Thank you Crab Juice for sending us the review code!

Olgob the Bold is a goofy Soulslike Metroidvania where you play as a green orc who is on a mission to collect the rear ends of 20 different bears. When put to this strange task, you venture into a wacky place called the Mutating Castle, where everything takes place. As you play, you realize more things relating to the story that make the game quite interesting, and the full tale of Olgob is something that I really like.

You start off as a naked orc with an axe who is given the aforementioned quest by some random guy by a campfire. You start to ask him why he needs such a request, when he knocks you out cold and shoves you into a portal, effectively dodging your question. This is where you are introduced to the setting of most of the story: the Mutating Castle. This unusual place is referred to as such because as the story progresses, the map changes and adds more and more conveniently weird structures. They reveal new sections of the castle, revealing new enemies and introducing you to new abilities.

There are some neat mechanics that you’re introduced to, such as parrying, which allows you to stun melee attackers and reflect projectiles back to the one who sent them. This is very useful throughout the entire game, as it lets you kill enemies that can take a lot of hits before dying by giving you more chances to recover your stamina or get a few safe hits in. It’s also a great way to deal ranged damage (which you cannot normally do) to an archer or any other ranged enemy (which will most of the time kill them).

Combat is fairly simple, as one would expect. When you swing your axe, you are locked in place, so you cannot move while attacking. This also makes parrying very useful, since you can’t just run away directly after attacking. However, you can use a dodge roll, which makes you immune to all damage for a few frames and lunges you forward. This means that for a lot of the bosses, you can attack a few times, dodge to avoid their attacks, and hit more. This leaves a lot of room for variation in the fights, but is still entertaining despite the fact that it can be repetitive.

Although I’ve previously mentioned the objective being 20 bears defeated, there are currently eight bosses. The Steam page says that there could be DLC made at some point, which makes sense, as the ending of the current game sets up really well for more content in the future. The current bosses are all unique in some way, as they are all jokes or references. For example, one of the bosses is based off of Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury with similar sound effects, music, and attacks. Other character allusions include a Tetris-themed fight; a Donkey Kong rip-off; a creepy, gory version of Garfield; Rick Sanchez; along with a few others. All of these are fun and interesting with cool and unique attacks, and have a clear way to beat them (with an exception).

The graphics are alright, as most of the sprites were drawn in a simple, goofy art style. Most enemies and characters have a similar style of sprite in terms of body shape and face. The soundtrack is fitting for all areas of the game, and is either comprised of synth beats, orchestral-type arrangements, or some other miscellaneous but well-made piece. There aren’t very many songs, but they’re all excellent. The controls are good, but can’t be changed currently. They used to be a lot worse, but the developer fixed them in an update. There are many bugs that you will come across, though one of which completely stunted my game progression. Fortunately, the developer is very active in the community and will help you if you make a post on the Steam community about anything you need, whether it’s a bug needing to be fixed or needing help with figuring out what to do in the game. There were a few bugs that I was able to take advantage of, though, since I got clipped into a wall during a boss and was able to attack without getting hit.

There aren’t too many moral issues, but the ones that are present are very prominent. For example, when I mentioned the original objective of the story previously, I left out the fact that it does not use the exact terminology that I did, but rather uses the A-word instead. There are a few more examples of minor language being used in the game, mostly for comedic effect or something. There is also a little bit of blood present in normal gameplay, as a little bit of blood and a few chunks will appear upon striking and killing an enemy. However, in the section where you battle the creepy Garfield, he is covered in blood and gore as well as the fact that there are a few splatters here and there to add dramatic effect to the scene. It could also be mentioned that most enemies (that aren’t bosses) are humans. Another issue I’d say is worth mentioning is sexual content. You start off as a naked orc with the important parts pixelated out, and the loading screen is a much more detailed drawing of Olgob. Of course, there’s a conveniently-placed axe where it needs to be, but that still stuck out to me. On top of this, there’s an area of the game where you learn about your fairy companion who helps you out, who usually looks like a glowing bird. You find a large statue that they claim to be of them, and it looks like a massive naked woman with fairy mist covering everything that would ensure a decent age rating if covered.

I particularly enjoyed playing Olgob the Bold, and think that anyone who likes side-scrolling platforming, fighting bosses, and dodging attacks will really like this one. It’s fairly easy to get used to, and it was fun to discover and use the new mechanics that would be introduced.