Itta

Bullet-hell games aren't often known for melancholic narratives and exploration at a sedate-pace, but ITTA isn't your usual bullet-hell experience. This is a top-down adventure that will appeal to fans of Hyper Light Drifter: Special Edition, Titan Souls and the like, one full of confident storytelling and very challenging bullet hell bosses. While its difficulty curve can wildly fluctuate, making it less than palatable to genre newbies, those with a taste for danger who want a new bullet-hell extravaganza might just find their new obsession.

ITTA isn’t a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but I also can’t offer up anything more than a tepid endorsement given all of the trouble I had with its bugginess, reluctance to share information about how the mechanics work behind the scenes, and an odd difficulty curve that ensures that the final boss is less difficult than the very first one you face. ITTA has its strengths, however, such as generous hitboxes and invincibility frames that make it possible to breeze through some fights despite it never being entirely clear which part of your character’s sprite actually takes damage.

ITTA's not a game-changing masterpiece, but it has tight design and wonderfully crafted aesthetics in a world of hope, despair, and bullet-hell.

ITTA could be a beloved and exciting game among the indie titles. However, the developer didn’t use the game’s potential and settled with a simple game. Yet still, with a smooth gameplay and mysterious environment, the game can bring an enjoyable 4-hour experience for adventure fans

ITTA feels like a game made for the hardcore, bullet-hell obsessives out there that's friendly for less hardcore players who want to experience the story. It's short, and not quite perfect on Switch, but it's a strong game nonetheless.

Despite the flaws, ITTA is a title that stands out in a way. The graphics and fluid animations, for example, show zeal and delicacy while pleasing the eyes. Along with the intriguing narrative and the almost abstract sound part, the title manages to create a melancholy and introspective atmosphere that can be palpable. It is a pity that everything ends so quickly: it is possible to complete ITTA in about three to four hours without problems, and there is not much to do afterwards.

New indie game Itta combines a dreary narrative with hairy bullet-hell bosses, though some half-baked systems hold it back from greatness.

All in all, ITTA is a recommended indie game with pleasing visuals and with tough bosses offering satisfying finishers.

ITTA’s unique blend of the boss-rush formula and action-packed schmup gameplay makes for a really enjoyable experience, though a lack of depth stops it from striving towards greatness. I found that a lot of the boss battles just started to feel a bit too samey in design over time, whilst the fact that I spent the majority of my time just using the shotgun shows that the weapon variation wasn’t necessarily up to much either. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a really good time with the game though and I had a ton of satisfyingly challenging fun seeing the intriguing tale through to its conclusion. I just wish there could have been a little bit more variety on offer across each showdown with the game’s epic foes.

ITTA's different parts are discrete from each other, but they work quite well as a single mechanism. Its gameplay is surely the thing that keeps one engaged throughout their experience, however the story and the graphics are almost as good, offering a well articulated game which is worth playing, even if it's a bit short.