If there’s one thing you can gather from this blog, it’s that I hold a deep amount of love for the subgenre of action-adventure games known as ‘Metroidvania’, taking its name from the classic Metroid and Castlevania games. Fortunately for me, there is no shortage of these kinds of games. The indie scene loves the way Metroidvanias flow, starting out simple and just unlocking more environments and getting bigger and more complex as it goes along. It allows them to create these vast, expansive worlds that seem so beautiful and so atmospheric from just the most simple of elements. The downside is that with all the Metroidvanias out there, a lot of them get lost in the shuffle. So it makes me happy whenever I find something of a hidden gem in the genre, and even more happy when I get to share it with people. And what do you know, I just so happen to have a hidden gem Metroidvania AND a platform to discuss it. It’s almost as if this is the exact reason I started the 52. This is Dandara, and this is going to be a ride, let me tell you.
Dandara puts you into the role of the eponymous Dandara, a young woman who has recently awoken from an eternal sleep to find that she has been chosen by creation itself. Her mission: to protect her land, a haven for the arts that’s being slowly corrupted by a powerful supernatural army fueled by greed, seeking to kill or enslave the warriors and artists living there. Dandara must go across the land, freeing the various gods and supernatural beings that have been enslaved by this greed and destroying those who ally themselves with it. Along the way she’ll do the usual Metroidvania things like near freely moving around the map, getting powerups, backtracking with those powerups to get even more powerups, using those powered-up powerups to power through the bosses and then eventually getting strong enough and going through the map enough to reach the big bad slavemaster himself, a golden man named Eldar, and fighting him for the fate of the world. And then probably failing a few times and it being no big thing because you recently hit a save point. It’s all the classic Metroidvania fun we all know and love.
It’s hard to describe why Dandara’s story works. It’s admittedly a very bare bones story, the kind of thing you’d expect from a game centered more about the freedom of exploration than any sort of concrete linear narrative. But seeing it in action, it’s incredibly engrossing and endearing. It’s the kind of thing that works more in a visual medium, seeing this world unveil and letting yourself become a part of it. I felt while I was playing Dandara that I was seeing a new mythology being born, which is a feeling I’m never against as I’m a massive mythology buff. Like Dandara is secretly this ancient creation story lost to time that only the developer’s ancestors knew about and they decided to share this piece of their own history and folklore with the rest of the world. A tale of art dominating greed and the warrior who made it all happen. Which, a similar thing to that did happen, but we’ll get around to that later on.
The gameplay of Dandara is where I can definitely see it getting divisive. Dandara doesn’t move like a normal video game protagonist does. Like, especially in the Metroidvania genre, you’d expect the protagonist to behave similar to Samus or Alucard, with a basic moveset primarily consisting of running, jumping and some manner of offensive attack. Dandara instead determines that why run when you can instead jump between the ceilings, walls, and floor. After all, Dandara is not a slave to anyone or anything, and that includes gravity. However, this does limit Dandara’s movement options considerably, as her only way to progress is to jump between white surfaces in a diagonal fashion. I can totally see where this limit of movement could turn some people off. it is very restrictive and there is a bit of a learning curve to Dandara’s range and what angles she can go at. But I feel like it’s worth sticking too, as once you get it down, Dandara becomes a supremely satisfying and very fast flowing game. The flow of Dandara when you get going is one of the best I’ve ever had just from how quick and nimble you are. I could definitely see this game becoming a great speed game as a result of Dandara’s lightning fast movement, and the speedruns for it being insanely entertaining to watch.
