Magical Blush (PC) Review

Editor’s Note: The following review is unscored due to a myriad of technical issues encountered during review. Treat this as a first impression for the time being; we intend to return to Magical Blush at a later date.

I never like to write a negative review. Developers put a lot of hard work into the games they release, especially when it comes to Indie games. However, certain aspects of games immediately put a sour taste in my mouth, no matter the hard work put in. Magical Blush is a Metroidvania with a lot of interesting ideas, but a few blemishes that really make it hard to recommend.

The first thing that I have to mention is that, unlike my usual process, I was forced to review the game entirely in fullscreen mode. There are no resolution options, nor is there an option to toggle to windowed mode. Using the Alt+Enter or F11 option worked to force windowed mode, but every time the game moved to a new screen, it forced it back into fullscreen. I’m not sure if this was a bug, but it led to another problem.

I have a large curved monitor, and for some reason part of the game was cut off no matter what I did. This was likely a resolution issue, but due to a lack of options to adjust it, I couldn’t do anything about it. With that frustrating taste in my mouth, I nonetheless pushed forward to review Magical Blush as best I could.

In Magical Blush you play as Arnin, a powerful mage who guards the elemental lords. Arnin returns from the astral plane, discovering that a mysterious figure has released the elemental lords and a powerful chaotic magic. As a result, her world has been devastated by the chaos, and it is up to Arnin to put things right.

Magical Blush is a metroidvania that plays similarly to earlier games in the Castlevania series. It is level-based, but each level has a map you explore. As you gain new powers, you can return to various areas to unlock new pathways. There are hidden areas, and according to the Steam page, there is “rewarding backtracking.”

I refer to the Steam page here because I couldn’t get far enough into the game due to the resolution issues. Some of the platforming requires some precision, and without being able to see certain areas, I was effectively flying blind. What I did get to play had some clunky platforming too, which was a bit disappointing.

With that said, the controls are smooth, and the art style is really interesting. The combat feels a little clunky, but that could be improved as you play and unlock new abilities. The lore I found early on was intriguing, and the characters were interesting too. There is also a variety of magic that you’ll find over the course of the game, according to the in-game menu at least.

Overall, I want to like Magical Blush, but I feel like the developers missed a simple (yet obvious) problem that has impacted my ability to effectively enjoy the game. I did a bit of research post-release to see if I was the only one with this issue, and it seems that people have also had problems with various other janky elements of platforming and level design in addition to the lack of resolution adjustment.

These problems are a disappointing blemish on what was one of my most anticipated games for this year. Regardless, I can’t really recommend Magical Blush right now unless you’re aware that you may not be able to properly play it. If it gets ported to consoles, or this bug/issue gets resolved, I would definitely recommend giving it a look though.

A PC Review Copy of Magical Blush was provided by Dangen Entertainment for this review.