Name: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Item: El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
Author: Retro Replay

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron grabs you with a strange, confident rhythm: you move from airy 3D stretches into side-scrolling platforming and then into compact melee arenas, all while chasing fallen angels through a biblical fantasy drawn from the Book of Enoch. It is an action game that feels deliberately unlike the usual power fantasy. Enoch begins without a weapon of his own, so surviving means taking arms from enemies and learning when to strike, counter, purify, or replace what you are holding.

The simplicity of the controls is both its hook and its limitation. Timing light, heavy, and counterattacks can become satisfying once you stop mashing, but the repeated arena clashes and degrading weapons can test your patience. Still, the constantly shifting structure and watercolor art give the journey enough personality to carry it. This is worth trying if you want an unusual, stylized action-platformer and can accept some friction in exchange for its singular atmosphere.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

El Shaddai starts by asking you to meet it on its own terms. Enoch has no personal arsenal to fall back on, and that immediately changes the feel of every fight. You take weapons from opponents through counters, then decide whether to keep using a degrading weapon, purify it, or throw it aside when another enemy offers a better replacement. That makes combat feel less like stockpiling gear and more like staying alert in the moment.

The input list is refreshingly lean: light attacks, heavy attacks, and counters do much of the work, with timing carrying more weight than complex button strings. When the tempo clicks, there is a clean satisfaction in turning an enemy’s weapon against them. But this stripped-down approach can also leave the arena battles feeling repetitive, especially if you are not enjoying the cadence of countering and managing worn-down weapons. It is a game that rewards patience more than button-mashing.

Its best structural choice is refusing to stay in one lane. Combat arenas break into 3D exploration, then the game can pivot again into 2D platforming. That variety gives the adventure momentum and keeps the action from becoming an uninterrupted string of brawls. The shifts can feel unusual rather than seamless, but they are a big reason El Shaddai remains memorable: you are always being pushed into the next strange corner of its world.

Graphics

The watercolor-driven art is the immediate standout. Enoch’s journey moves through angelic realms with distinct themes, and the changes in place help the game’s 3D exploration and 2D platforming segments feel like parts of a larger, fantastical pilgrimage rather than recycled stages.

The side-on platforming view gives the game a welcome visual change from its third-person action spaces. More than raw detail, it is the willingness to keep changing the look of the journey that sticks with you.

Story

El Shaddai takes biblical material somewhere far less familiar than a straightforward retelling. Its foundation is the apocryphal Book of Enoch: God sends Enoch to retrieve the Grigori, angels who abandoned their duty watching humanity and instead chose to live and breed among humans. Their Nephilim offspring become the aberrant foes standing between Enoch and his goal.

That premise gives the game an unusually weighty direction for an action-platformer. You are not simply clearing a route toward a final villain; you are crossing the separate realms of fallen angels and attempting to bring them back into Heaven’s fold. Lucifel, the head archangel, accompanies Enoch, grounding the journey in its heavenly mission even as the worlds become increasingly fantastical.

The story is strongest as a frame for the game’s sense of otherness. If you enjoy mythological action games but are tired of the same pantheons and familiar heroic setups, this one offers a genuinely different source of imagery and conflict. For more background on the game and its release history, see El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.

Overall Experience

El Shaddai is easy to respect even when it occasionally frustrates. Its combat is intentionally spare, its weapons are temporary, and its repeated arena encounters can wear thin if you want a constantly expanding move set. Yet the game has a real point of view, and that matters. The movement between melee combat, exploration, and 2D platforming gives it a shape many action games lack.

You should give it a chance if distinctive art and a strange spiritual fantasy matter as much to you as combat depth. The first hour makes its unusual intentions clear, and the payoff comes from accepting that it will keep changing form rather than settling into a comfortable routine. It is not a flawless action game, but it is far more interesting than a polished imitation of one.

At 7.5, it lands as a strong recommendation for the curious rather than an automatic pick for every action fan. Come for the watercolor realms and Enoch’s odd heavenly mission; stay if the deliberate, timing-based weapon theft starts to click. If it does, El Shaddai becomes a distinctive trip that few games from its era resemble.