Constance review: Painted power

Platforming and Metroidvania go hand-in-hand, but few games simultaneously tap into what makes both of these genres so great as well as Constance does. Constance takes notes from what many consider to be the pinnacle of both genres-those being Celeste and Hollow Knight. Its various puzzle challenges that require you to fully understand all of your techniques are reminiscent of the former, while its pleasant hand-drawn art style, along with its combat and enemy variety, are similar to the latter. As someone who’s first true foray into the Metroidvania genre was through Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game that I fell absolutely in love with, I feared that I had spoiled myself with the best of the best, and that I’d have a difficult time resonating with other games in the genre. After playing Constance, it became abundantly clear that those fears were for naught. The heroine awakens Constance begins with the title character waking up in a strange land with floating rocks and trees that twist and turn in unnatural ways. Clearly confused and desperately wanting to return home, the only thing she can do is walk forward. Here, she meets Frida, a woman made of flowers who somehow knows who Constance is. Frida gives Constance a paintbrush and instructs her to go and help the people, and herself. She soon learns that in order to return home, she’ll need to travel through the various zones within this strange world, and collect the four tears that belong to the four rulers of each zone. Constance’s ensuing journey sees her meeting a cast of zany characters that help her in various ways throughout these lands. Take, for instance, the talking elevators that are stationed in every zone, each with their own distinct personalities. There are also the shopkeepers that you can find scattered throughout the world, and are what I can best describe as “charmingly weird little guys” (I believe they’re meant to be tanuki). The pleasant, hand-drawn art style, along with the variety of environments to explore, makes this world feel intriguing to move through. At one moment, you’re walking on floating islands with a vibrant blue sky and an assortment of flora, the next you’re in a gloomy cyberpunk-style city. The art behind each room is simply nice to look at, and it helped me feel immersed in the world. Find and master your skills In true Metroidvania fashion, each zone holds a brush technique, an ability that allows you to traverse in a way that you might need in order to get to a specific room. For example, the first brush technique you unlock is a dash, which you’ll need in order to get to platforms that are a bit too far to reach just by jumping. These abilities aren’t only used for traversal though, they also can be very useful in combat, which leads me to one of the areas Constance excels in: enemy variety. Each area contains an assortment of enemies that are unique to that area. The cyberpunk city, for example, hosts a collection of robots with different types of attacks. There are flying robots that charge up an attack that lunges toward you, small robots on wheels that rush at you from the ground, a robot that holds up a makeshift shield, and plenty more. The enemies are designed to be defeated by using the ability that you learned in that area. A prime example is the shielded robot. Since it’s holding up a shield, you need to dash through the robot and attack its back. These abilities are also smartly implemented into the Celeste-like platforming challenges. There are several areas where you’ll need to consecutively perform different techniques you’ve learned, with precise timing and accuracy, in order to make it to the next room. These platforming puzzles can prove quite challenging, but in a way that always feels fair and that actually strengthened my knowledge on how to use all of the techniques together. Platforming and combat also work essentially as tutorials for the boss fights for each zone, as these too require you to incorporate the techniques you’ve learned along the way. There was one boss fight that I had spent numerous attempts trying to defeat without using an ability I had recently learned (mostly because I forgot about it), but once I implemented that new ability into my strategy, the fight was significantly easier. Don’t misunderstand, though, some of these bosses still gave me a run for my money even when I was efficiently utilizing my entire skillset. In addition to brush techniques, Constance can also learn inspirations, which apply specific buffs to her techniques. You manage these inspirations in her sketchbook. The sketchbook has limited space, and each inspiration takes up a certain amount of squares within that space. This means you have to decide which combinations fit your playstyle the best, and how you can get them to fit in the amount of space you have available. Choose to persevere In Constance, dying is going to happen a lot. Enemy attacks will bombard you, especially during boss fights, and the only way to heal is by either breaking flower pots that you’ll find spread out throughout the world, or by resting at a shrine. Upon death, the game gives you the option to either respawn at the last shrine you rested at, or to “persevere,” meaning you’ll start again where you died, but enemies will be more powerful, and dodging through them will still make you take damage. It’s an interesting mechanic that makes you evaluate the risk/reward of eliminating the runback at the cost of making the fight harder. I found preserving to be more useful when I died exploring the world, rather than during a boss fight, as I pretty much always found a shrine close enough to the start of most boss encounters for it to not be an issue. All of these gameplay elements work together to make a very fluid and engaging game that I thoroughly enjoyed the whole way through. To top it off, Constance’s story at the heart of it all is an emotional and deeply relatable one. Throughout the journey, the game sprinkles in playable memories from Constance’s past that give insight into who this protagonist is and why we find her here. One that stood out to me was a memory where Constance is playing violin in front of an audience with a teacher that’s constantly berating her performance. Seeing this teacher’s judgemental comments continuously pop up on the screen while also having to play the fast-paced violin rhythm game felt as overwhelming for me as I’m sure it did for Constance in that moment. There are several moments like that in Constance, showing moments of stress, regret, and depression in a way that felt authentic and hit me pretty hard. Constance is a game about confronting your inner darkness. Its hand-drawn cartoony art style won me over initially. Its challenging platforming puzzles and boss fights that required me to fully utilize the plethora of techniques I’d learned throughout the journey kept me engaged and always felt satisfying to complete. This fluid and extremely rewarding gameplay loop alone solidifies Constance as a must-play platformer. The heartfelt story at the core of it all is a welcome added bonus. This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. Constance releases on PC on November 24, 2025.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146925/constance-review-painted-power

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