Gestalt: Steam & Cinder review: A metroidvania with a side of visual novel

Gestalt: Steam & Cinder is the first title from developer Metamorphosis Games, and you almost can’t tell. From its strongly written story to its absurdly detailed and polished 2D art and animation, this game looks like the work of a team of seasoned pros. There are other times, such as the occasional run-in with questionable combat balance, where it’s a little more apparent. Even in those cases, there’s a mark of ambition and talent that allows this game to have an air of punching well above its weight class. I was a little uncertain of the story by the end, but there’s no denying Gestalt has a solid grasp on its vision and executes on some interesting ideas with either hits or near-misses.

Reading is good for you, kids

While Metroidvanias are commonly associated with deep, intense vibes and plenty of narrative craft, Gestalt is noticeably wordy compared to many of its peers. While clearly inspired by the likes of Symphony of the Night, Metamorphosis’ team wasn’t afraid of interrupting the “search action” with scenes of expository dialogue. There’s a lot of dramatic irony as well, as the story often leaves the player on hold to explore developments between characters at a totally different location. It’s weirdly novel for this genre, and why I invoked visual novels in the headline. Luckily for the most part, Gestalt earns the time it asks for.

You play as Aletheia, a “Soldner” in a world that is caught between apocalyptic events. She’s basically a mercenary, but one who is constantly harassed with job offers by her friends in the local military. She’s a badass, almost a cross between Carmen Sandiego and Indiana Jones in her design. There’s something unique about her, making the demand for her strength nice and high. As we learn over the story, that uniqueness runs deeper than anyone could have predicted, and Aletheia ends up being a keystone in a conflict between two disparate peoples, one that seems to have existential stakes.

There’s plenty of backstory in Gestalt, laden with proper nouns but not so bogged down with lore it feels like you’re reading a novel. The high level stuff is largely obscured deliberately to highlight the mystery, and to heighten the drama as two major political figures squabble over their versions of world-ending prophecy. Gestalt uses the rest of its runtime to flesh out a small group of central characters, whose relationships have an implied history, which only get more complicated as the situation around them intensifies. It’s a breezy story at around ten hours, but by the end there’s a good sense of who is who, why they make their choices, and maybe why the audience should care.

It’s solid stuff, and it’s told with solid writing that is well-crafted and holds a distinct voice. The prose is neither hokey nor generic, which early and first projects can often fall into. I didn’t really like where the story ended up, which had me wondering if I was missing something. Did I miss a “true ending” kind of situation (the achievements didn’t seem to suggest so), or does Gestalt go for a home run swing of a cliffhanger and simply whiff at bat? Either way, the ending I saw was not a satisfying conclusion to a story I was kind of digging, nor was it an intriguing tease of what could come next.

There's a map too, right?

I’ve written a lot about the storytelling in Gestalt, which is weird for a game that’s mostly a metroidvania! This is a game that walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. But I’m not totally convinced it’s actually a whole duck. The metroidvania-ness is certainly present: There are maps full of little trinkets and collectibles, warp points, save points, boss fights, and linear character progression. Aletheia gets things like a double jump and an air dash with which she can reach previously unreachable spaces, and can spend points on a skill tree to get stronger and learn new skills. But all that feels rather perfunctory, and the game progresses on a fairly linear path.

I never really felt lost or unsure of where to go, and when I did go back to a previous location there was a clear plot objective taking me there. Often when a new ability came into play, I was never really questioning where to go with it, and simply following the organic path forward. In that way, I never felt the explorative aspect of “search action,” aside from when the map was incorporated as part of a puzzle. This really hit me when I realized I was quite close to the end of the game, and had never actually used a warp point despite activating several. There were some side objectives and a couple longer-term collectible hunting tasks I hadn’t completed all the way, to be fair. But overall the map is small and designed around keeping things moving.

That’s not really a bad thing, and I appreciate the brisk pace and lack of meandering and pixel hunting (even though I can enjoy those things as genre tropes). Still, it was interesting to feel like the metroidvania aspect of Gestalt was more like window-dressing for the story, which again is a novel structure for a game like this. Although, what really got me appreciating Gestalt’s smooth lack of exploration was its combat, and not in the most flattering context.

Devil may frown in displeasure

At first, it seems like Gestalt’s combat is nice and saucy, with lots of unlockable skills, combos, and gimmicks to play with. At some points it almost feels like Gestalt is toying with a Soulslike vibe, as you have a strong dodge roll button that’s governed by a stamina limitation. That stamina limitation and the rolling turns out to be a pain in the neck however, as many enemy encounters feature foes that simply spam a single kind of attack, with the game expecting you to poke once or twice, roll through the enemy, rinse and repeat until you win. With the specific limit and recharge timing on the roll, some enemy encounters are super annoying. I didn’t die in these cases, but took a lot of damage that broke my flow and got on my nerves.

Eventually, as you get stronger and unlock more health, damage, and basic combo strings, all the ostensible nuance is trivialized anyway. You can just tank through the second half of the game, with boss fights that should be tough, unable to answer to Aletheia spinning her sword around and knocking back health potions like bourbon. This is where the inexperience seems to shine through, as various individual aspects of combat systems seem to stumble a bit when speaking to each other. When brute force feels better than engaging with the rules, there’s some rough edges in need of sanding.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Gestalt: Steam & Cinder! It has a story that left me a little frustrated by the end, but the way there was full of good mechanical writing, solid character development, and a healthy amount of proper noun-led mystery world-building. The top-shelf visual quality cannot be understated, with incredibly detailed and well-animated 2D art that can hang with the classics easily. And while combat was the messiest part, there was still fun to be had running around the world, fighting weird enemies, and using skills and combos powered by cool animations. I would definitely keep paying attention to Metamorphosis Games, especially if there are more stories to come from this world in particular.

Gestalt: Steam & Cinder is available on July 16, 2024 for PC. A Switch version is planned to arrive at a later date. A code was provided by the publisher for review.

Lucas White

Contributing Editor

Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He's far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.