Tevi [Review]
Bullet hell metroidvania Tevi is now on PlayStation.
Tevi. Credit: PM Studios / CreSpirit / Neverland Entertainment
CreSpirit and PM Studios’ Tevi is an anime-style metroidvania that stands out from the crowd by featuring bullet hell gameplay mechanics and a highly customizable battle system. The game has a lot of depth in its combat and feels great to play.
Mechanical genius Tevi goes on an adventure in the world of Az to find Astral Gears, rare artifacts with high concentrations of mana. Az is a vibrant continent still reeling after a civil war between humans, animal-eared beastkin, and the bio-mechanical magitech. The balance is delicate and tensions are palpable, as Tevi finds out when she inevitably gets involved. On her quest, Tevi is joined by Celia and Sable, angelic and demonic magitech who complement her hand-to-hand combat with ranged magic attacks.
Tevi. Credit: PM Studios / CreSpirit / Neverland Entertainment
In terms of story and narrative, I didn’t find Tevi remarkable. The story in each area of the game plays out like an episode, sometimes without enough connective tissue to make the game feel cohesive; the story often meanders and lacks forward thrust. I never grew to truly care about the characters or the world’s lore-heavy conflict. Dialogue was overwritten such that the emotional core and true drama of events didn’t shine through. I’d often find myself skimming the cutscenes to get to the point, despite the strong Japanese voicework that brought life to them. It didn’t help that I think the characters are a bit bland visually. However, the bosses and some enemies do really stand out.
Mechanically, Tevi is a by-the-numbers metroidvania. Ability gated areas requiring new moves such as high jump, double jump, sliding, special block breaking, and more will halt your progress in certain areas or allow secrets to be found. Where Tevi stands out is its combat.
Tevi. Credit: PM Studios / CreSpirit / Neverland Entertainment
Tevi’s cute, chibi anime presentation is a bright sheen that might fool you into thinking this is a simple game, but underneath is a flexible and deep combat system. Combat combines melee with long range attacks, and hitting enemies repeatedly without getting hurt creates combos. Mixing up the moves you execute will grant extra damage. This gets affected by an overwhelming bounty of buffs and debuffs that can stack; there are so many that there’s a dedicated screen you can pull up during combat to figure them out. Enemies (and you) have a “break” or staggered state that you must exploit, especially on bosses.
On the surface, this doesn’t sound very complex, but customization of your abilities is more granular than I’ve ever seen in a game of this type through the sheer number of sigils you can equip. Sigils will modify your stats, add moves to combos, increase or decrease damage of individual moves, apply buffs or debuffs, and more. It’s up to you to find what combination of sigils best suits your fighting style so you can squeeze out as much damage as possible. There are dozens of them, with values ranging from 0-9; by the end of the game you’ll have well over 200 points to distribute between them.
Tevi. Credit: PM Studios
During battle, you also have to contend with a bullet hell, especially during bosses. You have a limited number of bullet nullification moves you can perform, otherwise you must avoid shots or perfectly time attacks that include dodge in your combos. In normal difficulty mode, it’s not that challenging, but by late game, bullet density greatly increases and it becomes more important to be careful.
Tevi. Credit: PM Studios / CreSpirit / Neverland Entertainment
Combat feels great. Tevi is quick on her feet and the responsive controls make dishing out combos fluid. Hitting enemies is satisfying because of how tactile the impacts are; monsters will often freeze as you stun them with your attacks. You’ll hover in the air as you repeatedly strike with your weapons and pummel enemies. Attack effects are flashy and damage numbers stream upwards. You can button mash, but it’s not as effective or satisfying as mixing it up and successfully avoiding damage.
I’m impressed by how well Tevi juggles its balance between metroidvania exploration, crunchy combat, and bullet hell mechanics. It’ll take you around 30 hours to beat the game—far longer if you seek out every hidden item and complete every challenge. I wish that the story and writing were stronger, especially considering how much dialogue there is and the length of the game, but I guess you can’t have it all. I still recommend Tevi.
Tevi is available now on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation (PS4 / PS5).
Overall Score: 7/10
Played on: PS5
