The grapple hook is the Rosetta Stone of play. I'm not saying it should be in every game (although it should be in all games), but it's always worth appreciating its expressive power as a mechanic. Does it attach to everything or just enemies? Or just shelves? Does it move immediately or can it choose itself? Does it move physically or does it teleport? Or does the thing you grab move instead? How exhilarating will the experience be?

Let us also congratulate the newest addition to this lofty genre. Orijah's harpoon can grab enemies and orange-eyed black tentacles and teleport them away with a slash. This simple design is at the heart of this darkly atmospheric action-adventure, both a combat tool and a means of traversing levels, giving you a constant sense of choice and movement.

It is not without its problems. Throwing Orijah's harpoon can be tricky because it requires two separate double inputs. If you press the throw button without a direction, you will lose your position and come back. During combat, it is easy to hit this button repeatedly and end up fighting without your main weapon, the harpoon, or failing to teleport.

Still, the harpoon made me feel powerful, and besides, Orijah's combat is not about precision. It is about motion. You throw a harpoon to get past a swarm of enemies, get to an enemy with a more dangerous range, hit it to fill up your combo meter, and then throw the harpoon to get out of harm's way. You can switch between several secondary weapons, including rapier, crossbow, and shotgun, to unleash powerful finishers, and Olija's combat is direct and weighty, with enemies sniping at you from a distance, teleporting away, or countering your combos. It can often be a bit chaotic with rooms full of enemies that snipe from afar, teleport away, or counter combos.

The ship you play on is a European whaling ship named Faraday, which has been wrecked. The rest of his crew is stranded on an island called Terrafagge in a sea ravaged by demon-infected Clan Rottenwood. The once glorious temples and places of learning are now rotting away, and the remaining heroes are nothing more than gnomes and mute words. The people have fallen into a pitiful, squealing shadow government and are now prey to exploitation and slaughter. And what if, as a magic harpooner, you have become the bad guy?

Look, "Orijah" is "Souls" itself. But it is also "Blazer"-like. The terra firma is a stronghold, a place to recover and make ammunition for secondary weapons in between exploring the locations scattered throughout the ocean. This setting is reminiscent of Quintet's quietly legendary "Soul Blazer" trilogy, a series of action games released on the SNES between 1990 and 1995 in which you, the protagonist, would dive into a dungeon and your starting town would change depending on your actions. The game was called "Oriha. In Oriha, freeing the captive castaways and later finding them back on terra firma gave you the satisfaction of knowing that your actions were helping the community thrive.

You found the three blue keys that opened the Shadow Gate and set sail to return home again. However, the blue keys are behind a barrier, requiring two or more yellow keys. The level is not a sprawling metroidvania, but there are branching paths that lead to various goals, giving you depth and choice.

It took me only five hours to complete Olija, but there is not an ounce of extravagance. Every moment is taken into account, whether it is discovering a torii gate in a bamboo forest shrouded in fog, solving a puzzle, or encountering a battle. The action flowed so smoothly - fighting the Rottenwood clan goons, discovering secrets, platforms, levers and door puzzles - that it was easy to finish in a single session.

In many ways, however, Olija is too lean. By the end of the game, she had only worn a few hats and barely used two of her secondary weapons. One powerful new item is introduced later in the story, but I felt that its potential was not utilized.

Arguably, it is better to be left wanting more than bored with what you have, and it is easy to understand Olija's shortcomings. Olija's shortcomings are easy to understand, since the game was created by a single person, Thomas Olsson. Faraday's boots clatter against the wooden planks and his blade makes a shuffling sound. Enemies cackle and bodies scatter. The sound alone allows you to hear every detail of the battle, and its gravity lends this world a physicality that is often found in pixel games. The music, too, is a mix of dissonant smoky saxophones, mournful horns, powerful strings, and subtle bass rumblings that both unsettled me and transported me to this sad and strange world. My point is this: the Olija really lives up to the subwoofer.

I was amazed at the quality of everything this one person accomplished. The story of a European lost in the mysterious and terrifying oriental sea partly reflects his own experience of moving from his native France to Japan to be with his wife. However, when he encounters an inexplicable culture, led by the beautiful Madame Olija, and is chased into submission, I sometimes felt a disturbing air of orientalist fantasy. But I also liked the clash of rough and ready sailors confronting a strange and frightening world of corrupted beauty. I only wish their voyage had been a little longer.