Vernal Edge on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Vernal Edge is a 2D action-packed Metroidvania featuring an intense combat system, tight platforming sequences and a powerful story of rivalry, revenge and growth.
Vernal Edge is a metroidvania, female protagonist and action game
developed by Hello Penguin Team LLC
and published by PID Games and Dear Villagers.
Released on March 14th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 8 languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 543 reviews of which 425 were positive and 118 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.4 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 16.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Vernal Edge into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 8
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 2200G or higher | i5-7600/i3-8100 or higher
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT1030/Radeon RX 550
- Storage: 1 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I have pondered a lot on Vernal Edge in the past days, it’s a game that left me with many feelings and thoughts. I’ll give a detailed review below, but if you are interested in a very particular metroidvania where exploration it’s his strongest quality, with a flashy combat accompanied by an ethereal soundtrack and a somewhat lukewarm story, I recommend it. Let’s start from the best merits of this obscure gem; the pixel art is gorgeous, vivid and nostalgic for the lost era of PS1 games, it never felt stale. Gameplay wise the greatest strength is the exploration. You will fly around with your airship from island and island, exploring every nook and cranny. Every location is full of secrets and new mechanics, there are secret bosses, secret quests, tons of collectibles to uncover. The game doesn’t hand you any help either, you will travel without any limit except the upgrades obstacles, with no clear idea where to go next, and this felt honestly not frustrating but intriguing, I really felt as I was discovering a new world by myself. Someone criticized Vernal Edge world as lifeless, and I agree with that but not in a negative way, it’s a desolate and lonely world, life is scarce, you will feel isolated in these alien biomes. And the music improves this feeling, it’s ethereal, echoing in the background as if it was far far away. Only gradually increasing in volume during battles. Speaking of battles, here are my mixed thoughts on combat; on one hand is quick, fast, it asks you to perform combos and use your arsenal in every possible way. Dash, dodge, parry, cast a spell, heal, it is exhilarating. On another hand it never feels as you in complete control of your moveset to perform amazing combos; that’s also because most of the spell you get deal a pathetic amount of damage, don’t last at all, and in general they don’t change how you approach the combat. On harder difficulties enemy healthbars are too spongy and encounters become tedious after a while. And this is Vernal Edge biggest sin, there is no enemy variety, you have got around 12 enemy types and they don’t change much. Another issue is the story, it’s not bad, I would describe it as satisfying and unsatisfying. The writing is decent even great at times, jokes are funny, the main two characters Vernal and Chervil have a great chemistry and they get a bittersweet character development. Same cannot be said about the final villains and the plot as a whole. It feels inconclusive, as if it’s missing one (or more) piece of the puzzle, and I am not going to enter in spoiler territory, but as I said before it left me satisfied because the character arcs of the main protagonists got resolved but unsatisfying because the ending left too many plot points being unfulfilled. Despite these negative points, I still had a great time with this metroidvania and still think about it when I can, I recommend it. P.S.: One great frustration of mine, (that is not a real criticism to the game as a whole) I completed the game on Vicious difficulty for the first time by using a code, but it did not give me the achievement for completing the game, and as I am obsessed with 100% games, that left me very annoyed. If there aren’t any other paths to get it on my save file then blimey! I’ll do another fast run later to get the achievement, but this left a sour taste in my mouth, anyways rant over, I still recommend Vernal Edge. P.S.S.: I have obtained all achievements of Vernal Edge after making a speedrun of the base game, it wasn’t difficult but two playthroughs are mandatory if you aim to complete it.
