REVIEW: ‘The Skylia Prophecy’ A Dark, Challenging, and Buggy Adventure (PC)

The Skylia Prophecy is a story-driven action RPG from the developer Ezekiel Rage and publisher Plug In Digital. With the recent resurgence of 2D side-scrolling games, fans of the genre have much to rejoice over. The Skylia Prophecy fits into that mold of engaging side-scrolling adventures as its challenging gameplay and puzzles will leave players with a fun game to work with. 

The Skylia Prophecy tells the harrowing and sorrowful tale of Mirenia. Mirenia is a young girl traveling to the Tirkin Fortress to fix the mistake she made as a teenager. When Mirenia was a teenager, she sought out a powerful and ancient dark magic to repel the evil plaguing her land and people. She figured that if she gathered the requisite power, her strength would be able to stop all the potential harm coming to everyone she cares about.

However, unbeknownst to her, Mirenia’s actions were a part of an ancient prophecy foretold by the Dark Lord ages ago. The Dark Lord prophesied that a warrior would seek out his power, but instead, the warrior would unleash the Dark Lord and his horde of minions onto the world. That warrior turned out to be Mirenia. What happened next is a plague of enemies were released to ravage the lands at a rate with which the people could not keep up with. It is now up to Mirenia to fix the mistakes she caused, and up to players to get her there.

Be warned… this game is hard. Admittedly, I have a spotty track record with side-scrollers (although I love the genre). I found that the levels were challenging even after the early challenges have been completed. The Skylia Prophecy sticks to its roots with the 80s/90s difficulty: no tutorials and a story that reveals itself only through gameplay. 

Mirenia handles well as a character, and her moveset is easy to understand. She has a standard sword thrust as her attack skill and a magic shield booster as her defense. Where the gameplay is challenging is managing the speed and cadence of different enemies to understand how best to deal with them.

Another important part of The Skylia Prophecy is interacting with townsfolk. As Mirenia traverses through levels and defeats swarms of enemies, she will come across new towns on her journey to the Tirkin Fortress. These townspeople will give important information on the situations affecting each step of Mirenia’s pilgrimage. Unfortunately, this is where the bugs of The Skylia Prophecy are located as well.

At least one time in each town, when interacting with townsfolk, Mirenia would get stuck speaking with an NPC. Even after the text bubbles would no longer give me new information, Mirenia was stuck engaging with the NPC. There was no way to close out of the game or pull up the Pause menu, forcing me to restart the game.

The other downside to this game was the dialogue. Mirenia, townspeople, and other characters players come across have a 19th century feel to their dialogue. However, some of it can be a bit clunky and have some errors that go beyond a difference in era.

But, I cannot forget one aspect of The Skylia Prophecy that I absolutely adored as well: taking chances with demons for rare items. Every few levels, Mirenia stumbles upon a demon. These demons have an important item that Mirenia can ultimately find for herself (with enough searching), but the demon gives players the ability to obtain the item much easier… with a price. The demon states that it will be taking payment from you later on. Having an element of risk, chance, and (possibly) increased difficulty all-the-while playing into Mirenia’s propensity for being a loose cannon is an amazing addition to the gameplay.

The soundtrack was surprisingly rich as well. The repetition of the game’s music, which captures the era The Skylia Prophecy was set in, gives it a perfect backdrop for players to tackle its difficult challenges.

The Skylia Prophecy does a good job of keeping a lot of the elements that make 2D side-scrolling action games a fun genre. It does come with its share of bugs and challenges, but outside of one bug with the dialogue, it does not truly detract from the gameplay itself. It has gorgeous 2D artwork that will make any fan of retro gaming nostalgic. For hardcore fans of 2D side-scrolling action RPGs, The Skylia Prophecy is definitely a game you can have fun with. Just be patient.

The Skylia Prophecy is available now on PC and Steam.