isn't anywhere for the narrative to go. There's nothing wrong with the plot and in of itself, but Morkull looking directly at the screen when speaking his dialogue loses its charm the third or fourth time it happens. Having said that, I did find the plot to be the most interesting part of the game, and it admittedly is entertaining for what it is. Now that that's out of the way, let's move on to gameplay.

At its core, Morkull Ragast's Rage is a 2D Metroidvania in the style of Hollow Knight. You have a map to explore, enemies to fight and kill, upgrades to earn, and so on. Beyond its rather unique story, it really doesn't bring too much new to the table. That's actually one of my biggest issues with the game, as I found it really hard to discuss this game without bringing up several other genre classics that have preceded it. The world of Morkull Ragast's Rage is dark throughout, with the entire game being presented in a hand-drawn style. This means that the game does look and run smoothly, but also lacks a lot of variety. It may be a bit of a stretch to call the world design uninspired, but I barely found anything worth taking screens of after the first hour or so. It also doesn't help that the game's strongest asset, its story, is left completely unvoiced. I know that voice acting in a game of this size might be a bit of a stretch, but it really would've added a lot of character to a plot that can easily wear out its welcome. Why have a legally-distinct Deadpool as your main character if you're just going to leave them silent? Since I'm front-loading the negatives, I guess I should also mention that the music isn't all that great either. It's not bad, but it does nothing to help move the game along. I can't recall a single piece of music I heard while playing the game, and my only positive regarding the soundtrack would have to be that no single piece of music ever became annoying. The game isn't all bad though, so let's move on to discuss some of its better aspects.

Even though I found the difficulty to be a bit high for a casual player like myself (more on that later...), I did find the combat to be fun overall. Morkull starts out with a couple basic attacks, and a block function that can also repel projectiles if timed correctly. His offensive capabilities aren't static though, as they can be upgraded via souls collected through exploration or defeating enemies. Not all of these upgrades benefit his attacks, but many of them allow you to chain multiple hits together into some neat-looking combos. It once again isn't anything truly groundbreaking, but it does keep the combat from feeling monotonous over time. There isn't any other way to augment Morkull's abilities beyond those upgrades though, and this can be seen as a pro or a con. On one hand it means that the gameplay never really evolves past the opening sections, but it also keeps the mechanics simple and uncomplicated. Early on you're given the ability to double jump and dash, and these are pretty much the only things you'll need as far as exploration goes. Since there aren't a bunch of additional platforming mechanics for the player to unlock, most of the map is technically open to you from the very beginning. Some areas can only be reached by going the long way around an obstacle, but this isn't the sort of game that blocks off areas until you learn an arbitrary new mechanic. It may sound like I'm not a fan of this approach to exploration, but I did appreciate that the game didn't force me to constantly backtrack.

While I was hoping to stay on the positives for a while longer, there are a few negatives I feel should be brought up now. Even though the platforming is relatively simple, it can be hard to navigate some areas due to how zoomed in the camera is. You can look up and down to get an idea of what you're about to get into, but it's not the most intuitive system. It also doesn't really extend you're view very far, and more often than not will just show you a bigger area of nothing. Making matter worse, enemies can clearly see you even if you can't see them. It's never fun to be struck by enemies or projectiles that you can't even see the source of, and you'll be getting a lot of that here. This wouldn't be so bad if Morkull himself wasn't so fragile, but he's really weak for being the villain of this world. It only takes about 4-6 hits from even the weakest enemies to kill him, and dying means you respawn at the last save point you've visited. You do have an upgradable potion that you can use to heal damage taken, but it only heals about a quarter of your life by default, and is still pretty useless even fully upgraded. Dying will most likely be a common occurrence, and you'll not only lose most of the souls you've gathered, but all enemies you defeated will respawn too. The latter I guess should be expected, but it often means you can run up against a brick wall if the area that you're having trouble with is far from the save point. Also, since you're taken back to the last save point anyway, I'd always reset the game if I died. Why lose out on souls if you're going to be forced to restart anyway? It honestly seems unnecessarily mean-spirited, and that becomes a running theme throughout the game.

