I had the chance to play Alonso Martin’s gorgeous, pixelated metroidvania – Heart Forth, Alicia, at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference. The game was mostly developed by Martin, and was successfully funded on Kickstarter last year. The game features the whip-doting Alicia and no, she’s quite different from her vampire-slaying rivals.

The game takes place in the world below the floating island world named Auster, while the rest of the world has been destroyed by a great Catastrophe that wiped out the Old World. As soon as you get into the world, you’re greeted with lush and wonderful pixelated visuals. In total, there are supposed to be a dozen expansive and wildly different regions.

I’m used to metroidvanias simply throwing you into a world and giving you little to no dialogue. Heart Forth, Alicia starts with you seeing a bit of chatter between Alicia, Höstra, and others, before Alicia falls to the Void below Auster.

I’d like to make a note of the game’s story in that it definitely feels like something grand in scale is being set up. You have the cursed lineage of wizards, of which Alicia and Höstra are the sole descendants of. There’s multiple conflicts to choose from, whether its the light spirit Elthëlian, the dark kingdom of Blákatha, and so on.

The rest of the game is essentially Alicia trying to find her way back, and the demo on hand at this year’s Game Developers Conference was quite meaty. I’d say overall my impressions of the game were very good, and I walked away thoroughly impressed with Martin’s opus.

I’d have to say the aesthetics, from the visuals to the music, are quite excellent. The game has a genuine feel of mystery to it, and most of the exploration and figuring out of things kind of happens via implied storytelling, outside of the dialogue in the beginning.

Obviously, I’ve only played a small chunk of the beginning of the game, although you can already obtain a form of magic in this demo. I think the platforming and sense of exploration was quite addictive, however the magic did feel a bit rigid.

I think perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh, but while the movement of Alicia herself feels quite good and the controls are definitely tight (as they should be), the magic felt kind of like a downgrade as far as responsiveness goes.

My only other gripe may be that some of the hidden areas are difficult to see unless you walk right up next to them – sure this encourages you to check every wall and corner, but it sometimes felt annoying. There is a hint of some traditional RPG elements here, although not in the way you think, you’ll be collecting lots of loot, equipment, and of course – improving your stats.

I think Martin’s scope for Heart Forth, Alicia is quite grandiose. While the core story is told via more exploration-based mechanics in game, the game is also reportedly coming with a live-action version of the story, told via “The Woman.” Not much is really know, but the full story is supposed to “expand through centuries worth of history,” and let you see “numerous cultures,” and of course, “plenty of twists.”

The game is a metroidvania, and while there wasn’t really enough time to fully get that sense of scale and gathering of inventory, it definitely started to feel that way as I played the game. I would keep looking back at the map, making sure I was trying to get to each room.

I think Heart Forth, Alicia has so much promise, and I genuinely wanted to see more of the game as the “Demo is Over” screen came up in front of my eyes. Alonso Martin has a gem on his hands, and so long as those magic controls are tightened a bit – the finished product will shine brilliantly.