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| Constance blends hand-drawn art and movement-focused gameplay, with its paintbrush at the centre of both combat and traversal. |
By Jon Scarr
Metroidvanias are one of those genres I keep coming back to, even when I feel like I’ve played a lot of them already. That also means I tend to notice pretty quickly when one feels overly familiar or tries too hard to impress right away. Constance doesn’t do that. It starts quietly and lets you get comfortable with how it moves and feels before it asks much of you. That approach worked well for me early on.
Constance is a 2D, hand-drawn Metroidvania where you play as an artist exploring a painted world shaped by her own work and imagination. Your main tool is an oversized paintbrush, and it handles almost everything. You fight with it, move with it, and use it to interact with the environment. From the start, it felt like the game knew exactly what its core idea was and stuck to it.
What I appreciated most early on was the pacing. New abilities show up at a steady clip, and the game gives you time to understand each one before layering something new on top. Combat, platforming, and exploration feel connected instead of siloed, which made it easy for me to settle into its rhythm. Once movement started opening up, I found myself wanting to push a little farther each session rather than stopping at the next save point.
Across its roughly 10 to 12 hour run, Constance stays focused on control, consistency, and readability instead of trying to stretch itself thin. That steady design choice shapes the rest of the experience and sets expectations clearly going forward.
Constance Details
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
Reviewed on: PC (Steam)
Developer: btf
Publisher: btf, ByteRockers' Games, PARCO GAMES
Genre: Metroidvania, Action-Platformer
Available game modes: Single-player
Pieces That Slowly Come Together
Constance tells its story in short bursts instead of long cutscenes, and that approach fits the game well. Most of your time is spent exploring its painted world, but every so often the game pauses to show a moment from Constance’s everyday life. These scenes usually appear after major encounters and never last long, which made them easy to absorb without breaking the flow of play.
The setup is straightforward. Constance is an artist who becomes trapped inside a strange, colourful world shaped by her own work and frustration. As you move through different areas, you collect Tears that unlock memories from her past. These moments touch on school, work, and personal pressure, and they are presented plainly. I appreciated that the game lets these scenes speak for themselves instead of spelling everything out.
What I noticed here was the restraint. The game never tells you how to feel about what you are watching. It shows situations and trusts you to sit with them. Some of these memories are uncomfortable, especially when they involve authority figures or moments where Constance feels brushed aside. Because the presentation stays grounded, those scenes landed in a way that felt natural rather than forced.
Storytelling also shows up in smaller ways throughout the world. NPCs often echo parts of Constance’s experience through quick conversations or side requests. None of these interactions are long, but together they help the world feel connected instead of purely abstract. I found myself paying closer attention to dialogue as I went, even when it was brief.
That said, the story moments are spaced pretty far apart. There were stretches where I went a long time without seeing a new memory, and I caught myself wishing those scenes popped up a bit more often. What is there works well, but it sometimes feels like the game is holding back.
In the end, Constance uses its story to support the experience rather than drive it. For me, that light touch mostly worked, even if it left me wanting a little more by the time I reached the later areas.
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| Story moments in Constance often unfold quietly inside surreal spaces shaped by the artist’s inner world. |
Learning the Feel
Gameplay is where Constance really started to set in for me. Everything revolves around movement, and the game does a good job easing you into that idea. Combat, platforming, and getting around the world all rely on the same basic actions, so once I got comfortable with how Constance moves, everything else began to fall into place.
At the start, your options are limited. You jump, dash, and attack with the paintbrush, and the early areas are designed to teach those basics without pressure. As new abilities are introduced, the game gradually asks more of you. Air dashes, wall movement, and brush-based actions begin stacking together, and areas that felt closed off earlier start opening up. I liked that each new ability had space to settle in before the next one showed up.
Combat feels deliberate rather than frantic. Enemies are readable, with clear attack patterns that reward patience. The paint-based dash became my most-used tool, especially when dealing with tighter encounters or hazards. Because that dash draws from a limited paint resource, I had to pay attention to how often I used it. There were moments where I pushed too hard, ran low on paint, and had to recover quickly before things spiraled.
