As more Metroid games come out, we’re seeing fewer games similar to the subgenre’s originators (Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Moon) and more Clearly taking inspiration from later games. Bō: Path of the Azure Lotus is one such example, with many clear similarities to Hollow Knight in both gameplay and narrative. In some ways, this works very well for Path of the Azure Lotus – if you want to be inspired by a game, use one that has a lot of good stuff to build. However, Path of the Green Lotus pales in comparison to its inspiration, as it makes the already problematic mechanics and features of Hollow Knight even worse, such as unclear maps and frustrating platforming. challenge. It’s a perfectly good enough game if based solely on its own merits, but doesn’t stand out at all when compared to its stronger contemporaries.
In Green Lotus Road, you play as the titular Bo, a smallpox tasked with fulfilling an ancient prophecy and defeating a terrifying giant monster after falling from the sky. Armed with a bō cane, Bō must travel through picturesque locations and fight his way through, meeting characters inspired by Japanese folklore and battling monsters. It’s an incredibly narrative match, but it happens after hours of coy character dialogue without much guidance other than “go get this ability and move on to the next area.” . The story of Green Lotus Road takes a long time to unfold, making the first half of the game feel directionless. Once the story starts to get on track, the game is already heading toward its conclusion, ultimately causing the overall narrative pace to feel too slow initially, and then become rushed and difficult to follow.
I want to get lost in the world of this game. Path of the Teal Lotus is a beautiful game featuring a colorful, hand-drawn 2.5D style that blends vibrant greens, electric blues, muted purples, and sparkling reds. The character and enemy designs are varied and pop against the background, with details that help highlight the weaknesses of the NPCs you want to talk to and the enemies you want to attack. The world relies on the tried-and-true method of associating specific colors with each location, and then relies on said colors to depict those same locations on the map, reinforcing each different location and the unique challenges you’ll encounter there, whether it’s snow The icy blue of a covered mountaintop or the soft pink of a forest in full bloom with cherry blossoms.
Composer Moisés Camargo brings these scenes to life through an incredible score that incorporates traditional Japanese string instruments. The overall sound design is also great, and is paired with unique visual indicators to help discern what’s going on with Bō during particularly busy scenes – for example, a sharp clang and slight burst of recoil let you know Bō is attacking the impenetrable of armor, or the satisfying roar and brief release of white particle effects that indicate Bō successfully bounces off an enemy’s head.
As beautiful as the world is to look at and hear, it’s too tricky to get around. Path of the Green Lotus attempts to straddle the line between the linear progression of a traditional action game and the loopy exploration of a metroidvania, but it’s less than successful on both fronts. Each area of it is mostly independent, with the wheel’s spokes connecting back to a hub. In a completely linear game, such a structure wouldn’t be a problem, since you’ll be dealing with each spoke one by one. But Teal Lotus Road leans heavily into those urban styles, with its main mission and multiple optional side missions requiring you to return to other areas. While the fast travel system helps, you still have to travel to specific locations to use it, and the rarity of those locations means it takes a lot of time to get to them. Backtracking becomes increasingly difficult as the game progresses, as the map’s spokes become longer and further apart, defeating the necessary interconnectivity to mitigate aimlessness. The frustration of exploration.
To make matters worse, the map of Green Lotus Road is not very good. I would look at it many times and wonder where I should go next, and the format showed that I had explored each area. Eventually, I’d stumble upon an NPC or hallway I’d missed – the Cyan Lotus Path marks a room as having been fully explored, even if you just walked through it, but it doesn’t add a marker for other discoveries. You really fully explore that room. The result is a map that sometimes says you’ve completely discovered a corner of the map, when in fact, you may not actually have entered one of the areas on the path to where you need to go next. An objective tracker will generously take away much of the guesswork, at least pointing you in the right direction so you know which area to explore, but this will only reduce the unrewarded guesswork in exploration rather than eliminate it entirely.
On the other hand, the combat in Green Lotus Road is also great. Bo swings their staff with acrobatic grace, knocking back enemies with a satisfying thump. While in the air, the staff can be used to bounce enemies away, adding a level of aerial acrobatics to Bō’s dance-like moves. It’s easy to pick up, but has a very high skill ceiling, especially in the game’s second half, when the action of a tenacious Yokai boss battle is built on top of Bō’s additional abilities — like sprinting and wall rolls like Spider Ball — —Increase the intensity of each confrontation. Bo’s rhythmic movements help master the pattern of each fight; there’s a dance to learn here, and every counter you master ensures you’re leading the show. There were some boss fights that frustrated me enough to make me give up on the game for a while, but my qualms were never with the mechanics, but with my own inability to respond to enemy attacks in the way the game clearly directed me to.
However, I do have concerns about platforming. Bo’s ethereal movements might add to the dance-like feel of combat, but they turn the platforming portions of the game into a terrifying slog. One moment in particular – where you have to make your way through two back-to-back, frustratingly long platforming challenges in an icy cave – almost convinced me to give up on the game for good. The game’s structure simply doesn’t allow Bō to perform tight jumps and precise movements, resulting in a small number of jumping mistakes that can be irritating in some parts of the game, where one mistake too many can send you right back into the game. Stabs, Moving Platforms, Shattered Walls, and Bō Tracking Bats are the last spawn point at the start. Thankfully, many of the game’s platforming challenges are optional, hiding secret shortcuts or collectibles. But the emergence of mandatory requirements has on several occasions brought the momentum of progress to an annoying halt.
Bō: Path of the Azure Lotus is a gorgeous game with an incredible art style and sound design that enhances an already colorful world that I wanted to explore. But moving around in the game is often a chore, and Bō’s ethereal dance-like movements often lead to frustrating deaths in platforming challenges. The game at least does a good job with the combat, and the story is exciting once it really gets going – but there are just too many obstacles to fully enjoying what this game has to offer.