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Summary: Solid metroidvania with some good pseudo-fighting game/beat-em-up combo mechanics that take time to get used to and appreciate. Do not brush off this game after an hour of playtime. It takes a good couple hours of fumbling though and getting a real feel for the game. At some point, it clicks, and you begin the journey to GIT GUD land. The games mechanics open up the more you play and unlock both fighting and movement abilities. Also, unless you are a masochist, don't be like me... don't unlock and play the game's Vicious difficulty early on your first playthrough. This game's hardest difficulty will chew you up. You have been warned. I would not fault you for starting on Easy. Overall, wonderful game for the price I paid, and even though my below BAD section is chock full of nitpicks and complaints, I still recommend this game. I would not have made such a long review with this many paragraphs, praises, and nitpicks had I not cared. In the end, I had a blast with a range of emotions (and unhealthy amount of frustration due to starting on turbo-hard mode, but that's my fault), and I just wish, if there's a Vernal Edge 2, I start off with all memories and moveset unlocked that I ended this game with, so I may expand on everything i learned. NEUTRAL: Keep in mind, this game's combat gets better and fleshed out as time goes on, and you unlock new moves. The very early game feels lacking, and bad on the highest difficulty. Middle of the game, after unlocking more sword variation and at least 3 or 4 spells, it feels good. Near the end, you have an diverse moveset and you're beating the game with your preferred playstyle. Give it a chance. don't be dumb like me and think the "tower of battle" is some optional thing you can skip when you first come across it. its partially required early game, once you get a certain movement upgrade that allows you to enter the tower properly (also acquired early game, so not really spoilers). Beating the first "boss" of the Tower of Battle is required to progress further in the story. BAD: You do NOT get the achievement for "beat the game" if you unlock vicious difficulty first and beat the game on that difficulty.... so very close to 100% completion on my first playthrough. I had to run through the game on Easy real quick for another nearly 5 hours to get my 100%. come on, that can't be hard to code. Took a lot of wind out of my accomplishment. It's less fun, even on easy, to go back through the game without all my abilities I unlocked. The silver linings to this were I got to see what reasonable healthbars on enemies look like, I got to bully foes who caused me so much grief with a better understanding of the game's moveset and skill AND I got to enjoy my rightfully earned character color palette reward I got for beating Vicious difficulty. Poise break mechanic being inconsistent between identical enemy types is annoying as well. Even if its communicated plainly, it still feels bad for basic enemy guy on some fights have zero poise, to on the next fight have 3 poise. I also DESPISED enemies who "look" like they have a poise bar, but its fake. they actually have infinite poise! While these enemies are exceedingly rare (excluding some bosses, they get a pass), I hate the idea of them very much. Make the poise bar gold of something at least... Vicious difficulty enemies are too spongy sometimes, even the little guys. At first, i thought them WAY too spongy at the beginning of my playthrough, but after unlocking moves and GIT GUD and beating the game on Vicious, i still thought them spongy, but not egregiously so. The better you get at comboing and stringing together damage while enemies are vulnerable, the better off you are. I fought a fight with more than one healer, and both of those healers not only had high health, but also giant poise bars. and healing each other, AND healed each other quite fast as well when they did. Yes, I know I am supposed to break both of their poise at once, and combo both of them, which I did. They still lived and started healing each other, which I barely outdamaged. Healer type enemies should be squishier and stay low defense/health. I don't care if this is Vicious difficulty, such an encounter is extremely unfun and tedious. can't move the camera around even a bit with the right control stick. a staple of any exploration game of this sort. normally the camera is fine, but certain rooms would have HUGELY benefited from it. (If there was some sort of manual camera movement and i merely missed it somehow, please disregard this point.) GOOD: Combo system (even when starting on Vicious difficulty) is easy to pick up and understand, but hard to master. Quite fun to juggle enemies and rarely gets old. Throwing in new moves and spells to juggle in longer and interesting ways keeps things fresh. Even a dummy like me managed to put together some decent combos. Though I usually found some spells i liked and stuck with them. The movement in the game feels kinda floaty at first, which made me hesitant. However, as i played, and unlocked movement abilities, the running around felt really good. You need to give this game's movement and gameplay some time. it's not bad, it just takes getting used to. (BIG shoutout to user 680x0 on his little guide on how to perform a "ghetto double jump". it surprisingly improved the game experience for me without breaking the game, despite its capacity to do so, and sequence break heavily if you allow it. Please developers, don't patch this out, it's awesome. and doesn't negatively affect the average player either. Big shoutout to