Vigil: The Longest Night Critic Reviews

This gripe (and iffy translation) aside, Vigil is a joy to play; challenging but rarely frustrating. With its sprawling locales, creative but unsettling foes and missing daughters, it’s a gorgeously grim fairy tale. Its Soulsborne influence may be a little too apparent from time to time, but Vigil: The Longest Night is a title well worth taking up your sword for in its own right.

Recommending Vigil: The Longest Night is incredibly simple: if you’re a fan of Metroidvanias and you loved Salt and Sanctuary, you can’t afford to pass this one up. With a stunning art style and design that delivers all the right spooky notes and diverse boss battle tactics, Vigil: The Longest Night has my vote for one of the greatest hidden gems of 2020.

Vigil: The Longest Night is a Soulsborne 2D Metroidvania action-RPG. While the game is a bit rough around the edges and has a lackluster story, both exploration and battles are full of surprises, creating a satisfying experience.

A competent soulsborne 2d platform that would be an ideal choice especially for those which thoroughly enjoyed Salt and Sanctuary.

Vigil: The Longest night is a valid metrodivania that takes inspiration from lovecraftian stories and modern classics like Bloodborne.

Vigil: The Longest Night aims high and almost hits the mark thanks to its amazing level design, epic boss fights, uncanny visuals, and Lovecraftian and gothic horror themes. Sadly, it's bogged down by its muddled story, confusing map layout, and perplexing campaign progression.

I suppose that ultimately, what counts in a Soulsborne or Metroidvania or action-RPGs is combat, action, bosses and exploration and in all these areas, Vigil: The Longest Night makes a pretty strong case for itself. It’s a great looking game with a dark and lush visual style and melee combat against some challenging monsters and human type enemies. A tighter story and less labyrinthian levels might make a very good experience even more compelling, but Vigil: The Longest Night will probably please fans of Salt and Sanctuary and those looking for a solid 2D Dark Souls-like game.

On a personal level, I'm still not truly gripped by everything here, but there are a lot of risky design choices and themes in Vigil. Developer Glass Heart Games should be commended for paying homage to the Dark Souls series while taking it in a slightly different direction.