Dandara’s combat capabilities are not nearly as limited, but there’s still a lot restriction there. Before getting any of her extra weapons, Dandara only has a surprisingly short ranged triple shot. Its range being limited isn’t too much of a problem for most of the game as usually, you’ll be in short hallways where you can just hang above enemies to shoot them. And, to its credit, it does do a surprising amount of damage, killing most regular enemies in one or two shots if you line it up well. But therein comes the other issue, aiming your shots. It’s not too difficult to line up your shot, but it can get very confusing to switch from platforming to shooting as the angles are the exact opposites. It was very disorienting for myself at the very beginning and even late game there were certain moments where quickly switching between the two has left me confused on which angles I was originally going for. |
| Notably, these missiles were not way back in the woods. Still evergreen, though. |
And then there are the extra weapons. Dandara does something kind of cool by having most of your extra weapons just be hidden bonuses to reward you for your exploration, with only the missile being a required part of the game. I’m all for Metroidvanias giving you notable rewards for your in-depth analysis of the world rather than just giving you minor upgrades to things you already have. But I also understand, for balance sake, why you’d want to nerf these other extra weapons, as you don’t want to feel like you’re punishing the player for only wanting to get through your game. I don’t particularly care for how useless all the extra weapons, besides the missiles, are. At best, the other extra weapons are situational and, indeed, I did find some minor use in certain situations, like having to hit hard to reach enemies hidden in corners I can’t flip too or doing a lot of damage with the laser shot that you can stick to a wall. But mostly they’re just useless. It feels like there could’ve been more of a buff to these hidden powers without them feeling broken in my personal opinion. On the plus side, though, the missiles are great and will be basically your main extra weapon throughout the game.
So, let’s talk about salt. Dandara surprisingly doesn’t hide its health and weapon upgrades amongst the treasures of the world, as is fairly typical in Metroidvanias. I mean, there are certainly health and weapon power-related upgrades to be found, but they take the form of potions rather than your e-tanks or the like. Rather, Dandara opts to have something a level up system, where our lovely lady Dandara collects EXP from defeating enemies, overcoming obstacles, finding certain secrets and fusing with the souls of the departed warriors that all died of various causes, absolutely none of which actually relate to the invasion or enslavement of the world. This experience is known as ‘salt’. I wrote this entire paragraph as a long set-up to a disappointing reveal about something that amuses only me. Foreshadowing to my KH3 post. Anyways once you have collected this salt, you can go back to any of the campsites throughout the game, which acts as a combination save point, level point and archive of your current ability-set, to upgrade either your health, weapon power or the effectiveness of the potions on both of these mechanics. Which are humorously called ‘Essence of Salt’ and ‘Infusion of Salt’. Which are both excellent descriptors of what playing Mario Party with Peach as an AI player is like. Unfortunately, any time Dandara dies, she loses any and all built up experience. You can go back to your death point to restore your salt, but if you die in between, you lose that past self, so be careful there. It’s like the Mummy Demastered all over again.
Speaking of being careful, as one might expect Dandara isn’t exactly an easy game. There’s a lot of annoying enemy placements and ridiculous attacks and just general HP sponges throughout the game that you’ll encounter, probably die to and then have to struggle to get back to where you were previously to gain any lost EXP. It’s not too bad in terms of difficulty for the majority of the game, a lot of my deaths for the first 75% of it were just me being generally bad at games. Then you get to the last part, the Dream Lands and the Fortress and hoo boy does this game take a turn. The Dream Lands is the penultimate section of the game and starting out, they actually aren’t too terrible. You’re basically just playing more challenging versions of previous maps that serve as a nice test of what you’ve learned in the game. Then the enemies that kind of resemble Metroids get involved and it just starts becoming a nightmare. These enemies take five hits minimum no matter what you’re using and in a certain part of the Dream Lands, every enemy you kill turns in to one of these after death so you have to kill them twice. I eventually just gave up and tried powering through the area best I could until I got through to the area boss. And the fortress is just the worst, just room after room of the evilest enemies the game has concocted which sounds reasonable on paper, but in practice it is fighting a ton of enemies you’ve never seen before and hoping you make enough progress to where you don’t have to replay a part again, but also not because you might die and simultaneously lose and gain 10,000 salt.
