Wira & Taksa: Against The Master Of Gravity is a peculiar little game. It’s a platformer where you manipulate gravity to move two blue aliens around. It’s the first game by a Peruvian developer named 3S Design and it seems to be a passion project of theirs. It’s currently in a rough but playable state in Early Access on Steam. After spending some time with it, it’s clear that it still needs some significant work to help it stand out from the multitude of other indie platformers.
So, It’s About Gravity…I Think?
The story takes place on a planet called Nunh, which was formed as a direct result of The Big Bang (yes, this game manages to incorporate the creation of existence into its plot.) Waka and Taksa live here along with other members of their species, which all look like shiny, plastic, nipple-headed versions of Naru from Ori & The Blind Forest. While visiting their master’s home, he tells them that the overflowing serpent has awoken and they must embark on a quest to find someone named Llanthu. He then wraps himself in a demonic-looking cocoon and… That’s how the game begins?
Honestly, the story doesn’t make a lot of sense, which is due to the dialogue not having the cleanest English translation. This is understandable since 3S Design is from Peru, but it turns an already bizarre narrative into something that’s borderline unintelligible. Most of the dialogue reads like it was written by Google Translate. Thankfully, the gameplay revolves around jumping, opening doors, finding items, and other standard platforming fare. So not knowing what was happening wasn’t a huge detriment.
Also, that voice acting needs to be improved pronto. The acting - if you even want to call it that - consists of someone leaning in far too close to a microphone and making gibberish noises that are so loud the audio peaks. If you’re reading this guys, for the love of God, fix this. Listening to it hurt my ears.
It Has Its Ups And Downs
The gameplay has you take control of both Wira and Taksa. Taksa is a scrawny little guy who can jump and move quickly but is more vulnerable to enemies. Wira is a big brawler with a hammer that can smash bad guys but is slow and heavy. So you switch between the two depending on the situation.
However, you don’t jump normally. Similar to the classic indie game VVVVVV, you manipulate gravity to get around. Hitting the jump button flips the characters vertically. This means if you want to get past a buzzsaw you leap to the ceiling and then descend back down to the ground. There’s also a red switch that changes the gravitational orientation so you bounce between the left and right of the screen. On top of that, there are items and keys to collect, gates that need to be opened with switches, spikes that need to be avoided, etc. It’s practically a greatest hits compilation of platformer tropes.
It’s a competent game, but it needs more polish. The platforming feels like the characters are moving through molasses. This is especially the case with Wira, as even though he’s supposed to feel heavier he’s just not that fun to play as. I’d rather have his hammer ability - which could also use some retooling as the attack animation takes far too long to connect with an enemy - be given to Taksa so I could just use him the whole time.
The characters take up a lot of space on the screen, which would be fine if this was just a standard side-scroller. But considering the gravitational gameplay, the camera feels like it’s pushed in too close. It can be easy to make a jump that takes you flying upwards towards a part of the screen you can’t see. Which, of course, will often send you into unexpected spikes and other hazards that kill you instantly. You can move the camera around to get a better look at what’s ahead but it only goes so far. This is especially frustrating since there are sections where the camera does pull back and they look and feel so much better. Permanently pulling the camera back so you can see more of the level would improve the experience immensely.
Wira & Taksa employs an old school lives system but also has save files. It’s an odd choice since when you run out of lives, you get booted back to the main menu where you just load up your save and start from a checkpoint. This feels like a pointless extra step that does nothing but interrupt the gameplay. And as a warning to everyone wanting to check this out, be careful when loading up a file because the option to delete is right next to continue. If you happen to click delete by mistake there’s no prompt to ask “are you sure?” That save file’s just gone.
Taksa All The Time You Need
There is some promise in Wira & Taksa. It’s not all that original gameplay-wise, but with more development, it could come around. This certainly can’t rest on the core concept of gravity manipulation alone. At the very least 3S Design needs to find more creative ways to use this gimmick. They also need to fix that story, because it looks like it could get quite strange and I’d like to understand what the hell is going on.
Wira & Taksa: Against The Master Of Gravity isn’t expected to be out of Early Access until mid-2021. If they can tighten up the so-so gameplay, camera issues, English translation, and audio engineering, then they could be onto something here. But there’s a lot of work that still needs to be done.
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