Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
Tevi is CreSpirit’s follow-up to Rabi-Ribi and is shaping up to be quite the fun bullet hell meets metroidvania of 2023. I was given access to its two-hour demo this past week and got just a taste of its gameplay loop, combat, and world prior to its release later this year. All in all, I love it so far, and I’m hoping that the full game contains just as much awesome combat as I experienced this week.
The preview did not expose me to much lore or Tevi’s world. However, I was able to surmise that Tevi, the rabbit-eared humanoid I controlled, was sent to undo some form of curse plaguing her world. She was accompanied by her familiars Sable and Celia. Sable and Celia usually took the form of the blue and red orbs that floated alongside me and shot bullets at enemies. The few cutscenes present in the demo involved Tevi and her familiars interacting with the world, but it wasn’t enough for me to discern how Tevi came across her familiars, Tevi’s origins, as well as what she was meant to accomplish.
Tevi’s level designs are pretty, albeit nothing extraordinarily challenging. The four biomes I explored were full of enemies, but very little opportunities to demonstrate mastery or challenge my platforming skills. In some of the trailers, I’ve seen some glimpses of hazards and platforming that weren’t present in the demo, so I’m hoping that later stages increase the platforming difficulty a smidge. Aside from that, I was pleasantly surprised with the number of secrets I found whilst exploring Tevi and proceeding through the story shown to me. Good metroidvanias reward players for their desires to explore and keen eyes in identifying a few things out of place, and Tevi rewarded me plenty. There were several small puzzles, secret rooms, and false walls that almost always led to a reward of some form.
Tevi features combat relying on melee attacks (swordplay) and ranged projectiles. Combining melee and ranged attacks sets players up for incredibly long chains of attacks so long as enemies and their projectiles are avoided, too. As I played, I effortlessly wove together button combinations thanks to how Tevi has built its combat system. The combinations that were unlocked as I played prevented me from mindlessly buttonmashing and pushed me toward testing new combinations of abilities out to see how many attacks I could chain together.
Tevi’s combat was complemented and augmented by its Sigil system, which is Tevi’s implementation of Hollow Knight’s charm system. When out of battle, I could equip and unequip sigils that would augment and improve my abilities, granting me power and additional attacks if I met specific criteria. For instance, if I had chained enough attacks together, my uppercut would leave behind a spectre that would deal additional damage and continue my chain of attacks. Others increased my mana regeneration and my attack range.
There’s a surprising amount of depth to Tevi’s combat, and I’m eager to see how other players play when they get their hands on the game later this year. I’m pleased with how the Sigil system adds multiple forms of power rather than just relying on passive stat boosts to make the player feel like they’re growing along with Tevi as they proceed through its story. By the time I had finished the demo, I had aggregated enough points to equip quite a few sigils despite having unlocked so many. I wasn’t able to equip all of the sigils, mind you, but I was able to equip enough to meaningfully change my typical attack combos with additional sigils to spare in case I wanted to meaningfully change my playstyle again. It’s a nice package that doesn’t overload players while also rewarding those who become increasingly confident with Tevi over time.
During the preview, I was able to fight two bosses: Vena and Malphage. I can confidently say that Tevi’s challenge and combat shone during its boss battles, reminding me of Touhou’s multiphase bullet hell bosses that would fill the screen with bullets. Tevi’s bosses had multiple phases, with each phase featuring unique attack patterns that significantly changed up the flow of the battle. Malphage, a giant mutated flower, emitted bullet patterns ranging from gigantic flower projectiles that exploded into trails of bullets to showering the field with gigantic green drops that rolled off of platforms that rose from the ground to support me. As I whittled down its health bars to its final bar, the camera zoomed in on me and got my heart pumping. After completing the demo, I was allowed to fight the bosses EX-forms, exposing me to significantly harder variants of their attack patterns. Even with the additional upgrades found during the demo’s endgame I was quite challenged by the shifts in attack patterns.
Since this is a Chumps Preview, I’m unable to assign a score for Tevi at this time. I’ve merely spent two hours getting a taste of its world and combat, and two hours ain’t enough to definitively say that Tevi is worth your time and consideration. Truth be told, I loved what I tasted, and I’m eager to see how Tevi shapes up between now and its Q3 release.
Tevi contains the makings of an excellent Touhou-inspired metroidvania featuring surprisingly deep combat that is rewarding for novice and veteran players alike. Its sigil system meaningfully changes the combat and its bosses successfully lean into the bullet hell fantasy by filling the screen with many variations of bullets. Despite its difficulty, Tevi is a lot of fun thanks to how combat interweaves swordplay and chains of projectiles into a nice, neat package. If the full game is just as challenging and fun as the demo I played this week, then players will be in for quite the treat later this year.
A preview key was given to DigitalChumps by the publisher for the purpose of this Chumps Preview.
