Ato

Story

Ato centers around an anthropomorphic samurai fighting a clan responsible for taking his child. The story is told entirely through short cutscenes with no dialogue or text. The protagonist must fight off his opponents in a quest to find his missing child. Story content is light, mainly taking place after a few key objectives are accomplished.

Gameplay

Sword-dueling and martial arts combat is the primary focus in Ato's gameplay. Ato may be characterized as a "boss rush" game, as combat primarily consists of unique enemy encounters against challenging opponents. The player starts out with only a simple slash move, but gradually learns additional moves from power-up scrolls that provide a variety of options in combat. Among the maneuvers learned are a dodge roll, a parry move, and several abilities that utilize a magic meter.

Bosses have an even wider array of moves that utilize their unique weapons, such as a spiked shield, projectiles which can be deflected, or even a poisonous blade. Enemy moves are telegraphed with animation and attack patterns so the player can learn to defeat them with wit and skill. Most enemies have periods of vulnerability where they can be interrupted be a well-timed attack. Defeating opponents is often followed by a new area, new ability, and/or cutscene.

The world is laid out as a metroidvania, requiring the collection of power-ups (usually obtained after winning a fight) and frequent traversal of the map to reach new areas which were not accessible before. A limited number of teleporters allow quick traversal between different areas of the game. Secret collectibles are hidden throughout with fake walls and puzzles, including health pickups, magic upgrades, and medallions which can unlock new areas. Most of these are optional for game completion, although it is necessary to collect a certain number of medallions to progress in certain areas.

Runes are another optional upgrade which players can use to tailor the game to their liking. Each one is unlocked by defeating a specific enemy. The player can equip one rune at a time from the options they have unlocked. Some examples include a rune which increases magic bar regeneration, one that makes the player invulnerable to knockbacks, and a rune that significantly increases damage dealt but reduces the players health to one.

Art & Music

The art style seeks to give Ato a tranquil feel in between the heavy combat sessions as the player walks from one area to another. There are multiple sections of the world that each have their own theme with different backgrounds, ground tiles, etc. The art style is primarily pixel art, but a splattering of particle effects are used as well for aesthetics. The game takes place in feudal Japan which is brought out through elements like cherry blossom trees, shurikens, katanas, etc.

The music ties the theme together as well with use of traditional Japanese instruments. Taiko (太鼓) drums, koto (箏), and shamisen (三味線) are featured throughout the game's 70 tracks of original instrumental music.