Defenders of Ekron Review

By Kevin Tavore,

The shmup genre and anime alike are time-tested favorite exports from Japan amongst the gaming community. Purists would say only the Japanese can make them, while others cite them as merely a style anyone can appropriate and do justice if they have the skill and creativity. With Defenders of Ekron - Definitive Edition, we see a Chilean developer named In Vitro Games take on the task and come away with a mixed bag, full of tropes galore but also with a few details that make the game stand out as an enjoyable experience. If you can get past the storytelling, the quality gameplay’s likely to hook you through to the end.

In gameplay, Defenders of Ekron feels like a list of good to great spins on the shmup genre all wrapped into a quality package that delivers sheer variety and enough difficulty to make the whole thing rewarding. The core gameplay is that of a twin-stick shooter, but instead of standard levels or arenas, the game drops you mostly into scrolling sections with the occasional metroidvania-esque level exploration. This alone is enough of a spin on the genre to make it feel somewhat fresh and different than its contemporaries, but it’s In Vitro’s approach to game design that sets the game above those contemporaries.

Encounters are only rarely repeated. You won’t have to master a few different enemies in different combinations as you would in most shmups. Instead, In Vitro injects multiple boss battles into every level that challenge you in new ways and force you to constantly adapt to new situations. In between are sections full of puzzles and other challenges to keep you on your toes. This is what makes the game so much fun — it’s a great feeling to jump into a new level and be hit by new enemies and new hurdles to overcome every single time. It makes for an exciting experience when others in the genre are often content to offer what seems like dull repetition in comparison.

The variety is complemented by the game’s difficulty, which is not excessively high but is certainly high enough to keep you awake. It’s no bullet hell, but you will need to dodge constant streams of projectiles from various sources as you take on your enemies, especially in boss fights. While your health can be regenerated, it comes at the expense of experience you could use to upgrade your ship, which makes avoiding damage a high priority throughout most of the game. Even if you do heal, there’s still more than enough challenge to ensure you’ll die every so often until you can master the latest encounters.

The game’s optional content further cements the level and combat design’s excellence thanks to a simulation room. This room is a series of fairly difficult challenges that will test you in mastering all of your ship’s capabilities, including using each of the weapons effectively, shielding, and more. These challenges are very well designed and will offer hours of fun to those who like this kind of thing.

Unfortunately, the game’s excellent level design is hamstrung by questionable design decisions and a downright awful story. With healing and your ship’s supercharge mode tied to Oxus, the game’s equivalent of experience that lets you upgrade your ship, you’ll almost never want to use them as that short term gain can seriously hinder you in the long term. I never used supercharge once until I finally had all the upgrades I wanted, and even then I tried to avoid it to use Oxus on healing instead. The game seems to be balanced around you not using it, but it does seem like it would have been quite a bit more fun to actually use all these cool special abilities more than once an hour.

The story stars a group of 15ish-year-olds who happen to be the world’s most elite pilots. That’s one standard anime trope down. That’s followed up with villains, mentors, peers and others who follow every trope in the book the writers could squeeze in. You’ve got the commanders who don’t trust you until you’ve proven yourself, and you’ve got the squad mates who bully you and generally treat you like trash until you prove yourself, at which point they dramatically change course and love you. It’s just...not good at all.

The achievements aren’t excessively difficult. You’ll get a couple along the way to finishing the game. You’ll also need to complete the optional Invaders of Ekron mode. Then it’s on to finding some collectibles, completing all the training challenges and completing a speed run. Overall, this should be tough but is certainly doable in about 15 hours or less if you’re skilled in the genre.

Summary

If you’re looking for a standard Japanese shmup, Defenders of Ekron is going to disappoint, but this Chilean gem offers a nuanced level design that allows it to excel, becoming far better than most of its contemporaries through a revolving door of fun, challenging encounters and enough content to leave you more than content. Sure, it’s full of awful anime tropes that make you resent every story section, and it’s got some game design systems that actively hinder your enjoyment, but those negatives aren’t nearly enough to weigh down the game. For anyone simply looking for a bit of challenge with gaming that puts a smile on your face, Defenders of Ekron is an experience worth having.

Positives

Fantastic level design offering a ton of variety
Difficulty is right on the sweet spot
Training challenges are very fun

Negatives

Being forced to choose between power ups and leveling up is ridiculous
Story is terrible

Ethics

The reviewer spent approximately five hours killing bosses, solving puzzles and completing challenges while completing most of the game, unlocking 2 out of 13 achievements for 100 Gamerscore using an Xbox One X. A download code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

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Written by Kevin Tavore

Kevin is a lover of all types of media, especially any type of long form story. The American equivalent of Aristotle, he'll write about anything and everything and you'll usually see him as the purveyor of news, reviews and the occasional op-ed. He's happy with any game that's not point and click or puzzling, but would always rather be outdoors in nature.