Wielding incredible style, an emotional story, and layered action, Constance strives to be more than just another derivative Metroidvania in a sea of heavy-hitters. It may be overshadowed by some monoliths but this painterly tale has a few strokes of genius.
One cannot play Constance and absolutely ignore the rather large elephant in the room.
Hollow Knight: Silksong was a dominant force upon its release in September. A game that had been anticipated for years and is currently absorbed in Game of the Year conversations en masse. For any similar game, being in the ripple of Silksong likely feels intimidating. The same will be said in November 2026 when the monolith of Grand Theft Auto 6 explodes onto the scene, gobbling up most attention and conversation for weeks and months.
But just because Constance evokes Silksong with its stylistic art and slashy action and growing bank of powers, doesn’t mean the game deserves any less attention. Silksong wasn’t the first Metroidvania–that credit should go to Symphony of the Night–nor will it be the last. Yet as the genre becomes bulkier with more developers using gorgeous 2D visuals and difficult combat and platforming, it will take more effort to grab at the attention of well-fed players.
This summer Shadow Labyrinth landed with a thud. An attempt to turn the Pac-Man property into something beyond a yellow puck gobbling up dots and ghosts became a convoluted stab at the genre. Repetitive enemies, horrendous backtracking and checkpointing, and a gargantuan length turned the game into a slog.
Thankfully, Constance doesn’t remind me at all of Shadow Labyrinth outside of the fact that both games are housed in the same genre. There is a degree of care put into the world of Constance by developer Blue Backpack, preventing it from not only floundering but from feeling derivative.
Bubbling under Constance‘s surface is an incredibly meaningful story that uses the confines of its artistic world to speak towards very human issues. Upon booting up the game players are warned that it tackles heavier subject matter pertaining to mental health. But these cards aren’t immediately shown. Over the game’s runtime, players will get a glimpse of Constance’s “real life” when she isn’t lost inside this fantasy world attacking foes and platforming around thorny walls. She is experiencing some kind of burnout from her day-to-day job. We see the pressures she places on herself in an attempt to navigate the expectations put on creatives in a corporate environment where you may not always feel rewarded.
Reminiscent of the interstitial narrative bits of Braid, players will have the true crux of Constance‘s narrative delivered to them over the course of the game and especially after boss fights. It’s truly touching and an incentive for progression to have these revelations trickled out over time. And as a creative who so frequently struggles with things like a work-life balance and feeling satisfied with my place in life, Constance frequently spoke to me and the very real struggles I’ve felt.
But this narrative framing works seamlessly with the game from a mechanical and visual point as well. The twilight woods, brightly-lit towns, and dusk-colored carnival are strong environments both thematically and artistically. Constance shares that painterly 2D animation that is less pixel and more moving artwork. Of course Constance is an artist and the world around her is reflective of that. This is a beautiful game where every biome is a beautiful canvas. The characters and enemies Constance meets in her journey are also reflective of the story being told–it’s just that players may not realize that fact until more about the narrative is unraveled.
And being an artist, Constance makes deft use of her paintbrush as both a tool of dispatch and navigation across the world. Combat felt surprisingly tight and challenging as the game grew in complexity. Early on, enemies have basic movement and attack patterns meant to provide minimal challenge as the player grows comfortable with the speed of attacking with Constance’s paintbrush. Once a repertoire of moves is learned, Constance then continues to open up and become the kind of Metroidvania that is hard not to enjoy.
The biggest mistake a game in this genre can make is being stingy with powers and upgrades. One of the reasons Shadow Labyrinth felt like a bottom-tier attempt was because it took hours before players learned new movement abilities. Double jumps and air dashes have become prominent upgrades in the genre and developers shouldn’t take too long before introducing them.
Part of this stems from a feeling of limiting the desire for backtracking to discover upgrades until new movement tech is unlocked. Why retrace your steps when there’s likely going to be new powers that help the player find secrets? More importantly, once these abilities are earned by the player, it makes level design more challenging and interesting. There’s a necessity to giving the player a handful of hours to learn how to navigate a game’s world. But don’t take too long or we get bored merely jumping once up and over platform after platform.
Constance rapidly gives players an air dash that allows them to navigate past obstacles. A paintbrush move that stabs away shields can be used in combat and to unlock doors. Wall jumps act as Constance turning into globs of paint that sticks to surfaces. If one major “flaw” can be levied at Constance, it’s that it feels extremely similar to other Metroidvanias. New abilities are earned to unlock new areas and go back to old locations to find new upgrades. If you’ve played a dozen, you’ve played a few hundred.
Despite its familiarity, Constance works to surprise the player with its beauty and enough interesting ideas that it feels so good to play. Constance can unlock “inspirations” throughout the journey that add buffs to her skills much like relics and charms of other games. Many of her abilities are managed through the amount of paint she has but if players run out, they can spend HP instead. Often this makes for a delicate balance during the game’s most challenging platforming and combat sections where players can attempt to push through if they miss a few moments of proper timing.
As another interesting twist, death doesn’t necessarily amount to having to return to a rest location. Should players wish, they can continue on but all enemies will be stronger until you find the next rest point. While I never found Constance to be incredibly hard, it was nice to have this added challenge but I certainly didn’t want to go into a boss fight with it applied because they benefit from it too.
The boss fights in Constance are definitely a highlight and, as expected, require application of newly learned abilities. Figuring out the patterns of these fights was incredibly enjoyable and I especially liked the handful of times bosses weren’t just about tussling in an arena but requiring platforming and navigation.
Because Constance isn’t overstuffed with too much to do, it leaves an impression without exhausting the player. Coming in around a dozen hours, I feel like a great balance was struck between combat and exploration. It might not satisfy those who want an absolutely hardcore journey like Hollow Knight or Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown but the artistry and narrative alone strive to be different.
Constance wields an emotional story, layered action, and incredible style to become more than just another derivative Metroidvania in a sea of heavy-hitters. Genre stalwarts aren’t going to find anything drastically different in its quest for explorative abilities but Constance has heart and a deft gameplay, making it a title that shouldn’t be brushed aside.
