Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus

Posted:  Jul 22, 2024
SDHQ BUILD SCORE: 
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SDHQ CONTENT SCORE: 
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Review

The game was provided by Humble Games for review. Thank you!

I was lovestruck when I saw Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus and played it during the Next Fest. That game is the definition of eye candy, and because it is a 2.5D metroidvania, playing it on the Steam Deck was a breeze. I felt a lot was going for it from the demo and was hopeful it would turn out to be as great as it looked. Now that I have played it, I can confidently say that this is a Metroidvania you won't want to miss out on, and I couldn't be happier.

I want to start this review by getting the obvious out of the way first. Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is one of the most beautiful Metroidvania games I have ever played. The game has an origami-like aesthetic, where everything looks like it was made of paper. It is very Japanese-inspired, which works wonders for it. Effects like fire and water look infinitely more unique thanks to the intricate designs that can be made from layers of paper. On top of this unique aesthetic, there are some 3D models snuck in there that fit in well with the origami world, but they don't stick out much and add depth to the areas you traverse.

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While all of this is awesome, it was the variety of locations and vibrant colors that really wowed me. Each place I went to felt like it was not only distinct but wholly unique. From villages to caves to mountains and more, each place had something new and beautiful to look at. I don't usually take pictures of games outside of doing so for reviews, but this was probably the first game where I felt compelled to because the vistas of the forest were just so beautiful. The colors pop through each area as well and are highlighted even further on the Steam Deck's OLED screen. It was just stunning.

The story in Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is interesting but does lose steam after a bit. You play as Bo, a celestial blossom who has come to fulfill an ancient prophecy. While there is an adorable cast of characters, and I love they are all inspired by Japanese mythology, it never really stood out to me throughout my time. It wasn't a bad or completely uninteresting story, but I ended up falling more in love with the areas and gameplay mechanics over the reasonings behind the 7-hour journey.

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Speaking of which, Bo is a fantastic Metroidvania with a wonderful combat and traversal system. You start off the game with a small set of abilities to get you moving forward, and the more you play, the more this expands. You begin with only knowing how to do a small jump and whack things with your staff, but as you play, you will gain new ways to interact with the world. For traversal, you can ground pound to destroy bits in the ground and deal damage, use a bat to whack objects to break walls, and even take advantage of a grappling hook to swing on floating objects you can hit to keep yourself airborne.

The game emphasizes airborne traversal and using different abilities to get around and take down larger enemies. In the beginning, you can keep yourself off the ground by whacking enemies after jumping, which gives you the chance to jump again. Later on, you will be able to combine this with the grappling hook, air dash, and more to create these combos and hit enemies countless times before coming back to the ground. There's even a unique system to give yourself extra powerful skills using equipable Daruma Dolls, and you can charge them up to make an even bigger attack by getting higher airborne combos.

The emphasis on being airborne is apparent throughout the game, making some collectibles unreachable unless you can soar through the air. The bosses need this as well, making you grapple and hit/jump your way continually to its head or whack balls into it while getting airborne to dodge incoming attacks. Each boss felt unique and challenging, and while the final boss ups the ante a little bit too much, it never feels unfair.

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You can heal yourself using your tea kettle, which refills as you attack enemies, and you can upgrade it more in the hub town to hold more charges or heal more. You can also upgrade your weapon and Daruma Dolls from this area and buy Omamori, which Talismans you can equip with different effects. There are a solid amount of these to buy and even more that can be found as collectibles. You can go back and find these with your new abilities and these little helpers you can gather to build new structures in your hub world. Bo does a great job at making it worthwhile to go back to older areas to find these collectibles.

The amount of control you have and the things you can upgrade make playing Bo such a joy. And it's even better to experience on the Steam Deck.

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus - Steam Deck Performance

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus performs similarly to other 2D metroidvanias/platformers on the Steam Deck, and it is fantastic. The controls work wonderfully, the game looks crisp and beautiful, and the gameplay fits wonderfully for portable play. It drains the battery very well, too, but it's a bit higher when you try to play at 90 FPS. Playing at 60 FPS will usually keep you around 8W with a high of 9W, but slip to 90 FPS, and you will start seeing 12W to 13W high battery drain. This is a little bit too high for me, and with 60 still feeling very smooth, I recommend just sticking there.

I will say that some UI elements with text or images are a little too small to make out. Most text is readable size, though some sentences are too small (like the top section of the bamboo bat), and the Map Legend icons are too small to make out the design inside. Luckily, different colors can be made out on the map legend, but the actual designs inside are too small.

Otherwise, there are no issues with the game on Deck, and it's fantastic!

Accessibility

Bo does have a couple of different settings that can help you out. There is a specific Dyslexic Font you can toggle to make it more readable for those with Dyslexia. You can change game speed and controller vibration, language and audio sliders, and rebind controls. Before you hit 20 deaths, you can also turn on Invincibility and Infinite Mana. I am not sure why they are locked after 20 deaths, but they are options./

The game does support 16:10 resolutions and controller/gamepads. There are no HDR settings or cloud saves, but the devs have mentioned they are working on getting cloud saves implemented.

Conclusion

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus stunned me in more ways than I initially expected. The game is gorgeous and feels wholly unique with each new biome in its Japanese-inspired origami-like world. The combat is fantastic and works hand-in-hand with the traversal, doing a great job of keeping you on your feet, or in this case, in the air. It's amazing how well the game works with all of its parts, and even if the story isn't the greatest, it more than makes up for it with its gameplay mechanics, beautiful world, and how well it runs on the Steam Deck. If you enjoy Metroidvanias or Action Platformers, do yourself a favor and get this game!

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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SDHQ's Build Score Breakdown

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a phenomenal and beautiful metroidvania that is a must have to play on the Steam Deck.

Content


Gameplay: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarHalf Star
Graphics: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Story: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarHalf StarNo Star
Sound: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarNo Star
Fun Factor: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarHalf Star
9

Build Score

Performance: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
VISUALS: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Stability: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Controls: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Battery: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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