I’ve been a fan of Miraculous for a number of years, now. The first season started strong with a focus on the enemies the heroes face being people they know. People they see around the city of Paris turned evil from their negative emotions. Ladybug and Cat Noir would always stop the deeds of Hawk Moth and his want of their Miraculous – the jewels Marinette and Adrien use to transform.
That first season had nothing deep to its story, but dropped some hints at bigger things coming. That came with the end of the first season and start of the second. Throughout season two, an expansion of the powers the two hold and the reveal of more Miraculous came, with the third and fourth continuing that exploration of the powers as well as the developing relationships between its characters.
As with all developing franchises, expansion of where it could tell stories seemed inevitable. What I was most interested in is whether any games would arrive related to the franchise. Especially ones on consoles. This year saw just such a thing happen. Rise of the Sphinx tells a story that contradicts the show in a few ways, but one that works in isolation.
Being thrown into the action right away to face Mr. Pigeon, the game is an action-adventure that sees Ladybug and Cat Noir venture through linear levels that offer some light platforming that see Paris changed based on the powers of the akumatized villain. Grunts based off that villain are also to be found, giving more enemies to be fighting throughout the levels. The akumatized villain will then be faced at the end in a boss fight.
But the game… lacks the style and flair the series is known for. Gameplay feels slow, with the combat doing its best to make it worth playing. You have an attack, parry, dodge, super strike and special attack to bring variety, but engaging in fights is clunky. They will telegraph when they’re going to attack, allowing the parry or dodge to be used when needed, but otherwise you’ll be slowly (or so it feels with the choppy animations) raining hits upon them.
All fights are mandatory, too, meaning you can’t skip any. You’ll be facing between two and six enemies at a time, locked into an arena within the level with no escape until they’re all defeated. Or you are, in which case you’ll be sent back to the last checkpoint. There’s no experience to be gained to improve abilities from the fights, as that’s all handled by collecting orbs within the levels. So it feels like padding to make such fights mandatory. It also doesn’t help that slowdown happens when over three enemies are on the screen, which at times can mean inputs don’t register as quickly as you’d like.
The bosses are more interesting, however. To start with. Mr. Pigeon, as the tutorial boss, will put your parry, dodge, and attack skills to use. Weredad sees you stealthing around paper junkpiles to be able to attack his rear. Gamer will test your knowledge of the series, with a pass grade on the quiz ending the fight before it has properly begun. But with the good also come the bad.
Clonika is fine in concept, with having to find the real villain among the clones, but the slowdown makes the fight a massive chore – especially in the later stages when around ten enemies are on screen at a time. And then there’s the two phases of the sentimonster, which both involve waiting for it to finish its attack pattern before then striking it.
During the boss fights, both Cataclysm and Lucky Charm powers are used (in the form of quick-time events), but this again feeds into the style and flair of the series lacking in this game. The sequences for both (and Ladybug’s de-evilization powers) are rendered in-game, and not all that well. The music themes that accompany those sequences are also missing.
Something also missing is the great banter between our two heroes as they work their way through the levels. This is a co-op game that can be played with two players, but when solo you’ll only see the hero you’re controlling. While the hero you’re controlling will comment on their surroundings at times, there’s no follow up comment from the other. You’ll get some of that banter in the cutscenes, but there’s not really many of them.
The majority of the story is told through text boxes within the explorable Paris. Which is to say a few areas common within the series placed together, designed in such a way that the lack of a moveable camera doesn’t impact travel around. There’s little to really do here other than talk to the needed character to advance the plot. Or any character, really, who at least have differing dialogue depending on where you are in the story.
It really is a hard one to recommend, even to fans of the series. The story is all that was keeping me going, with some mysterious goings on involving clones negatively affecting prospective targets of Hawk Moth so that he could akumatise them. The Sphinx that is in the title’s name only reveals itself near the end of the game, with it being a sentimonster that Mayura created without Hawk Moth’s knowledge, though he certainly approves of it and even takes control of it in the final battle.
But the story alone isn’t worth it. Clunky combat, bad slowdown, and the style and flair the series is known for missing make it only worthwhile if you can put up with such or have little experience of games. For everyone else, stick with the series. There’s nothing here that you can’t get from the series, unless you want to interact with the world you’re a fan of.
Images Taken From:
Miraculous: Rise of the Sphinx | Original Screenshots
