Today, we’re looking at demo version of Realmsoft’s Clockwork Ambrosia (2026).
Simple yet gorgeous main menu. The hand cursor reminds me of Final Fantasy for some reason. Anyway, let’s start new game right away!
It was nice relaxing blimp flight until the pilot notice a robot dragon in distant.
Then the robot dragon attacks the blimp, forcing It to crash land. OK, game. No need for sarcasm there. That just pouring salt on open wound for Iris the protagonist.
I can only jump and walk around. After passing several areas, I find chest that contains energy pistol! Soldier_mvm_loot_common02.wav
Now I can fight robots. It’s slow on trigger so I can destroy it pretty safely. Apparently, this town has problem of robots going rogue and they neutralized the citizens around here. So, I’m the only human left here.
Apparently, there’s another human in this part and they destroy those robots with the powerful rifle.
What the heck? I’m also human, dumbass. It’s no use. Paranoia gets the best of him and they want to kill anyone that’s not themselves. Me included.
Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you see it, the robot dragon interferes our fight and blow us all. Fortunately, Iris has parachute with her. It’s supposed to be nice landing until a small chopper robot notice her and cut her parachute with its propeller. I know the robots gone rogue and such but don’t be jerk like that! As Iris falls, the title drops.
Iris drops safely at a forest. Then she finds item that can repair her armor. Medic_mvm_loot_common03.wav
I met Thalia the first NPC that I can talk with. She looks like Amelia Wil Tesla Seyrun from Slayers series. She misses mine key so it’s up to me to find it while she stares at the portcullis and does practically nothing else. I find workbench near Thalia. But I can only craft something that Iris already worn so it’s of no use for now.
This sign keeps reminding me that I can repair my armor. Yes, I get it. But my armor is full! I don’t need repair my armor that badly. So, here’s the health system works. You see those 3 red blocks on upper left? Those are the -so called- armor pips. Once all the armor pip gone, I will die when I get another hit. The yellow bar is energy gauge that I can use to repair my armor. As for the gun, those 3 blue blocks besides the gun icon are ammo. The ammo depletes when I fire my gun by 1 block for each shot, naturally. I can charge my shot to produce stronger shot yet it still costs 1 block too. But you have to wait for charged shot to be generated successfully. The ammo will recharge on its own but it takes time so you can’t just go gun-blazing like in Megaman or Metroid. The weird spinning rectangle on floor is auto-save point, by the way.
It goes without saying that the chests contain useful reward. This one gives me a module which is modification for my gun.
Then I encounter first proper boss fight. This boss robot either charges forward or shoots its gun. Either way, I can dodge its attack by simply switching plane between the railway or ground below. Once the robot’s health reaches 50%, it destroys the railway so I can’t switch plane to dodge its attack anymore but the fight doesn’t go harder that much. I don’t know why this feels familiar.
After defeating the boss robot, I find the mine key. But when I reunite with Thalia. However, the lift that I stepped on falls down to the mine. Luckily, there’s no fall damage.
Then I meet this armored animal. See that red diamond indicator above them? It’s armor block. My gun’s shot only plinks harmlessly on them. There must be way to defeat them. Not that, they’re annoying enemy or anything even though they can be hostile. It’s just my violence tendency to kill things in video game.
I found module that add ammo count but only for the charged shot. I like to use charged shot but this module doesn’t help me against armored animal or that boulder that block doorway below.
That robot also armored enemy so I can’t get rid of it for now. But it helps me destroy these rocks to reveal a path. Thanks, dummy!
Eventually, I find a missile launcher! Now I can destroy those rocks and robots! Soldier_mvm_loot_rare03.wav
I’m lost in this mine for around 2 hours because this mine is more complex than forest and has monotonous background/wall. So, I figure I have to check the map. This looks like Metroidvania’s map. The room with cryptic letter is checkpoint. Quite unfortunately, there’s no other sign or indicator on map so it’s kind of hard to identify the map in detail.
Then I found module for the missile launcher. It’s already deadly on its own but now there’s module that allow me to fire double missile at once. Soldier_mvm_loot_godlike01.wav
Finally, I’m stumbled into another boss robot. But this one is armored so I need to hit it with robot. Oh, wait. No. I have to hit that purple tube on its back. So, I need to get past those legs first. This boss’ design reminds me of Capcom’s Armored Warrior.
I manage to sneak behind him but that’s enough to hit his weak point. Luckily, the robot boss drops rock from ceiling that I can use to hop onto it and reach the weak point with my gun. There’s arrow indicator that indicates the robot is about to charge. It’s like The Bastion of Valour in Warhammer 40K Shootas, Blood & Teef.
I defeat the boss with quite ease and I obtained heel that allow me to dash. It will be better if I had the dash first so I can get past the robot legs easier. Sadly, the dash is short kind of like the one in The Last Faith.
Then I take a ride on mine cart and casually watch those drill robot get ran over. To be honest, first time in this part I don’t get on the mine cart as intended because I fear that the mine cart is trap that ran fast into pitfall. So, I had hard time to defeat these drill robots and died. Do remember that my weapon has limited ammo. Even the missile launcher.
There’s a dead end at the end of the railway. But suddenly, Thalia breaks the wall to rescue me. She regrettably says that this is the end of the demo and later fix the dead end. I’m not disappointed. In fact, I’m astounded with how long the demo is. This demo is amazingly large.
Thalia opens a door to -so called- Super-Special End-of-Demo area. In the special area, I meet a couple of NPCs that represent the developer and they talked about the progress of the full game. More importantly, there’s chest behinds me that contains…
...a double revolver! Unlike the plasma pistol, I need to reload the revolvers manually or Iris does it automatically if all of the ammo is depleted. Time to end this.
Realmsoft’s Clockwork Ambrosia (2026) is quite great Metroidvania. If that’s the correct genre for this game. As I have mentioned before, you can just mash shoot button during combat because you have to wait a bit to refill the lost ammo. But because of that, the charged shot feels more valuable. Especially, when I must destroy rock with missile launcher to clear passages. So, the combat feels more puzzle than action and I don’t mind with that. Luckily, enemies aren’t fast to attack me so it balances out with the player need to pause their firing to refill the ammo. The mobility ability includes: dash and wall grip. Enemies drop crafting material that may not for everyone’s taste. But during my playthrough, I don’t feel the urgency to farm certain material. Even if there’s useful item that I need to craft, I feel like the crafting material for it is not hard to come by. The graphic is very neat and colorful. The sound effect is good. I like the 4th wall breaking humor sense in the game. The steampunk setting is pretty great.
Summary: It gets pass on my wishlist
Game has solid gameplay. The combat leans toward puzzle than action but I like it regardless. I’m curious about the continuity so it’s on my wishlist. Wait a moment!
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