I brought up Hollow Knight earlier, but the game's difficulty really reminded me a lot of Dark Souls. Let me paint you the average Morkull Ragast's Rage experience. You'll causally be wandering into a room that will then suddenly drop you into a wide open area. You'll most likely have to take a leap of faith to actually reach the ground, but that's fine I guess since the enemies there rarely pose any real threat. The biggest threat in this game are flying enemies, as they can throw projectiles at you from an area you can't actually reach. These types of enemies can only be killed by bouncing their projectiles back to them, and this requires very specific timing for you to pull off. All projectiles will be bounced back by blocking, but only in the few frames of the block being started. If Morkull is fully protected, the projectile will simply disappear. This means you have a very real chance of getting hit whenever you try to bounce them back, and each projectile will take away about 20% of your life. Simple math shows that it takes only about five hits to die this way, and this is just from a single enemy. Save points are the only way to heal and refill your potions, and these are few and far between. Much of the game will see you try to get through several enemy encounters just like the one I described perfectly so as not to game over, and your only reward for pulling this off is having to do it all again moments later. Things get even more intense when you encounter boss monsters, and these can take dozens of tries to beat if you don't have lightning fast reflexes and/or a lot of luck. I honestly don't know who this game is made for, but it isn’t for anyone who isn't a fan of their games being stuck at the Very Hard difficulty setting. Oh, and just in case you're wondering, there is no way to change difficulty if you're having trouble. You just have to bear with it, or give up.

I mentioned it a few times already, but it's impossible to look at Morkull Ragast's Rage and not think immediately of Hollow Knight. The comparisons aren't just on a visual level either, as they play similar in ways that I that are too numerous to explain here. My point in bringing up the comparison so many times is that everything done here feels like a lesser version of things done in better games. I honestly struggled to find anything good about it, since it plays like a game created to fill in the hole left by the delay of Hollow Knight 2's release. If I had to compare this game to something else, I'd liken it to the mockbusters that come out in the wake of huge hit movies. There's nothing here that will get anyone truly into the genre, and it won't be very memorable on its own, but it will probably be passable to those just looking for a little of something they liked. I want to reiterate that I don't think this is a wholly bad game, but that's part of the problem too. It barely elicits any true feelings from those who play it beyond occasional frustration, and that's never a good thing.

Now is the part of the review where I admit that I threw in the towel early, and wasn't able to clear the game before writing this review. I honestly do try to see as much of a game as I can before I pass judgement on it, but this one was just too much for me. I died more times than I care to admit, and spent hours making very little progress. I even went so far as to grind out all of Morkull's upgrades in the hopes of making the game's challenge feel a bit more reasonable, and even that didn't change very much. I guess players that fall into the center of the Dark Souls/Hollow Knight Venn diagram of fans might find enjoyment out of the game's brutal difficulty, but this is far from my definition of fun. What I find most egregious of all though, is its current price. I went into this game assuming it would cost around ten dollars or so, as that's the price point I think matches its level of quality, but I was wrong. At the time of this writing, Morkull Ragast's Rage is priced at $17.99, and that feels a bit too high in my opinion. I know we're talking a few dollars here, but you can buy Hollow Knight for only $15.00, or just about any other better 2D Metroidvania for less than what it costs to play this one. There really is no reason to spend your money here unless you're able to get it at a steep discount.

At the end of the day, I don't think I can give Morkull Ragast's Rage any sort of solid recommendation. I guess it can be worth picking up for those who simply must play every 2D Metroidvania out there, but even then I'd suggest spending your time and money elsewhere. It is a decent game beyond the difficulty and unoriginal bits, but I wish I could get back the hours I spent on it. It isn't so bad that I hated it, but it also has no noteworthy redeeming qualities either. It simply exists, and it doesn't even offer much to justify that existence. My advice is to skip it, and go play Hollow Knight instead. I know that's what I'll be doing next. See you in the next one.

Check Out Morkull Ragast's Rage on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/morkull-ragasts-rage-switch/

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

Overall: C

Pros:
+ A neat Metroidvania game that focuses more on combat and platforming over exploration.
+ The self-referential plot, which is full of fourth wall breaking antics, is pretty entertaining for what it is.
+ Unlocking all of Morkull's moves allows him to perform several combos that make combat fun.
+ Features a hand-drawn animation style that looks amazing in motion.
+ Morkull himself can be a bit endearing at times.

+/- It's odd that this game is priced at $17.99, since it’s higher than Hollow Knight's $15.00, and that game almost feels like a better take on this one.

Cons:
- The game's intense difficulty makes progression a chore.
- Morkull is extremely weak, and dies after only 4-6 hits. The life-refilling potion is also rather useless.
- Reflecting projectiles requires perfect timing and is required far too often than it should be.
- Respawning at the last save point feels a bit mean-spirited, and is also pointless since you lose collected souls. (It's best to just reset and load at that point.)
- Isn't very original, and feels like a collection of ideas implemented far better in other games.
- The lack of voice acting really hurts this game, as Morkull's antics don't hit as hard when they're silent.

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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