It’s beena good long whilesince the bunny-girl Erina tore through Rabi-Ribi in a flurry of hammer-strikes, building up power and dodging intense bullet patterns along the way. While Rabi-Ribi has gotten a number of updates and DLC expansions over the years it came out back in 2016, and finally it’s time to give the game a rest. That doesn’t mean the end of bunny-girl adventuring, though, because while Erina’s work is finally done, Tevi’s hasn’t even started yet. Tevi is both the new game and lead hero of Rabi-Ribi’s semi-sequel, now with more detailed pixel art and a whole new set of abilities to customize your play-style around.
I had the chance to play the demo for Tevi and it’s a nice, large chunk of game that can eat up several hours of play-time. Before going into too much detail, it’s worth noting the demo isn’t a direct representation of the game, but rather compressed to show off as much as possible in a more focused area, which as it turns out is still a hefty chunk of map filled with collectible goodies. The plot has also been rewritten for the demo, so whatever the main adventure will be is going to have to wait until closer to release.
The demo starts with Tevi feeling basic in her abilities and attacks, with only a small hint of the depth ahead. She’s got an adequate jump, quick three-hit combo dagger attack and two orbitar spheres that fire different types of shots. The orbitars are actually her companions and Tevi can switch between them at will, with one firing a strong blue shot and the other a weaker red bullet that leaves a zone behind causing rapid cumulative damage for a second. A gauge at the top indicates how much power the shots have, with 100% and over giving the full effect and anything less firing much weaker bullets that only ping a few HP off whatever they hit. Both orbs fire horizontally for their basic shot, but like every single skill Tevi has, they can be upgraded along the way.
It doesn’t take long to get a hint of just how strong Tevi is going to become, though. Taking out the first couple of enemies earns a powerful finishing strike bumping the combo up to four hits, plus a rising slash that can land multiple strikes that pairs nicely with a descending spinning attack. The first tool comes along in the form of a bomb, which only does a little damage to enemies but is much more useful for blowing open new or hidden paths, and then the first sigil shows up for a taste of the combat customization ahead.
Sigils are scattered everywhere throughout the world and each one effects an ability in its own unique way. Some are simple, such as an increase in HP, while others can make you break out the calculator to see how useful they actually are. Each sigil costs a number of points to equip, and while that’s not a problem for the first few, it only takes a bit of chasing after secrets to have more than can be used at once. Is it worth spending six points to get an attack bonus of 33% of the combo-count when it’s interrupted by an enemy attack? Maybe? It’s definitely worth modifying shot behaviors or layering new attacks onto favorite combos, though, and there are enough sigils available that it’s unlikely any two players' Tevi will end up playing the same.
Making a Tevi that works for you will be important, because while no single enemy outside of bosses is all that dangerous, there are plenty of different types with unique and dangerous attack patterns all throughout the game. Granted, the early scorpion’s shot that flies out halfway across the screen before splitting into four diagonal bullets isn’t all that hard to avoid, but when you’re running from a plant that explodes into a ring of firepower or a floating enemy that lets off three lazily-drifting bullets that turn into quick homing shots, it can get a lot more difficult to keep the health gauge up, especially with several enemies at once on screen. The basic healing item isn’t that hard to come by, crafted from common materials the enemies drop, but it’s easy for damage to creep up and that’s not even counting the intense boss fights.
The Tevi demo will be instantly familiar to anyone who enjoyed Rabi-Ribi, but it’s also clearly its own new adventure with surprisingly deep mechanics. The cute pixel art does a great job of softening the bullet-hell sections, and while dying can come surprisingly easy, there’s usually a save point not too many rooms back. Combat is the main focus of the game, with the platforming being more of a supporting feature, but the environments have plenty of secrets to chase after and even a couple of good puzzle rooms. There’s a huge adventure ahead for a steampunk bunny girl, and honing her skills to survive the environments and eliminate the bullet-hell bosses will require careful exploration and personalizing her combat abilities for any and all situations.
While the demo for Tevi isn’t publicly available yet it’s coming along soon fromthe developer’s site.
