8Doors Arum’s Afterlife Adventure – A new Hollow Knight?

8 Doors Arum’s Afterlife Adventure is a story driven classical metroidvania made in lovly hand drawn art by Rootless Studio from Korea.
You play as Arum that goes into purgatory to find out why her entire village and especially her father has died recently for no reason.

If you are fan of Hollow Knight, CUPHEAD dead cells this is for you. Does it rival or dethrone Hollow knight?
The atmosphere is ooozing out of this title. Graphically this is inspired by korean traditions.

Tldr::
Pros:
+ atmospehere and story
+ dark souls roll combat
+ boss and optional boss battles, very fair 2 staged and memorable, can be beaten by skill
– a perk system, with secret unlockable perks
– the frog is cool
– fair platforming
– fluent combat with animation cancelling
– tons of secret to find
– great cutscenes
– unique setting

Cons:
– combat is very forgiving and sometimes monotone (vs mobs)
– most enemies have one well telegraphed attack animation, most are on rails
– story isn’t complex or very deep

8.5 of 10, highly recommend this game

Here is the game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/668550/8Doors_Arums_Afterlife_Adventure/

Offical page of Rootles Studio:
https://rootlessstudio.itch.io/8doors

Disclaimer: I requested the key for this game, which I got. I didn’t get any money, sponsorship nor do I have any affiliation with the developer/publisher. The did a great job anyway 😀