Constance Review - Is This Truly Hollow Knight x Celeste?
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Every canvas is a journey all its own. Helen Franken.
Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to a Video Gamers Podcast review. I am Ace, and today we're taking a look at Constance. We were actually provided with a review key for this game by the devs, but this is not a sponsored review, all right?
What is Constance and what makes it unique?
No sponsor, got it? Before diving in, I want to give a quick bit of context on the game's presentation. Constance didn't come out of nowhere. This is a title that made small waves in indie circles thanks to its early demos and showcases. The moment people saw that hand-painted art and animation, it immediately stood out from other Metroidvanias. So going in, as you can expect, my expectations were hopeful. I was wondering if this game could possibly live up to the potential of its visuals and its premise. Constance is a hand-painted platformer metroidvania that, in its own words, is a 2D hand-drawn action adventure featuring a paintbrush-wielding artist striving to escape from a colorful but decaying inner world created by your own declining mental health.
The marketing for this game claimed it would be a mix of Hollow Knight and Celeste, and I could say that's not too far off from the truth. You play as Constance, and you need to find a way back to your world. You experience intense combat, precise platforming, and tons of incredible environments, music, and characters on your journey to do so. One thing I want to touch on early is just how striking the art direction is the moment you start moving. The way Constance's body swirls and shifts like living paint, giving her a fluidity that stands out, even among other hand-drawn games, the world just seems to blend and bleed around her, with environments that feel like they're pulled straight from a painter's sketchbook.
Even small details, like how paint splashes on the floor when you dodge, makes exploring feel alive. It's a game where you can pause the screen almost anywhere, and it looks like concept art. The main mechanic is paint. Constance is made of paint and she can use it to dodge through enemies, climb or pierce walls, even set off explosions. However, paint is a limited resource. You must use it strategically, as running out while platforming or fighting can put you into a difficult position and leave you vulnerable to enemies and obstacles alike. kind of like when you run out of stamina in a Souls game. However, paint comes back passively over time, so you don't have to wait that long to get it back. But if you just can't wait, you can still trigger these moves at the cost of your health instead, playing at a higher risk to defeat a boss or enemy faster, or if you just need to go that much further to finish a puzzle.
I really appreciate how the paint system forces you to think about movement before you act. There are so many moments where I had to plan out a sequence in my head, Okay, I dash here, I climb here, pierce through this wall, hop on this ledge. And when it all came together, it felt amazing to string all these things. But when it didn't come together, when I dashed one too many times or ran out of paint midair and plummeted into the spikes, I always felt like that was on me. It was not on the game. And that's a good sign of a well-balanced mechanic. The world of Constance is large and open and filled with secrets. It allows you to tackle every area as you wish, when you wish. You can get a camera that allows you to take snapshots of locations and pin it on your map.
It's a very handy ability should you find an unreachable upgrade. So you don't forget and you can come back for it later. As you progress, you'll be unlocking new movement abilities and upgrades that you can carry into the next area, making your journey all the more satisfying, where you can use those new moves to dominate or skip right past enemies. As you explore, the different zones really start to stand apart from each other, not just visually, but mechanically. Some areas focus heavily on platforming challenges, while others may focus more on enemy encounters, and the others give you environmental puzzles that make you rethink how you're going to use your paint.
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