Constance Review

Metroidvanias have seen a meteoric rise over the years. With fantastic titles like Hollow Knight: Silksong and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown recently released, a few more good titles joining their ranks is certainly appreciated.

One of these titles is 2D hand-drawn action adventure Constance, and while its launch has been relatively muted, it merits consideration. The game follows its titular protagonist as she battles inner demons within her subconscious, guiding players through a journey of self-acceptance and resilience. It explores heavy themes like mental health, creativity, passion, anxiety, and work culture, all wrapped in a colorful, very competent metroidvania that’s worth a playthrough.

As mentioned, Constance is a metroidvania that gives players control of the titular character as she explores various locales, gains new abilities, and takes on challenges on her way to battle her inner demons. As with games in the genre, Constance follows the general gameplay loop of exploration, hitting a wall that requires a specific ability, backtracking to find it, and creating a new path forward to repeat the pattern. Once you get to a boss, you’ll unlock a Tear that will provide you with Constance’s background, which presents a nice way of storytelling.

It’s particularly easy to do this because Constance looks impressive, with its vibrant artwork and stunning backgrounds that bring every scene to life. Each biome looks unique, with one resembling a dark series of caves and another like a carnival in the sky. Some biomes will have the usual obstacles like spikes and pitfalls, and you can also expect these levels to have some challenging pathways that will require some dexterity to maneuver. They’re all brilliantly imagined, and each has its own set of enemies that make going through a fun and challenging time. Despite the lack of rewarding secrets or surprises (compared to others), exploring is still generally a good time.

Constance will face many foes throughout her journey, with the usual basic fodder like rolling cubes and robots that dash to you on sight. Some enemies carry shields, which will require hitting them from behind, and some flying ones for good measure. Constance attacks with her painbrush on quick succession, and it’s interesting to note that each of her attacks slightly pushes her back, requiring players to always consider positioning when going on the offensive.

While all of this may sound par for the course for a metroidvania, and Constance doesn’t really do too much to stand out in the genre, the game implements its systems well. Platforming and combat feel good and fluid, and the game as a whole is satisfying to play. While this is the case, the game does use a creative way to tackle enemies and obstacles: corruption, a mechanic used to good effect.

Constance must manage a resource called Paint, as it is the source of her abilities. Whether it’s dashing to avoid foes or crossing gaps, you can consider this her MP pool. When depleted, she will use her health instead. Some enemies will be covered in a black substance called corruption, which will temporarily prevent our heroine from dealing with them without taking damage. Constance can use an ability called Paint Stab to cleanse them of corruption for a moment, then deal damage. This can also be used across obstacles and pathways, creating fun platforming challenges.

As players get deeper into the game, they unlock new abilities that further add to Constance’s platforming or combat capabilities. It’s really a journey, and it even resonates thematically, seeing as this is Constance’s journey as well to battle her demons by gaining the courage and skills to do so. Bosses are fun and challenging, but do not feel particularly unfair, and will require players to use the abilities they have learned, just like any other metroidvania.

And, as with any other metroidvania indeed, Constance has a certain level of difficulty to contend with. Even with its responsive controls, some of the platforming challenges that will require chaining abilities and fast thinking can be a source of frustration, as taking damage will return you to a particular spot where you will need to take a stab at it again. It’s not as tough as other, more well-known titles in the genre, but there’s a level of challenge that can still offer satisfaction once overcome in the span of a 12-14 hour playthrough, give or take a couple of hours, should you choose to breeze through the game.

PC/ROG Xbox Ally Performance Test

We played Constance on the following devices:

• PC – Ryzen 5 5600x, 16 GB DDR4 3600 RAM, NVIDIA 4070 Super, 1TB NVMe SSD
• ROG Xbox Ally

And here are the minimum PC System Requirements for Constance:

• CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.40 GHz / Intel Core i5-2300, 2.80 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB
• VIDEO CARD: Radeon RX 560, 4 GB / GeForce GTX 950, 4 GB
• DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB
• OS: Windows 10 64-Bit
• SHADER MODEL VERSION: 6.0
• FREE DISK SPACE: 4 GB

Playing on a PC, Constance is smooth as butter and well-optimized. The game is not really demanding on your system, as evidenced by the system requirements, so it should pose no problem even if you have older 10 or 20-series cards. Of course, a controller is recommended, so plug in for the best experience.

On an ROG Xbox Ally, the experience is mostly the same. You’ll get rock-solid performance and a pleasant playthrough, and while a controller is the recommended way to experience the game, these handhelds are decent enough.

Verdict: Buy it!

Constance proves itself a heartfelt, visually striking title worth your time. While it doesn’t reinvent the formula, its vibrant hand‑drawn art style and fluid combat make the journey through its diverse biomes engaging. The game’s thematic focus on battling inner demons adds depth to the adventure, tying gameplay progression to the protagonist’s personal growth in a way that resonates beyond the screen.

Ultimately, despite some minor frustrations with platforming and a lack of hidden surprises compared to genre heavyweights, Constance delivers a polished and satisfying experience and a title worth adding to your collection.

*Constance was reviewed on a PC/ROG Xbox Ally with a review code provided by the publisher.