Greak: Memories of Azur Review – A (Dual)Sensory Experience (PS5)

Every once in a while I get a real hankering to play a side-scrolling platformer. When this mood strikes, I want to play something that allows me the chance to play either long sessions or brief spurts without feeling lost. Navegante Entertainment’s Greak: Memories of Azur pitch hit all of the right notes. Hand-drawn graphics and an orchestral score to accentuate a character switching, puzzle solving experience. I’d found the next game I wanted to review.

War ravages the home of the Courine people and Greak finds himself alone in one of the last remaining Courine settlements. In exchange for a place to rest and use as a base while he searches for his brother and sister, Greak helps the townsfolk by collecting items needed to finish up their airship. Because if they can’t defeat the Urlag armies, the only option they have left is to flee their homeland.

Greak: Memories of Azur Review – Striking a Balance

Each new area of Azur I explore provides me with a perfectly balanced experience. I never find either the platforming nor the puzzles too overwhelming. There’s always some trial and error while I work toward the solutions. Save obelisks are never too far away when I need them. There’s no shame in stepping away from the game to let your brain have a rest every now and then. In my many years of gaming I’ve come to realize that taking a break when the solution doesn’t immediately present itself is better than stressing out and ruining that sense of joy and accomplishment you feel when the riddle is solved.

Hidden within each section of the map is an Urlag boss just waiting to thwart our plans. Some took me longer to defeat than others. I needed to learn their patterns. Things were easier when I only had Greak to worry about, so when Adara joined me I had to rethink my strategy. Was there someplace out of reach where my secondary character would be safe? Did I need to try to run the entire battle holding down L2 and moving them in sync? Which was the better of the two (or three) to fight this baddie with? Through trial and error or sheer luck I fought my way to eventual victory.

Greak: Memories of Azur Review – A (Dual)Sensory Experience

What made me the most excited about playing this on the PlayStation 5 was how Navegante utilized the DualSense controller. It was subtle at first. The way the controller rumbled in my hand when I pushed an object varied from how it shook when I took a hit or felt the ground quake when an enemy struck it. Then I found Adara. Now I noticed the glow around the touchpad changed depending on the character I was using. Yellow glow for Greak, purple for Adara. It matched the color associated with each character in the upper left corner of the screen. And when I held down L2 to make the siblings move together? A soft blue glow.

Maybe my favorite gimmick of all, Greak: Memories of Azur uses the speaker on the DualSense to push sound closer to the player. The patter of feet running along the stone floors. The whoosh Adara’s float ability makes as she soars through the air. Swimming! If those noises were coming from the TV or headphones alongside the rest of the game’s ambience it wouldn’t be nearly as impactful.

With everything that Greak does right, there’s only one major issue I ran into. During one of my mid-game boss battles, if I had Greak’s inventory screen open when the Urlag slammed his hammer into the ground, it would switch my character to control to Adara and vice versa. This was incredibly frustrating and dangerous. Most times my inventory was open was so I could consume a healing item when I was down to my last health gem. If this was an intentional design choice then it was an incredibly poor one. I can ultimately forgive spelling and grammatical errors but can’t say the same for design choices that deter from the game.

I need a moment to discuss the music in Greak: Memories of Azur. Sometimes I’ll just hang out near a cooking fire and not press pause so I can take a short break and listen to the fantastic score. No matter where I am in the level, whether crawling through tunnels or taking aim at plague bats, my sense of urgency is dictated or enhanced by the tunes floating in the background. If this soundtrack shows up on a streaming service it might just become my new favorite background noise. (Sorry, Hohokum!)

Greak: Memories of Azur provided me the opportunity to experience a beautiful hand-drawn world in a way that best suits my gaming time and style. As I get older and find myself more and more selective with my gaming, intimate experiences like Greak are so much more rewarding than the biennial installment of a huge triple A title. Perhaps you’re noticing the same habit forming with your gaming. If so, this hidden gem might be exactly what you’ve been looking for, too.

Greak: Memories of Azur review code provided by publisher. Version 1.0001 reviewed on PlayStation 5. For more information on scoring please see our Review Policy here.