the other 100% achievements guide by Starbit, as I would have spent FAR longer getting those last few achievements I needed) i'm so glad this game did not take the the usual trope of "touch enemy, get hurt". It felt nice to only be attacked by actual attacks, and not because I brushed up against an enemy who shouldnt have any reason for contact based damage. The music in this game is surprisingly good. There are a few tracks which were absolute bangers. Otherwise, there was no bad music. Just often times, the music blended well with the current environment or fight and never detracted from anything. Nothing bad to say. Pixel visuals and graphics are on point, and the whole game looks great. When enemies attack, it is obvious (except for a couple attacks which were exceptions). I am partially colorblind, and very rarely was there anything my colorblindness screwed me over by. It's a testament to having good visuals that keep things clear without jeopardizing the vision. Similarly with sound design, it all sounds good, and enemies often have key audio sounds for their attacks as well so you know who is attacking and when, so you can act accordingly. every sound effect has purpose and isn't awful on the ears. I appreciate the secret walls in the game in the game often times being not obvious, but also not difficult either, as long as you pay attention. Many of the secrets you can often see the "treasure" of it from another path and thing to yourself "How do i get that?" thus encouraging more exploration. I also appreciate that 100% achievements completion does NOT require collecting every single little thing in the game. 100% achievements was fun and still fair, and had you interacting with more than 90% of the games content. What a wonderful little gem of a game. Even if more than a couple hours was me getting the tar beat out of me, losing to the same fight, I don't regret it. I got it this game on sale and I more than got my moneys worth.
Expand the review
Yet again, another game on Steam makes me wish for a mixed option. Vernal Edge is a mediocre metroidvania that fails to incorporate certain metroidvania mechanics into the game, leading to a frustrating experience for players. However, it’s not entirely a bad game since there are many redeeming aspects. The art style reminds me of the DS games, but it’s inconsistent in many areas, mainly for character sprites and the lack of animation for enemies. While it mainly looks good, some characters have a simplified drawing, and some enemies lack additional frames that make them look rough when they swing and move around. The main character, Vernal, is perfectly fine, though. The problem with her was the overall attitude and lack of character, but I’ll get to that in a bit. It is definitely a metroidvania, no arguing there, but it works differently from a traditional one. Instead of traversing one big map, you go around different islands to explore to find where to go. While it sounds simple enough, the lack of a map for the majority of islands makes them a bit difficult to navigate, even if you buy the mini-map upgrade; therefore, it becomes a chore to get around and figure out where to go and what to do. The hub area is 3D, where you move around with your airship from one island to another, and the rest of the game is 2D. It has a rough but decent combo-based combat system that reminded me of Devil May Cry a bit, but it is nowhere near as deep as DMC, of course. The main gimmick of the game is the Pulse mechanic which you draw health from enemies by throwing your sword at them, but it is explained very poorly that it becomes very easy to miss such a core mechanic that could result in game becoming a bit more difficult than it’s supposed to as you progress further. The reason for that is the freedom to leave the training in the beginning. Another flaw that I’ve noticed is that most of the abilities you obtain are used only in a few areas; thus, they eventually become obsolete. The universe of Vernal Edge is intriguing enough, but the weak storyline and the horrible storytelling make such great potential go to waste. The protagonist, Vernal, is out to kill her father for abandoning her and her mother at such a young age; therefore, her attitude is insufferable especially considering the fact that she acts like a dick to everyone and rages almost all the time. While her frustration could be understandable, making such a one-dimensional, edgy protagonist is problematic itself. She barely shows any character development, and the anti-climactic ending doesn’t really help with it. Her father’s motives are unclear as well. Apparently, Vernal’s sword Pulse Edge is capable of opening portals to another dimension called “Unreality,” where one can create anything if the will is strong enough, but why he wants to do that is unknown. It’s hinted that he may try to bring his wife back, but why sacrifice them in the first place, then? So, yeah, if you can turn a blind eye to the story, you can actually get a lot of enjoyment out of it, especially since it plays a bit like Mega Man Zero and Devil May Cry. The soundtrack is also decent, but the overall volume of the game is so low that I had to crank it up to max. TL;DR A mediocre metroidvania that suffers from a bad story and storytelling. The lack of tutorials and the unique metroidvania mindset, where you have the freedom to go from one island to another, could be confusing, but if you can get used to them, it offers something enjoyable such as a combo-based combat system that slightly feels like Devil May Cry, and the wonderful traversal mechanics that is probably inspired by Mega Man Zero.