Platforming plays just as big a role as combat. Spikes, moving obstacles, and vertical sections show up often, and later areas start blending these elements together in more demanding layouts. Once my full movement kit was unlocked, moving through rooms felt smooth and controlled. I caught myself replaying sections just to clean up my movement rather than rushing through them.
Boss fights pull everything together. Most encounters test how well you understand your abilities instead of relying on damage alone. Some fights mix platforming directly into the battle, which kept them from feeling static. Difficulty varies, but checkpoints are forgiving enough that retries never felt discouraging.
One detail I appreciated was the choice after dying. You can respawn at the last shrine or continue from the same room with enemies becoming stronger. That option helped keep momentum going, especially during platforming-heavy stretches where repeating long runbacks would have slowed things down.
As I spent more time with it, the gameplay settled into a steady, well-paced flow. It gives you a clear set of tools and trusts you to learn how to use them together, which made the experience feel rewarding without becoming exhausting.
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| Boss fights in Constance push you to stay mobile and use your paintbrush tools with good timing. |
A World That Feels Handcrafted
Constance caught my eye right away, but not because it was trying to show off. The hand-drawn art style feels deliberate and clear in motion, and that consistency holds up the longer you play. Characters, environments, and animations all share the same visual tone, which helped the world feel connected instead of stitched together from separate ideas.
Each area has its own look, and moving between them always felt clear. Tight interior spaces give way to wider sections without becoming confusing, and colour is used in smart ways to highlight hazards, paths, and interactable elements. I rarely had moments where I wasn’t sure what the game was asking me to do visually, even during busier sections.
Animation plays a big role in how good the game feels to control. Constance’s movements are smooth, and actions flow naturally from one to the next. Dashes leave short paint trails, attacks have weight without feeling sluggish, and transitions between abilities stay clean. That clarity made tougher sections easier to read, especially when quick reactions mattered.
The interface stays out of the way. Menus are simple and easy to navigate, and checking the map never felt like a hassle. I liked being able to pull it up quickly without completely stopping the action, which helped keep exploration feeling fluid.
Audio is handled with the same restraint as the visuals. Music shifts depending on where you are, but it never pulls attention away from what you are doing. Sounds tied to movement and combat are clear and useful, making timing easier to judge without turning noisy or overwhelming.
From a technical side, the game ran without issues for me. Load times stayed short, and nothing popped up that distracted me while playing. Everything stays clear and consistent from start to finish, which made longer sessions easy to settle into.
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| Constance platforming scene showing hand-drawn environments, lighting effects, and paint-based movement |
Constance Finds Its Groove and Stays There
After spending a good amount of time with Constance, I felt like I understood exactly what it was aiming for. It never tries to overwhelm you with constant surprises or stretch itself thinner than it needs to. Instead, it stays focused on movement, pacing, and how everything fits together, and that approach worked well for me throughout the experience.
What kept me playing was how consistent it felt once all the pieces were in place. Movement becomes second nature, and the game trusts you to use what you’ve learned without constantly stopping to explain itself. Combat and platforming feed into each other in a way that made retries feel fair rather than frustrating. I was more willing to experiment because mistakes rarely felt costly.
The story takes a quieter role, but it still left an impression. The moments pulled from Constance’s life are brief and spaced out, and while I did want to see more of them, the ones that are there stuck with me. They add context without dragging the game away from what it does best.
Visually and technically, Constance stays steady from start to finish. Nothing feels out of place, and longer sessions were easy to settle into without fatigue. That sense of cohesion helped the whole experience feel deliberate rather than pieced together.
Constance may not surprise genre regulars with its structure, but it handles the fundamentals with care. For me, that was enough. It is a confident, well-paced Metroidvania that knows its limits and works comfortably within them.
Constance Review Summary
Liked
- Movement and brush-based abilities feel consistent once everything opens up.
- Boss fights test awareness and movement without punishing retries.
- Art direction stays cohesive and clear through every area.
- Story moments are brief and well-placed when they appear.
Didn't Like
- - Story beats can feel spaced too far apart.
- - Genre regulars may find the structure familiar.
Overall Assessment of Constance
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4 / 5)
Graphics: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5 / 5)
Sound: ⭐⭐⭐½☆ (3.5 / 5)
Replayability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4 / 5)
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