Copy provided by publisher.

Phantom Trigger is a self proclaimed “Neon Slasher”, developed by Bread Team and published by Tiny Build Games. You travel through monster infested, surreal worlds while trying to understand what is going on in reality. While the idea of going back and forth between two worlds can be a bit jarring at first, it emerges as one of the best parts of the game.

The game begins with Stan and his wife talking, until Stan faints. You then begin to play as the Outsider, in a vibrant yet strange world. You meet Toad, who tells you to go talk to a tree. At this point, you have one weapon, your whip, which you use with “X”. You are then given a second tool, a cube of ice, which functions as a sword with “Y”. Soon, you are sent into a portal to a dangerous land, and the true action starts. As you travel through these lands, you have flashes where you see what is happening to Stan. With these visions, you begin to slowly piece together the story.

As the Outsider, you have three weapons at your disposal, a whip, a sword and fists, controlled with “X”, “Y” and “A” respectively. You can also teleport to a nearby location with “B”. As you use the weapons, you level them up, and learn new techniques. For example, when you get the sword, you can only swing it, but soon you unlock the ability to create a circle of ice with it.

Toad and other NPCs live in a hub area, which provides access to the portal that takes you to where the action begins. Inside the portal, you have to go through different worlds, defeating enemies until you reach the boss at the end of each area. To succeed, you need to learn enemy patterns, and adapt your attacks to these patterns. Defeating enemies sometimes results in a health recovery item, but there are also checkpoints scattered throughout each area. These checkpoints fully recover your health and serve as a respawn location if you die. There are also some basic puzzles throughout each area, often solved with the whip. As you explore, you may be occasionally forced to battle a gauntlet of enemies in a boxed area. While this can be annoying at times, it can provide a refreshing change.

However, Phantom Trigger has a glaring issue: it’s repetitive. There is a very limited variety of enemy types and puzzles, making the game somewhat boring at times. Not many new things are introduced, so the game can feel dull once you’ve experienced it once. I found myself not wanting to come back at times, simply because there was very little variety in the gameplay. Even between areas there aren’t many differences, usually it is just elemental differences. This turns a fun structure into what seems to be a missed opportunity for a great game. The game is very difficult at times, so when you inevitably die, you make not want to jump back in, because of how the repetition makes the game an arduous process. However, one thing that makes each world different is the boss fights. These are never similar to other enemies, so you often don’t know how to fight them. This adds a refreshing challenge in an already difficult but repetitive game.

While the repetition may seem like a deal breaker, the presentation helps keep the game from seeming poorly thought out. By switching storylines, the story is interpereted differently by each person. The game never blatantly tells you what’s going on. Instead, you have to piece it together yourself. Also, the music fits perfectly for Phantom Trigger. The music has an eerie and mysterious feeling, which helps exemplify the creepy atmosphere. The game also tries to experiment with co-op multiplayer and an arena mode, the latter being unlocked once you beat the game. These are nice additions, but don’t fix the issues. A small problem on top of the glaring repetition issue is that the loading times at the start of the game are atrocious. This is a minor gripe, and shouldn’t break the game for you. The game offers four endings, but I don’t see many people choosing to play the same repetitive game four times just to see the endings.

Phantom Trigger is the perfect example of a mixed oppurtunity. At first, the game seems solid, with fun but difficult gameplay. Soon, the game loses some of it’s charm due to the highly repetitive nature. The story is mysterious and keeps you playing, however. Phantom Trigger isn’t a bad game, but I see it as a one and done type of game.