Greak: Memories of Azur Critic Reviews

Greak is yet another great Metroidvania that manages to make the genre feel fresh and empowering. While the world of this story is dark, the feeling players are left with is one of joy, and its well-paced runtime leaves room for both a sequel and replay value.

Greak: Memories of Azur provided me the opportunity to experience a beautiful hand-drawn world in a way that best suits my gaming time and style. As I get older and find myself more and more selective with my gaming, intimate experiences like Greak are so much more rewarding than the biennial installment of a huge triple A title. Perhaps you’re noticing the same habit forming with your gaming. If so, this hidden gem might be exactly what you’ve been looking for, too.

Greak: Memories of Azur is a heartfelt, thrilling adventure. With three leading characters, the game has managed to carve its own identity within a crowded genre. The jaw-dropping visuals and intricate soundtrack ooze atmosphere, enticing you to explore every inch of the world. Although controlling several characters at once can be troublesome, it takes nothing away from this fascinating, methodically paced, puzzle-platforming quest about family, home and hope.

Greak: Memories of Azur is a game with a good artistic direction, well-implemented mechanics, satisfying combat, and is full of details that show the affection with which it was made. The handling of 3 main characters and the puzzle solving are the most original touch of the game, while also taking influences from iconic works such as Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest to make it a better title.

Greak: Memories of Azur is the good adventure of three brothers in a fairytale world.

One of the most intriguing action-platform games of the year. Greak: Memories of Azur is artistically gorgeous and its gameplay is simple but engaging.

One of the most beautiful surprises of this 2021.

Greak: Memories of Azur doesn’t necessarily set out to cut new ground when it comes to puzzling platformer adventures, but what it does, it does pretty well.

With its beautiful art direction, Greak is a journey you should embark on.

Greak: Memories of Azur is one of the most beautiful games out there with its captivating visuals and immersive audio. However, its gameplay is riddled with issues such as vague progression clues and clunky combat which make the experience frequently frustrating.

While Greak: Memories of Azur can be occasionally frustrating, the design and world-building are effective enough to make it worthwhile and enjoyable for players of all skill-sets.

Simply one of the most enchanting art-styles you'll experience on an indie game. The hand-drawn characters and backgrounds are magical in motion, and contribute to a potently heart-warming playthrough. Whereas the game's simultaneous character control, puzzles, and individual character skills can be highly enjoyable at the right moments, those moments sadly don't come enough to completely satisfy. Nevertheless, Greak: Azur is worth a go for the aesthetic charm alone, and has some great puzzles for fans of that inclination.

This all sounds great in theory, but things fall apart somewhat if you ever accidentally stray from the beaten path. The lack of a detailed map, even for areas you’ve already visited, makes navigation more frustrating than fun until you eventually stumble back on the intended route. And as the puzzles grow in scope as you progress, this issue becomes more stark. It’s not what we’d call a dealbreaker, but it’s enough of a nuisance to hold this short yet unique adventure from greatness.

I'm not sure what happened with Greak: Memories of Azur. The elements are all there. The ingredients in place to create something wonderful, and it does look stunning. But the execution is a complete let down. The promise fails to bind together because for every clever idea, every good intention, there is some frustration looming alongside. For every good bit there is something bad, and the end result left me feeling like the package was less than the sum of its parts.

With a fairly short running time, at least Greak: Memories of Azur doesn’t require much commitment to see it through. I just can’t help but feel that if your companions were computer-controlled and actually assisted you in combat, or at least tried to keep out of the way of your enemies rather than simply standing motionless, my review would be much more glowing. As it is, for every few minutes of joy I had with Greak: Memories of Azur, I generally had another filled with some level of frustration. Ultimately that lead to a great deal of disappointment, which is a real shame.

Greak: Memories of Azur isn't a bad game, but it is one that's got a few too many annoyances. Between aggravating enemies, the limited inventory, and the almost absent AI of Greak's siblings, it's an experience that is too weighed down by frustration to get a strong recommendation. However, if you like the look of the world and some cheap enemies and awkward controls aren't a dealbreaker for you, Greak is one of the best looking 2D platformers I've ever played and the world is interesting enough to keep you going.

Greak: Memories of Azur is a solid puzzle platformer that is broken by the save system and crappy inventory management. We hope you like replaying sections over and again as you'll be well catered for.