The spiritual successor to Slain: Back from Hell, Valfaris not only delivers but exceeds its earlier counterpart at being the superior title.

The first thing that stands out with Valfaris is the gorgeous looking pixel art. In some areas it is very colorful while still managing to look great. The metal soundtrack fits well with the gameplay. Some of the weapons sound very satisfying like Therion's Call Pistol piercing through enemies. The story isn't very fleshed out but it is totally acceptable and even preferred when the focus of Valfaris is a lot of action.

I liked the idea behind being able to pocket Resurrection idols to give your character more hp or using them on checkpoints. This choice of risk vs reward with this decision adds more excitement to the game when you are passing multiple checkpoints and not electing to use your idols.

I wish some of the weapons were more balanced however I can't say it bothered me too much not using most of them. The melee weapons tend to be the most balanced while the Primary and Destroyer weapons have a couple of clear cut favorites as the best weapon for that slot. I found using Therion's Call, the Jelly Whip and the Envoy of Destruction as the most consistent and best loadout in most situations. These weapons can be upgraded as well with blood metals that you can collect throughout the game or turn in Resurrection Idols for.

Valfaris is just a lot of fun. It really isn't that long but it has some replay value by doing a new game plus which has a "Full Metal Mode". Also, going for the achievements can add some time. As I continued to get better at the game I planned on getting the under 2 hours achievement and under 10 deaths however for some reason my save file will not let me restart a new playthrough. I was restarting the game on "Full Metal Mode" for my 3rd playthrough going for the "Living on the Edge" achievement without a issue and then all of the sudden I could only continue or restart the level. This is a issue because the time played keeps ticking away even after restarting the level unless you can start an entire new game again. I'd prefer to keep my upgrades and play the "Full Metal Mode" vs an entire new playthrough.

This game is well worth playing if you like this genre. It is punishing but it is fair. It is likely the best run'n'gun platformer I've ever played. For as great as Valfaris is they should consider lowering the price in the steam store though. In the past on Fanatical this was given away I believe and was also $1 there.

I definitely recommend Valfaris and I'm curious how Valfaris:Mecha Therion compares to this title. Valfaris should have been a bit more popular considering how good it is. I'm guessing lack of advertising and the steam store price being too high were two of the main culprits on why people didn't play this more.

The final boss gave me carpel tunnel, and I still haven't finished it.

I was sceptical because i thought this might be trash. It actually is just annoyingly unknown and underrated.
And it is trash - in the best possible way

So Valfaris is basically Contra only developed later and with a good feeling for Music. If you don't like metal you might wanna skip the game. If you don't mind or like it hear me out:

This game is very oldschool, as well concerning game mechanics aesthetics and Soundtrack. I adore this game. You run from left to right shooting and slashing aliens with an arsenal of weapons while some cliche' 80's Metal blasts from your headphones. Everything that dies, including you (yep it happens quite a lot) does so with a visibly overtuned shower of gore. It hits that spot where it actually makes fun of metal adjoining aesthetics, which from my point of view is always the best perspective of the genre in itself.
You shoot slash slay and die, find weapons, battle bosses, die, start again die some more and so forth. The difficulty is quite high, although the game has a lot of generously spaced savepoints to make the try and die kind of gameplay more feasible. If you think that's for whimps, skip some savepoints, they are voluntary.
I think i am quite capable, but i died some 200-300 times in 9,8 hours :D which was immense fun.
Most things are fair, although in the best tradition of old arcades some of the leveldesign just kills you first time round anyway (principle of the thing) and then afterwards you die some more due to your inaptitude.
Boss Battles are actually good, they are not boring or unfair and they are fairly fast paced, as the rest of the game is. You deal a lot of dmg, but you also take a lot of dmg, Game even incorporates a decent parry mechanic for close combat. The story... well it's very 80's and very straightforward, like an early action movie. You find plenty weapons that actually do different things and are useful in different situations and levels. There is an upagrade system, which makes me think 1 or 3 more playthroughs with different loadouts seem like a thing to do. You have some limited exploration for weapons and upgrade materials, enough to not make you just go full railroad but not too much so.
For some reason the game offered me new game+ with increased difficulty ;) i declined for now. but for those masochistic enough it's probably a great past time.
Will for sure play the sequel and hope the devs make a lot more games in the future!