The Miraculous license continues to be available on consoles, and Marinette’s adventures are clearly enjoying some success. I still haven’t gotten over the reading statistics from the previous episode’s test, but it’s a safe bet that this one will get fewer views...
Cataclysm in Paris – or almost
I live very well with the fact that I am not the target of the Miraculous games, yet I immerse myself with pleasure in the small annual batch of children’s games. I don’t watch – nor even my daughters for that matter – the Miraculous series, so I’m not very aware of its universe, but I know that it is rather popular with children, and even – something rare – also with parents.
The universe is colorful, good-natured and we have a classic pattern of “Oh no, a supervillain transforms the inhabitants into monsters and threatens Paris, let’s go challenge him!” “. Simple, effective and with humor. This new adaptation plunges Paris into chaos and Marinette’s superheroic allies are possessed by Egyptian artifacts. It is up to her and her sidekick Cat Noir to cross the long levels that separate them from the confrontation to put them back on the right path and tackle the real threat weighing on the city.
After the long introduction, we are dropped into the middle of Paris under a threatening sky… that no one seems to notice. Some portions of the city are buried under stones, ice or sand, but this does not seem to particularly worry the population who go about their business. Sacred Parisians!
We are offered, a bit like in a Megaman, to choose in which order we will go through the levels, and therefore the order of the bosses to face. This is of little importance, since each defeated boss frees an ally who can come and lend us a helping hand with a unique power. There are therefore a total of 4 allies to free before being able to launch the final assault on the main threat of the game.
We therefore go through 3 to 4 levels before reaching each boss, levels allowing us above all to collect essential sparks to help our two friends evolve. Between each level, you can in fact distribute the sparks in several gauges (strength, agility, life, XP multiplier, etc.) in order to improve and face the increasingly angry threats of the game.
This Miraculous: Paris Under Siege is not an easy game as you might think. The fights are very numerous, the enemies do not hesitate to attack in all directions, and as it is impossible to effectively lock the enemies, it quickly becomes a free-for-all. Believe it or not, I quickly understood that rushing at full speed while avoiding most of the fights (some of which are mandatory) was much more effective in progressing through the game without frustration!
In addition, certain platform passages are complex to manage, because of the camera or the depth that it is difficult for our two main protagonists to have to use Triangle to reach certain places, a key which is also used for attacking more long range (whip or stick), which makes certain passages quite ridiculous and frustrating.
I should also mention that the game suffers from quite pronounced tearing and starts to lag a lot in places, for no particular reason. Maybe running quickly while dodging all the enemies doesn’t give the game time to load correctly, or maybe I don’t unload enemies loaded into memory if they aren’t defeated, who knows…
It is therefore possible to switch from Lady bug to Chat noir during the game, but it would be an exaggeration to say that this is done on the fly, since you have to hold L1 for a few seconds to be entitled to a magnificent fade to black and move on to the second character.
Note that if one of the two dies, the game is over, and that HP does not recharge between sub-levels. Fortunately, the enemies drop as much healing as experience, and it is possible to activate dispensers to recharge, but you have to remember to heal the second character to hope to escape, then suffering the famous black screen and the few seconds of beating required to change heroes. It’s absurd.
Our two protagonists are not very equal, Cat Noir having a better reach and a greater damage zone thanks to his staff. However, Marinette has her whip/yo-yo which remains quite effective when enemies are grouped together. Collision management is quite clumsy, especially against bosses. You never really know if you’re doing damage or suffering damage.
Finally, musically, it’s a bit of a desert, the developers having visibly “forgotten” to put musical tracks in many portions of the game, we end up with not only large deserted spaces, but also silent ones.
It’s quite rare, but I had a really bad time with this game, and even my daughters didn’t want to play it – which never happens. Miraculous: Paris Under Siege lacked a lot of polish and attention from its developers. The idea of offering free progression and choosing which bosses to face and in what order is nice, but at what cost?
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