Angels, demons, rabbits (bunnies?)—one heck of a combination. But that’s what TEVI is, a 2D Metroidvania with bullet hell elements, developed by the folks behind the well-loved Rabi-Ribi and published by CreSpirit and Neverland Entertainment. Though I never got around to playing it myself, what I can say about TEVI is nothing short of positive and happiness. A well-thought out Metroidvania with fun levels, exploration and battles, along with an entertaining cast of characters. There’s so much to love about this game, no matter what experience you have with the genre.
Hop into this review and see what’s up.
BunnyVania
As you can surmise, as a Metroidvania, players will guide the heroin of the game Tevi as she gets to the bottom of situations that unfold in the game’s many towns and among its populace all the while learning more about Astral Gears and the like. This means you’ll be walking through locales of all sorts, grinding away to the next objective and finding secrets. The world of TEVI is as big as it gets: Az is full of rooms big and small for you to find upgrades and test your mettle against some pesky baddies. But before I get ahead of myself, know that TEVI is a fair game—it not only offers an adjustable difficulty, but honestly even the harder levels feel balanced especially if you’re the exploration type. You’ll learn to drop crossbombs and find secrets in no time.
Tevi is an agile rabbit. The ears aren’t just for show (sorta)—she is not only proficient in jumping and bonking baddies with a blade ‘n spanner, but she also has two companions that follow along and assist in battle. These two, Celia and Sable, come in the form of Orbiters that hang around Tevi, offering her not only more methods of attack but also defence against baddies and their many, many bullets you’ll need to dodge. Using these two is essential to keeping enemies juggled, raising your combo rank and therefore increasing your damage potential.
Additional character growth is also governed by your equipped sigils. These are not only badges you put on to increase your stats but also to further power attacks, be it through achieving combo ranks or trading off one aspect of your attacks for another, or improve certain abilities like dodging. There are a lot of sigils you can find and craft, and you can build Tevi just about however you want for a given boss fight or area. It’s a lot of fun to mess around with, and I spent quite a bit of time swapping sigils as I progressed through the game just to maximise my damage output enough.
Baddies won’t sit around and wait for you to whack them, however. As the enemies pile up on the screen, you’ll need to learn how to evade enemy projectiles (hence the bullet hell mechanics) and keep enemies stunned while outputting as much damage as you can. The speed of the combat along with break and stun mechanics will keep you on your toes and it makes for fun fights, even when you’re just exploring. But it’s really satisfying to keep enemies juggled in the air, blast them with your orbiters, before ultimately sending them crashing down with a downward slash and spanner slam.
The locales of Az are varied as they are beautiful: deserts, underwater cities, forests, grimy city streets—you name it. All rendered in a colourful, pixelated artstyle that runs across just about every PC you can imagine. This also extends to enemy variety and the characters you meet that will help (or hinder) Tevi’s journey. The game’s progression and pacing is solid, though a fair warning that there is quite a bit of dialogue (all voiced by popular talent) that you can choose to skip through if you’d like. I personally enjoyed the game’s narrative and the characters are entertaining enough, but even I appreciated the fast-forward button every now and again.
About the only complaint I have is Tevi’s inability to drop down platforms. A standard fare in Metroidvania, instead TEVI builds its levels around having the player take a roundabout way to their next objective. The map will always show you where you need to go next and finding your way around the map, potentially exploring more areas you’d never touch, isn’t a bad way to go at this. But for how versatile Tevi feels to play, not having a drop down is odd and can make for sticky situations when you could avoid a potential attack had our local genius bunny girl figured out how to jump down.
TEVI is a fantastic 2D Metroidvania. One that is fun to play for just about all levels of gaming ability, but it’s also a replayable one and has plenty of content you can run through, backgrounded by beautiful visuals and fun music. An easy recommendation for the action platformer fan and then some.
TEVI is currently available for PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch. Ports for PlayStation and Xbox consoles are planned for 2024.
TEVI
Played on
Windows 11 PC
PROS
- Beautiful presentation and great music to compliment it all.
- Fun combat that is elevated by adjustable equipment and different enemy mechanics.
- World and level design is fun to traverse through.
CONS
- A Metroidvania with no way to drop down from a platform stings a little.
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