Catching me completely by surprise, Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a game I had no idea was even being made, let alone releasing in a few days! Described as “a 2D metroidvania based on Japanese Folklore”, Bo is a game with some very striking similarities to others in the genre. Particularly one starring a small but agile knight. With immediately striking art and visuals, does Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus do enough to carve out its own space in such a saturated genre?
Short answer? Yes. Long answer? Hell yes. Keep reading the Xbox Era review to find out why.
Wake Up Little Lotus
So Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a game developed by small indie studio Squid Shock, based out of Thailand, though the actual setting, story, and lore is based on Japanese folklore. You play as Bo, a Tentaihana (a type of yokai created by the studio for this game), born from a tear shed by the moon. While tiny in stature, your character can sure pack a punch as they grow throughout the game, battling corruption and trying to finish your task of saving the realm.
The story itself in Bo is relatively simple, but the characters are drawn with such charm that you’re instantly pulled in to their plights. The central city hub, Sakura City, is regularly breathtaking in how detailed and alive it seems. Buildings will react as you walk by them, such as statues moving to watch you, or swords appearing on top of the blacksmith. These may sound small, but each little moment like this comes together to breath life into an already beautifully drawn and presented world. As you play the game you visit a variety of regions, each with its own charm and identity.
It’s a Bo Staff, Not a Nail
There’s an immediate comparison that I’d be remiss not to make with this game. Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus shares a lot of similarities with 2017’s Hollow Knight. Which of course means it shares gameplay elements with other Metroidvania’s as well, such as Ori and the Will of the Wisps. But the system of having one style of basic attack forward, upward, and downwards, alongside a spell that uses a refillable resource is most similar to Hollow Knight.
When I first started playing and realized this, I was a little worried. After all it can be hard to make something truly your own and just because something worked well for another doesn’t guarantee it would work the same for you. Thankfully, my worries were completely unfounded as Bo does a phenomenal job at not only recreating the strengths of the previously mentioned games, but also adding in enough of its own identity and differences that it truly stands on its own.
Diving into the weeds a little, Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a relatively simple game, mechanics wise. You have a basic attack that you can hit in any of the four directions, and a “Daruma Doll” you fire that uses tea from your refillable kettle. You refill your kettle by attacking enemies and the tea can also be drunk to heal, though you have to be stationary for a few seconds. And then adding to this is the tried and tested “charm” system, in which you can a variety of “Omamori” charms that can vary from increasing your attack speed, finding collectables on the map, being able to move while healing, and a heck of a lot more. As you progress through the game you unlock more slots to equip and find more charms with different effects. Overall I thought the game did a great job in the pacing and variety here.
No Double Jump? Impossible!
Now adding onto the systems above, Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is both a 2D action game as well as a very tight platformer. The movement is smooth and responsive, and Bo moves as expected. However, this is also where it most differentiates itself from others in the genre. While you have the usual dash, jump, and wall climbing abilities, what Bo doesn’t have is an unlockable double or triple jump. Instead what Bo uses is a jump reset system, where if you successfully attack something then your jump, dash, etc is restored. This sounds simple, but in practice it leads to a very different style of play in both the platforming and especially in things such as boss fights. Being able to attack and jump means you can stay right up there with enemies in the midst of combat as long as you keep weaving between dodging and striking.
Similarly with platforming it means you need to be precise in where and how you move, as you don’t have a double or even a triple jump to help with mistakes. This was never more apparent as it was during this games version of “bring an item from here to there but don’t get hit even once!” This optional endeavor took me a good hour of constantly failing and trying again, but it never felt unfair even when I was in the middle of the gauntlet. It also felt extremely rewarding by the end as I knew there was no “cheese” involved, just persistence and growing skill.
I’ve talked a lot about this movement, but I’ll end off with how it affects the boss fights in this game, of which there are several. I don’t want to spoil all the cool visuals and moments so I won’t go through many of them, but Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus has a good amount of both enemy and boss variety. Even in terms of how the boss fights themselves play out the game continued to keep things fresh and interesting. Two boss fights near the very end of the game surprised me with how they kept things unique and yet very much “Bo”, putting the skills you polished throughout the game to the test. Even the more traditional encounters still feel fresh as the jump reset system means you can be as aggressive as you want, though being so close to an enemy increases your risk of being hit. The game juggles this risk and reward very nicely and I always felt I could improve my strategy even in the middle of a fight.
