Runa’s Sword is platformer with light metroidvania elements, inspired by games like Castlevania and La-Mulana. It aims to recreate old-school dungeon-crawling experience – explore unfamiliar rooms, find secrets and get stronger with every gold piece you find. 

Lead Runa through the castle, avoiding traps and monsters, collecting gold and artefacts, and fighting your way to the ultimate prize 👑. 

CONTROLS

Movement: left and right arrow keys
Jump: X or M or V
Sword: Z or N or C 
Switching items: up arrow key
Using items: hold Sword key to ready item, then release to activate. Beware, bomb’s fuse starts as soon as you prepare it!
Recall: Use RECALL option in menu to return to last scroll – if you’re willing to pay the price.

You can also use controller.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Game is full of secrets, some you’ll uncover through exploration, some are revealed upon death. Keep your eyes open for anything unusual! One tip is free – final boss expecting you to be fully upgraded.

Final score is depends on how fast you complete the game, how well you avoid death, as well as finding all Ruby Hearts, Magic Items and hefty pile of gold.

CREDITS

  • Mini-Pixel font by Gabriel Cortabraz
  • Hemo, Sindri and Ronin for playtesting

More information

Download

Download
runasword_windows.zip 1,004 kB
Download
runasword_osx.zip 7.3 MB
Download
runasword_linux.zip 765 kB

Development log

Comments

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.

Mookcat70 days ago

Really enjoyed playing this! I got the shield, but never figured out how to get the sword. I love the amount of secrets though! I got to the lich, but never beat him. Still, lots of fun!

Reply
kusoga66 days ago

Thank you for playing! If you ever get an itch to try again, you have to be on a lookout for banners scattered around map.

Reply
Lumenoth107 days ago

I beat the demo! Didn't think I would be able to. Honestly I  struggle with these "oldschool-difficult" precision platformers, however I found it very rewarding to make it through the rooms a bit faster after I died enough times, and getting the health upgrade was definitely a relief and motivated me to keep going.

There's a bit of input delay on the sword which really messes me up, I'm not sure if that's by accident or if it's meant to be a callback to Castlevania but I feel like it detracted from the experience, although combat was a lower priority than platforming.

Using items like bombs feels quite finicky, and since they appeared so rarely I wasn't able to get the hang of using them so that I could blow up all the walls to find secret goodies, which feels a bit punishing - if that's the intended feel for the game, then fair enough.

Overall I think this game is great for what it's aiming to be, with a strong visual style that makes the most of its low-resolution graphics and communicates to the player where to go with no explicit signposting, and delivers the game's intent very clearly. I may not be able to beat the full game if it comes out, but I hope you'll be able to finish it, and be proud of it!

Reply
kusoga106 days ago

Thank you for playing! Sword delay is unfortunate side effect of long press input, I can't make it shorter than 1/30 of second, but you get used to it eventually. There is also a merchant below scroll room which have more bombs for sale, although I might hid him to well. I'll try to keep up rewarding exploration in a full game, don't aim to make it too long.

Reply