Perhaps it’s the growth of the cozy gaming space that has managed to color my expectations for what games will be purely based on their art style, but given the general look of Constance I was lulled into thinking it would be a pleasantly-approachable Metroidvania with a flair for the artistic. Suffice it to say that within the first 30 minutes of play, the game had pretty thoroughly disabused me of that notion, and I’m fine with that. I do include that tidbit as a warning though to anyone else who could be fooled. While it isn’t as nail-bitingly difficult as the likes of Silksong, this also is by no means a game intending to take it easy on you.

Armed with some artistic flair and your trusty brush pretty early on, in some regards this reminds me of the pretty excellent Symphonia, just with a paintbrush rather than a conductor’s baton. In classic genre style, this game is heavily geared on you toughing it out through some stretches of new areas, taking out enemies and surviving traversal challenges until you manage to grab your next upgrade. Armed with a new ability, you can then expect to need to apply it quickly, gaining access to new areas and facing new threats. It’s a well-worn expectation, and for the most part Constance shows little interest in deviating from it. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that, especially since overall there’s a great balance of challenges to both your combat skills and quick-fingered reflexes as you try to tackle increasingly-difficult areas that will force you to show off the mastery of every technique you can muster.

The shame here is that I do think there’s a bit of a disconnect between the game’s visual style and overall degree of difficulty. While there are absolutely tougher titles out there in the genre, this doesn’t pull too many punches, and in some spots you’ll be actively challenged to stay alive, in part because some stretches without a save point can be quite long and on the whole the game tends to be stingy with heals. One tough option the game gives you when you die is to continue from where you are but with heartier enemies, and when powered up even the simpler ones can be lethal. That said, it’s important to note that doing so will also garner you greater rewards if you manage to survive, so there’s always that incentive to play along and grit it out if possible. In terms of the flow of play and the controls I’d say this is roughly in the middle of the pack, not quite as tight as the best out there, but thankfully the level of challenge is lenient enough not to feel like the game is constantly punishing you either. If you’re a genre fan I’d say this is well worth picking up.