A Woven Tapestry
I’ve mentioned how beautiful the game already looks before but I really cannot say that enough. The game would constantly surprise me with its visuals, be it boss designs, new areas to explore, NPC mannerisms, or even the various attacks and spells you use. Seriously, the game almost feels worth playing for the visuals alone, let alone the tight gameplay.
Though that does lead me to one of the few flaws I had, and mostly because the rest of the game does everything so well. The music. Now it’s not bad at all and it has more than a couple really great and memorable tracks, but compared the other games I’ve mentioned in this review, this is where Bo was the most lacking. To the point where there were moments I was loving but could consciously tell that if the music was just a little better here, it could elevate the whole thing still. Though I should note that this was mostly an issue in the first half of the game, and by the end of it the music was right up there alongside everything else.
Spiders Aren’t Bugs, Right?
Playing on the Xbox Series X, my experience was mostly issue or bug free. Though in the first few hours I did have a few moments where the frames would drop considerably when using certain abilities or mechanics. This was noticeable yeah, but also happened so infrequently that it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the game.
Other then that I had only one other bug, though this one was a fair bit worse. I want to say around 4 or 5 times, my game crashed to the home screen in the middle of a boss fight. It felt like this happened more so when things would get hectic on screen and it happened during two separate encounters (one of which was the last fight in the game). It was annoying but I could load back in quick enough that I didn’t consider it too big of a deal. That being said, I’m hoping Squid Shock can figure out whats happening here and take care of it before long.
Just Right
Now before I wrap up the review, I wanted to mention what I thought was one of the biggest strengths of Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus. The pacing and the length of the game itself. One of the biggest flaws of Hollow Knight, in my opinion, is the sheer length of the game and how long it takes for things to get going. I can say with full confidence that Bo does not share these same issues. The various regions of the game are large but not too large, they’re visually and mechanically distinct from each other, and they share just enough fast travel points so that it never feels like something is too far but also doesn’t feel like the world is tiny. Squid Shock did an absolutely masterful job in finding the balance here. At the end of my playthrough, I had finished everything except one (very difficult) optional challenge and it took me 13 hours almost exactly. This might seem small to some, especially as it includes completing another optional challenge that took me an hour, but I felt that Bo never overstayed its welcome while also continuing to throw new areas, enemies, and challenges for me to complete.
As I was playing the game, I knew the development had to be small, but as the credits were rolling I realized just how small. It seems the bulk of the game was developed by a couple dozen people at most, while according to their website, the core team at Squid Shock is made up of only four people.
Let me start by saying that making a game that does so many things stupendously well with such a small team is a gargantuan achievement. Full props to Squid Shock and a big congratulations for having such a great title be their first released game.
Silkwho? It’s Bo’s Turn
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is among the best games I’ve played and easily stands alongside the other greats in this genre. Have you been waiting to play Silksong for years and years? Well you’ll still be waiting, but this game is an absolute must play. And at a reported cost of only 20 USD, I recommend Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus to anyone and everyone even tangibly interested in metroidvanias. Move aside little Knight, it’s the Lotus’s turn in the spotlight.
Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Tight platforming and combat
- Breathtaking visuals
- Great pacing
- Good boss and enemy variety
- Challenging but not unfair
CONS
- First half of the game's music is a little weak
- One bug that lead to a hard crash during a couple boss encounters
Thank you for this excellent review! The game looks amazing to me but I’m looking for something kinda like Ori where it’s not dark like Hollow Knight is. I think I saw the game is rated T? What kind of thematic or graphic content is in the game?
It’s actually rated E! The game is very child friendly, no blood or anything like that. Much more like Ori than Hollow Knight in that regard.
In terms of thematic content, the game does deal with themes of death, and there are certainly some scarier moments, things getting set on fire etc. Overall though, it’s not a heavy game.
Thanks for reading!