Dad of War
While No Place for Bravery can often feel like a pixelated adaptation of 2018’s God of War, where its lead protagonist’s violent past comes back to haunt him, forcing him to tackle it head-on, complete with his son in tow, well, that is largely where these games then continue to differ, if only slightly. Regardless of the mixed execution here, No Place for Bravery will still hold a special place in my heart as it’s the first game I tackled on my Steam Deck, making it a fairly decent adventure to take on the go.
No Place for Bravery, while featuring a title that does the game no favors, is a game built upon fatherhood, and what you would do to protect your children. The very beginnings of the game have you playing as Thorn, who sees his daughter taken from him at the hands of a mysterious Warlock, right in front of him. It’s not long after that Thorn then encounters Phid, a young boy who cannot walk and is in desperate need of someone to take care of him. Thorn would then spend years looking for his daughter, Leaf, but would eventually settle down in a small village, owning to the fact that she is gone, and that Phid now needs him more than ever.
While this premise is fantastic to what the game needs from it and is explored to some pretty interesting lengths, Thorn suddenly encounters the same Warlock who took his daughter all those years ago and then mounts one final search, despite a few characters that attempt to convince Thorn that he needs to let this go. While you can take their advice and end the search, with each choice prompting a special quick ending to the game, the adventure will continue if you push the thoughts of quitting aside and push on.
Glitch Factory does a commendable job at setting up this world, layering it with interesting lore and characters, and putting a lot of that at the forefront of the whole story. However, while much of it is through dialogue between characters, any bit of lore or helpful tip is stored in the glossary, a collective work of every bit of additional story or guidance you may need. The problem is that it is sorted in a way where finding what you need is neither quick nor simple. It’s color-coded to at least be somewhat helpful, but additional tabs within this menu would have benefited it greatly, instead of the way where scrolling down causes the page to jump up, moving the cursor higher each time you keep scrolling down. It’s a mess.
Thorn is a retired warrior in a land that is largely dying, one that has seen several factions stepping up to take control. He is a man plagued by nightmares and fueled by his cause to track down Leaf, all while encountering those who would stand in his way or even a few who have his back. While the last portion of the game can lean a bit into far too predictable territory, especially when you start to question a few repeated facts the game mentions several times, I still found the whole narrative to really succeed as a whole, keeping my interest for the full 5-6 hours that this short but sweet adventure would take.
What I found the most appealing about Thorn’s quest was his conviction to track down Leaf, and the burden he placed on himself as a result of failing to protect her. His struggle to hold back his violent past during this adventure felt incredibly well realized, and I would often let him indulge in those tendencies, sometimes to the shock of his companions, but never to his son. There is a moment when you can act on some would-be thieves and put them in their place. After a few quick swipes, they would no longer be a threat, even if they likely wouldn’t have been in the first place. These choices can affect your conversations with certain companions, and even certain choices you’ll make later on. I will say that one choice at the end, was only different by a single line of dialogue, but its impact and meaning felt worlds apart.
Thorn’s journey to find Leaf will take him across the lands around Dewr with key portions of the story driving where you’ll go next. The linear nature of the game is furthered by having certain progression blockers put in place, such as needing your hammer to crush blocks that are in your way, or an arrow to trigger a rotating switch, causing the way forward to manifest itself. It’s not exactly on the level of a Metroidvania, or “Search Action” title, but it’s used sparingly enough that you never feel you need to return to previous areas and miss out on anything. As you check your map, you’ll notice if items are needing to be discovered, so it’s rather simple to get the most out of the game in a single playthrough.
If I had to make a complaint about the level design, it would be that it’s hard to really take in what is a path or the entrance to another zone. Had there been some sort of exit marker to illustrate this, I think it would have made this aspect of the game more readable as it currently stands. I never found myself getting lost, but you’ll often find that some areas that appear to be dead ends are actually where you’re needed to go. I’ll also point out that some areas don’t look like you can traverse them, as one interior location’s flooring looked like it was the wall of the establishment, and it wasn’t until I got a bit curious that I noticed that it was indeed where I needed to go.
While much of the game has you interacting with characters, taking part in dialogue and details about not only your journey but the world at large, combat is going to be the large selling point of this game. While it’s not anything revolutionary or groundbreaking, it certainly gets the job done, Sekiro-style. Thorn will be equipped with a sword, hammer, and crossbow. He can also attack, block, or dodge roll; however, the dodge roll lacks any sort of continued momentum to keep the flow of movement, resulting in leaving yourself practically open after your character has come to a stop; It’s not great.
Thorn and his enemies have a stance meter applied to them. When you parry enemy attacks, it will drain their stance, allowing you to get in a few quick hits once that bar has been depleted. Once you have broken an enemy down, Thorn can execute a finisher. These are incredibly violent despite the pixelated nature of the game’s visuals. You’ll often see your foe kneeling before you, completely defeated and winded from the encounter. And, in one quick button tap, they will be sliced in half or beheaded, leaving only a healing potion and a bloody smear on the ground behind.
As you progress, you’ll track down items and coin, each used to further your power through the few weapons you will collect. This system certainly rewards exploration as you’ll need to find specific items in order to extend your repertoire of skills. These skills are either moves that are present in the basic commands or buffs to extend your combo attacks. That said, you’ll have a shield bash set to L1 and a sword slash set to R1, once you have earned them. You are not slotting skills to certain buttons or anything of the sort. The system certainly works for keeping things streamlined, but those looking for builds or depth may not find what they are looking for here.
No Place for Bravery has a few difficulty settings to allow you to enjoy the game at your own pace. Here you can select how difficult you want to adventure to be from anywhere from Story Mode to normal, to hard, or bravery, which is absolutely cutthroat. You can then choose how much health, defense, or stamina you have, from a variety of settings within each category. You can further this customization with how much damage you dish out as well as how long the parry window is, ensuring you are able to go toe to toe with the game’s biggest challenges.
Now, my entire playthrough of the game was on the Steam Deck and honestly, it ran incredibly well all things considered. I only had one particular issue and that is the menu would not allow me to quit the game or return to the menu. I could manually tap the screen, but the d-pad would lock up and simply not work. This is honestly the only issue I had from a technical point of view when playing it on Valve’s handheld. It is worth noting that the game is considered a “?” on compatibility, so it is possible that this issue might be fixed at some point when the game sees a patch to make it verified for the handheld.
Pixelated action games like Hyper Light Drifter and Children Of Morta are a type of game that I am very much into. While those titles are vastly better than what No Place for Bravery offers, I still feel it shines alongside those titles for very different reasons, especially its story. The short length of this game could deter someone from thinking this is a substantial journey, having you trek across large sprawling environments, tinkering with system after system, but that isn’t what this is. It’s a touching story about a father trying to make up for his failure to protect his family, layered with a violent past that comes back to haunt him. No Place for Bravery is great for what it offers, even though it does stumbles from time to time, but it also is a game that didn’t have me itching to dive back into it, which is about the only damning thing I can really say about it.
Developer - Glitch Factory. Publisher - Ysbryd Games. Released - September 22nd, 2022. Available On - Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows. Rated - (M) Violence, Blood, Partial Nudity, Language. Platform Reviewed - Steam Deck. Review Access - No Place for Bravery was purchased for review and ran unverified on the Steam Deck.