The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest Review

If you’ve ever wanted to jump into the mind of a game developer on the verge of a mental breakdown, The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest is a shockingly good option.

Many of us deal with anxiety, but Fletcher is one of the few who make it to a therapist’s office. He is a game developer in the throes of mental and physical burnout as he nears the end of his project. Facing major dilemmas, he finally decided to see a professional.

Apparently, this is an “it’s all in your head” type of guy because Fletcher passes out and falls into a dreamworld. The dreamworld sees Fletcher being reborn, confused, yet ready to find his way out of this weird world.

General

The Prisoning: Fletcher's Quest is a bite-sized Metroidvania with polished pixel art. It is on the shorter side, clocking in between 3 and 4 hours, depending on how long the boss fights take you.

One of the first things you’ll notice is that it’s aimed towards an adult audience. Fletcher talks to his therapist about depression and the mental struggles of burnout. He wakes up in the dreamworld naked, and the dialogue is similar to that you would see on Adult Swim. Nothing is overly crass, but do not hand this to a child to play.

When you are set free to roam, all you have is a gun to fend off enemies and a jump to explore. The rooms are pretty simple; there are slight variations of enemies in different areas, and some basic platforming, but nothing too challenging because this isn’t a precision platformer.

Instead of gaining new abilities to unlock new areas, you hunt down coins from bosses. Each boss is pretty unique. They have their own attack patterns and specific areas on their bodies where they take damage. This is the section that holds a challenge. These bosses took a few tries to figure out the loop and the best way to tackle them. But once I did, it felt simple.

There is only one set of upgrades, and you get it right before the final push of the game. You get three more bullets. This is so impactful because only one bullet can be on screen at a time. So you should either be really close to an enemy to rapid fire, or far away and duck for cover.

Moving on to achievements, this is a simple game to 100%. Most of the achievements are earned in a normal playthrough of the game. There are a few, like killing an enemy with a down slam or visiting every room, that require a specific action to pop. The only achievement that will be a problem is the “Still Time To Refund” because you need to clear the game in under 2 hours.

Thoughts

I think this is a great, short Metroidvania. If you are someone who doesn’t need a well-crafted story, you want to jump around and shoot monsters, this might be a great weekend play.

Now, some people in the reviews were not happy about the price point. The game is $15, and many said that was too much for such a simple and short game. I think this really depends on the person. I think this is a solid game, but I can see that if you are buying on a budget, this might not be high on your list.

I gave The Prisoning a solid 3 out of 5 stars; it is right down the middle.