Expand the review
Vernal Edge is a difficult experience to judge. I genuinely think this game is absolutely brimming with fresh ideas and a sense of authenticity; however, for every moment of brilliance, there is a rough edge (or 10) to diminish the shine. Ultimately, I do think the game is worth trying, if for no other reason than its novelty, as there's nothing else really like it in the genre. However, there are definitely some polarizing design choices, and a glaring lack of polish pervades pretty much every aspect of the game. Still, I did ultimately enjoy my time with it, and I'd recommend it on sale if you're interested. For specifics, read on: I'll start with the combat, because this is the one area of the game I truly have nothing bad to say about. Combat in Vernal Edge is EXCELLENT, revolving around a stagger system to create windows of vulnerability. Enemies have varying stagger points, which you can chip away with charged attacks, select spells, or knocking a vulnerable enemy into another; reduce the stagger points to zero, and enemies become ragdolls against your sword, open to a good old-fashioned walloping from your sword combos. The game draws inspiration from platform fighters, as you can enter directional inputs to your charged attacks to execute different moves, which act as 'launchers' of sorts to help you knock enemies around. Combat nails a great depth to capture complexity without being cumbersome, offering player expression without the need to memorize more complex strings of moves. It's also largely fair, letting you adeptly avoid damage with good positioning. I've seen complaints about staggering enemies being too difficult when faced with groups, but I personally didn't find this to be an issue; mixing up spells with hit-and-run charge attacks (which keep their charge through dashing and jumping) does the trick. I've also seen complaints about the healing system, which I LOVE. Essentially, you build up a 'Pulse' meter through your standard attacks; you can then spend your accumulated Pulse on (appropriately named) Pulse attacks, which automatically seek out enemies and heal you upon connection. This is a MUCH more interesting system than "press button to drink potion" and fits the intense combat of the game overall. You actually have to think before healing: using a Pulse attack right in front of an enemy is liable to get you a smack in the face. But there are ranged Pulse attacks as well, and, with a bit of positional awareness, it's plenty easy to heal when you need. Also, environmental hazards deal very little damage and are actually never lethal, so there's never any need to heal outside of combat. All in all, it's a unique system that really enhances the combat in the game. Beyond combat, you'll also be undertaking quite a bit of platforming in Vernal Edge. And this is, quite possibly, the most unique aspect of the game. Vernal Edge makes great effort to offer an incredibly fresh set of movement skills, several of which I've never seen in any other Metroidvania. The game is so committed to breaking the mold, in fact, that it forgoes a double jump upgrade entirely, a borderline-insane choice for a game with constant, dedicated platforming segments. But this is where the blemishes of Vernal Edge begin to show, because the consequence of using weird movement abilities is that... a lot of them are, uh, pretty bad. The more standard stuff like the air dash works fine as you'd expect, but some of the more unique upgrades, like the dashjump, are absolutely atrocious to execute and generally awkward to work into the platforming flow. And the most freeing of them, Pulse flight, also drains your Pulse meter, diminishing your healing capabilities and being entirely inaccessible if you don't have Pulse left over from combat. Beyond some specific questionable design choices for abilities, there's also a general wonkiness to environmental design that diminishes the platforming experience. Much of the game utilizes ledge-grabbing as a mechanic of traversal, with plenty of "just low enough to grab onto" ledges and airborne nodes that act sort of like monkey bars to help you traverse open spaces. The problem is that ledge grabbing uses auto-detection based on proximity to trigger, and it is INCREDIBLY inconsistent, meaning you're liable to just fail to grab onto something when you really need to. Some of the inputs for movement abilities also interfere with how you interact with walls and ledges in strange ways, adding additional frustration when your character just won't do what you need to do when platforming. And, overall, there's just a sense that player momentum feels off, which can make controlling character movement difficult in really tight sections. I do want to mention that there are some genuinely amazing puzzles, both for quest items and optional collectibles, and these were really enjoyable to work through. But I couldn't shake this feeling that