Sephiria Review: A Hare-Raising Climb Worth Every Run

A little like Dave the Diver, I completely missed Sephiria when it first launched into Early Access. It’s been around for a while now and has built up quite the following on Steam, but it wasn’t until the 1.0 release that it properly entered my radar. So when it launched I figured I’d see what all of the fuss was about.

Now, after spending the last few weeks making my way through all six chapters, I get it. Sephiria is ridiculously easy to pick up, surprisingly relaxing considering everything is trying to kill you, and the runs are short and addictive. Also, you play as a cute little rabbit trying to save Bunnyville…I’m not even going to pretend that didn’t play a role in me wanting to give this a go.

Don’t let the cute bunny theme fool you though. This is a fantastic game with a lot of depth and strategy. It’s from the creators of Dungreed and it fully deserves all the praise its received.

So, What Do You Actually Do?

Developed by TEAM HORAY, Sephiria is a top-down action roguelite that sends you into a tower as a rabbit trying to save Bunnyville from a rather unpleasant future involving a horde of demons.

The basic idea is pretty simple. You head into the tower, fight your way through enemies, collect Artifacts and Tablets, improve your build, take on bosses, and try to make it as far as you can without dying. And, trust me, you’re going to die…A lot.

Each run gives you another opportunity to try something different. There are six different weapons, loads of upgrades to unlock, Talents that can change your run, and an inventory system that lets you arrange Artifacts and combine them with Tablets to make them more powerful.

That last part becomes a pretty big deal once you understand what you’re doing, although I’ll come back to that later.

What surprised me most when I first started playing was just how much there is to experiment with. I’d go into a run thinking I knew exactly what I wanted to do, find something new, and suddenly my entire plan had changed. Sometimes it worked brilliantly, other times, not so much.

Fast Runs Built to Fit Around Real Life

One of the things I’ve really liked about Sephiria is that I never feel like I need to have loads of time available before I start playing. I can jump in for twenty minutes, make some progress, and then come back later. Or, as has happened more than once, I can jump in intending to play for twenty minutes and still be sitting there an hour or two later.

The full journey is spread across six chapters, with more than 60 enemy types and over 10 bosses waiting along the way. Even when a run went horribly wrong, I was normally quite happy to jump straight back in and try something different.

That’s probably one of the things the game does best. Dying doesn’t really feel like losing everything because there’s always another build I want to try or something else I want to unlock. So, while you do lose your inventory with each run, it’s no biggie as you then get to enjoy discovering a new build.

Need a Change of Pace? Customize Your Bunny

Now we get to one of the fun, slightly silly parts of Sephiria…The costumes.

As you play, you’ll unlock different costumes for your rabbit, and thankfully, they’re not just there to make your character look cute, although they definitely do that too. Each costume comes with its own gameplay effect, giving you yet another thing to think about when putting together a build. There are different bunny looks to discover alongside foxes, wolves, cats, frogs, and other animals. Naturally, I wanted all of them.

My only complaint is that the appearance and effect are tied together. If you really like a particular bonus but prefer the look of another costume, you can’t mix the two. Sometimes I wanted one costume’s ability and another costume’s appearance but alas, saving Bunnyville doesn’t come with complete freedom over my wardrobe.

It’s hardly a dealbreaker, and far removed from what the game is really about, but I’d love to eventually see an option that lets you separate the cosmetic side from the actual bonus.

A Beautiful Game with Thoughtful Graphics

Sephiria is also a lovely game to look at. It has a retro pixel-art style, but it mixes that with smoother lighting and effects that give everything a much more polished look. It’s also incredibly cute. Bunnyville is full of adorable animals, your character is adorable, and even some of the creatures trying to murder you have absolutely no business looking as cute as they do.

You’ll naturally start seeing familiar areas after enough runs through the tower, but I never found myself getting bored of the environments.

I also played entirely on PC using a mouse and keyboard, and I had no problems with the controls at all. Everything responded exactly how I expected it to, and it didn’t take long before I stopped thinking about the controls altogether.

Considering how hectic things can get when there are enemies and attacks flying around everywhere, that’s a definite advantage. Then, there’s the music, which I actually really liked.

The soundtrack is soft, relaxing, and fits the cozy feel of Sephiria perfectly. Even when I was fighting my way through enemies, there was something strangely calming about having this peaceful music playing in the background.

That said, I can see it being a little too relaxing for some people. If you prefer your roguelikes with a soundtrack that ramps up the tension and makes every fight feel more dramatic, this probably isn’t going to do that for you. Personally, though I liked it. There’s already enough chaos happening on screen, I don’t need the music stressing me out too.

A Few Things Didn’t Quite Work For Me

As much as I enjoyed Sephiria, there are a few things I wasn’t quite as keen on, and I discovered something about myself while playing it. I’m really not an inventory management kind of girl.

If you love spending time figuring out exactly where everything should go in your backpack, arranging Artifacts and Tablets to get the most out of them, then you’re probably going to love what Sephiria does here. There’s a surprising amount of thought that can go into getting everything in the right place.

Me? I just want to put things in my backpack and use them when I need them. I don’t want to spend ages moving things around, trying to work out what should go where, or reorganizing everything whenever I pick something new up. Just throw it in there, I’ll find it later.

That’s definitely more of a personal preference than something I’d criticize Sephiria for. The inventory management is clearly a big part of putting together your build, and I can absolutely see why other players love it. I’ve just discovered I’m not one of them.

Then there’s the bosses.

I actually enjoyed learning their attacks and figuring out how to beat them. What I didn’t enjoy was finally getting a boss’s health down, only for it to enter another phase and suddenly have a lovely fresh health bar waiting for me. Oh good, We’re doing this again.

I don’t mind bosses having multiple phases. The problem is when I’ve already learned the attack patterns and it starts to feel like I’m spending longer fighting something simply because it has another huge chunk of health to get through.

They’re completely manageable once you know what you’re doing, but some of those fights definitely started to drag.

My Verdict

I really enjoyed Sephiria. I went into it having completely missed the Early Access period, so I had no history with the game and no idea how much it had changed over the years. I was basically starting from scratch. What I found was a roguelite that’s incredibly easy to keep coming back to.

I loved it’s fast pace and unlocking new costumes. I loved that I could jump in whenever I had a spare twenty minutes and still feel like I’d actually accomplished something. I even grew to understand the inventory eventually.

There are things I’d change. Some of the boss fights could definitely be shorter, and I’d love more freedom with the costume system. But overall this is an incredible game that I’d recommend to anyone.

If you missed Sephiria during Early Access like I did, the 1.0 release is a pretty good excuse to finally see what all the fuss is about. Just don’t blame me when your quick twenty-minute run turns into an entire evening.

Oh and if you try it and love it, don’t miss out on these similar games too.