Now it’s time for everyone’s favorite segment, Ethan gushes about pixel art. Dandara is astonishingly beautiful, perhaps one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen. The environments are so lively and ominous and magical and it just adds to the general mythological feel of this whole thing. The sprite work is, for the most part, incredibly gorgeous and insanely detailed. There’s just so much heart and soul put into every single character, every animation, every environment, it’s just such a shame that Dandara very distractingly doesn’t have a face. I’m not trying to discredit the rest of the visuals, mind. The game is legit gorgeous, as I’m sure you’ve seen throughout this post. But the fact that every single character is so beautiful and detailed and yet the main character spends the entire game missing her face, it’s just the tiniest bit jarring. But it is just a tiny thing and the game looks great otherwise so, whatever. |
| I don't have any pictures of Dandara the person so enjoy more of this game's beauty. |
So, let’s detour real quick into the 17th Century, because like it or not you’re going to learn something from all of this. Don’t worry, it’s super important and relevant to this game. We’re heading off to Brazil, specifically the colonial period. Brazil at one point, as many countries were, was heavily involved in the trade of African peoples to be used as slave labor. We don’t know any specific dates as to where our tale begins, but it’s some point in the early 17th century. A massive slave revolt broke out, dozens if not hundreds of Africans and Afro-Brazilians fleeing from their bondage and formed a civilization in the dense vegetation of Serra da Barriga in the state of Alagoas, a kingdom that would come to be known as Quilombo dos Palmares, or just Palmares for short. In this kingdom, Quilombos, escaped slaves, could live free as farmers and warriors and kings. One of those kings, the second and unfortunately final king was Zumbi, renamed Zumbi dos Palmares as king. But we’re not here to talk about Zumbi, rather, let's talk about Zumbi’s wife, a hunter, an agriculturalist, and a master of the techniques of the Afro-Brazilian martial art known as capoeira, a martial art that combines elements of dance, music, and acrobatics to form a quick, powerful and complex style of fighting. Let's talk about Dandara.
We don’t know when or where Dandara is born. She may have been born into slavery, she may have been sold into it. But the important part is that Dandara was considering someone else’s property at a very young age. Not content to spend the rest of her life being considered no essentially no better than livestock, she joined a group of Afro-Brazilians building a resistance to slavery. It is here we can assume that she met Zumbi, fell in love, got married and inevitably had three children. Dandara was a warrior first and foremost, as you can imagine considering her previously mentioned mastery of capoeira. She devoted her life to protecting the kingdom she would eventually become queen of, as well as helping it grow by partaking in hunting and agriculture. Palmares was far from a peaceful place though and it can be assumed that she spent more of her time at war than not. 
The Dutch had started invading Palmares in 1630 and basically never stopped until the first king of Palmares, Ganga-Zumba, signed a peace treaty in 1678 that Dandara very vocally opposed. This peace treaty would’ve sanctioned Palmares as a sort of micro-nation, allowing them to engage in trade and commerce, as well as free all Palmarino prisoners captured by the state of Pernambuco, in exchange for essentially sitting on their thumbs about any other slaves present in Brazil. Dandara was not standing for that last part. She wanted slavery dead, end of discussion. After the assassination of Ganga-Zumba by an unknown Palmarino, Zumbi rose to Zumbi dos Palmares and Palmares returned to its state of constant fighting. Dandara committed in 1694, a year before the death of her husband and the fall of her kingdom, after being arrested, choosing to die rather than return to a life of slavery. Unfortunately, that’s all I know for certain. The facts about Dandara are largely lost to time, with most everything we do have almost being folklore. A 17th Century hero nearly lost to time. But thanks to Long Hat House, we haven’t lost her completely.
The parallels between the story of the real Dandara and her fictional counterpart are very obvious. The main point of Dandara is the opposition of slavery, and Eldar even offers her an approximation of the deal that Ganga-Zumba had with the state of Pernambuco, stating that if she walks away and turns a blind eye, he will not harm her. And much like her real-life counterpart, she would rather die than let her people suffer in exchange for personal safety. But even the world of Dandara is representative of the real world. Dandara is from a massive kingdom devoted to the arts and agriculture. She even utilizes said arts in both her combat and her platforming. Outside of her village is just a massive forest that’s full of crazy and violent creatures and hiding so many secrets. Beyond the forest is a massive desert to the north, not any connecting back to the real world but more a metaphor for the loss of her original culture. The desert is a massive abandoned and half destroyed archive, after all. And then there’s the supposedly civilized world of the Eldarian forces and their fortress, a world built on greed and oppression that attempts to keep you content with its glitz and glamor so that you aren’t concerned with how its all made. It's all fascinating and engrossing and I am eternally happy I got to see it unfold.
Dandara is a criminally underrated game. I can see all of its faults and I acknowledge that it is kind of weird to control and it is mayhaps too difficult at some points. But I feel like it almost needs to be seen. I don’t just believe it to be an exceptionally good game, I feel like both the story of the real Dandara and the mythology of the fictional one should be seen and should be told. If it’s not for you I can’t begrudge you on that but for me, it was an experience I wasn’t expecting and I’m eternally glad I got to see. I want to thank you all for reading and we’ll be back next time with a tale of swords and stones. See ya guys then.
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