they would've been better if I didn't have to fight the game's controls the entire time. The worst aspect of the game far and away, though, is the twin prongs of its map system and exploration design. I can't really separate these two because they're so intertwined with each other. Let's start with exploration: rather than utilizing one interconnected map, Vernal Edge has a litany of individual 'islands' that you can explore. I like this, in theory, as it adds a sort of dungeoneering feel to the game and offers a different take on Metroidvania progression. However, it can be VERY difficult to determine where you need to go next for an upgrade or key item, as the game gives you no direction whatsoever, which means you have no recourse but to simply hop from island to island in blind search of your next objective. And this is easier said than done, as there are dozens of islands in the game, which means that sussing out the critical path later in the game feels increasingly impossible. You can't just look at one big map to see which paths you haven't gone down yet; you have to physically travel to each island, land your ship, and determine if there's somewhere there you haven't probed yet. But even THAT is made more difficult, because the map system in the game is, frankly, pretty terrible. The game has two map states for each island: you don't have a map and see nothing, or you have a map and see everything. Neither are ideal, because neither lets you actually tell where you've traveled yet. You have to forgo relying on maps entirely and just keep track mentally of where you have and haven't gone, which becomes nearly impossible late-game because there are literally dozens of islands to juggle in your working memory. And this is made worse YET AGAIN, because many of the islands have special sub-zones, which offer yet another layer to memorize AND also never have maps. And—I am not kidding you—some of those sub-zones have further sub-zones, like a Matryoshka doll of annoying level design. It's actually kind of outrageous. I really, really wanted to finish this game without using guide, but, after spending several hours trying to find the final of five key items to progress, I had to check a guide. The way forward was down a path I didn't realize existed and NEVER would've checked. I know getting lost is part of the Metroidvania experience, but you don't get lost in Vernal Edge; you're just completely directionless. It's not fun, and the game really needs a support system to help guide the player a bit better. I'll end on aesthetics, which I think are strong. The pixel art is phenomenal, and facial portraits during speech add a lot of expression to the characters. The art direction and atmosphere are also great, which helps keep exploration fun during frustrating moments of wandering. While the sound design is on the weaker side, lacking impact and variety, the excellent music helps make up for it. ...And I hit the review character limit! Try the game, it's worth rolling the dice.
Expand the review
I slept on this one, but really wish I hadn't. It's a great MV. It has a bit of an atypical design in that the biomes are segmented into levels, but once you get used to that it's great. Exploration is great, combat is really good though it does get tedious at times. Story is pretty decent. There are some points I could nitpick, but I really liked it.
Expand the review
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Frequently Asked Questions
Vernal Edge is currently priced at 16.99€ on Steam.
Vernal Edge is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 16.99€ on Steam.
Vernal Edge received 425 positive votes out of a total of 543 achieving a rating of 7.40.
😊
Vernal Edge was developed by Hello Penguin Team LLC and published by PID Games and Dear Villagers.
Vernal Edge is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Vernal Edge is not playable on MacOS.
Vernal Edge is not playable on Linux.
Vernal Edge is a single-player game.
Vernal Edge does not currently offer any DLC.
Vernal Edge does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Vernal Edge does not support Steam Remote Play.
Vernal Edge is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Vernal Edge.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 15 October 2025 22:41 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 24 October 2025 16:16 |
| Steam price | 28 October 2025 20:35 |
| Steam reviews | 26 October 2025 13:58 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Vernal Edge, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Vernal Edge
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Vernal Edge concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Vernal Edge compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
4
Developer
Hello Penguin Team LLC
Publisher
PID Games,
Dear Villagers
Release
14 Mar 2023
Platforms
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