There's a reason most modern platformers don't reset you back five minutes on contact with a stage hazard.

Yeah, having to reload if you step in a pit does make the game harder. But it makes the game harder in a really boring way. Trudge back from your save point, do the pit section again, don't make any mistakes or you're repeating it a third time, etc. You can drop Infernax down to casual mode but the core issue persists. You're still losing gold and exp, which means you're now *really* locked into farming deliberately rather than playing naturally, and you're still resetting back to checkpoint after mistakes. The jumps being really idiosyncratic does not help (the first real jump section has you on staggered chain platforms, waiting until you're almost ceiling crushed so that the next one will lower and you can move to it. When you're re-crossing this area, the jumps are worse and they end with one that felt pixel perfect. Idk if it actually was.)

This all forces you to play *really* careful. Better farm resources to unlock everything in the town before you move on. Better run back to the save point any time you navigate a pit section. Most hard modern platformers have learned from masocore platforming that it's not really interesting to repeat sections, but Infernax is going for a very authentic Simon's Quest experience.

Which makes it weird that your jump is quite good. You're not locked into the early Castlevania 100% committal hell leap. You have air control. And you need it, because the platforming is tuned like it's Shovel Knight.

Which brings us right back around to the original problem.

I might just be a bad match for Infernax, because I like the original Castlevanias but I think the right way to play them is with save states. Doing a hard platforming sequence is fun. Commuting to your day job at the hard platforming sequence, clocking out, going home, commuting back to your day job at the hard platforming sequence, putting in your nine to five, clocking out, going home, commuting back to your day job at the hard platforming sequence---that all sucks.

Which is annoying, because the rest of the game is pretty fine. The plot having lots of optional branches based on the quests you choose to take is interesting---although the routing to the real endings being very precise and forcing you to play with a guide, which minimally exist, sucks. The soundtrack and graphics are alright. I liked Bloodstained's NES platformers a bit better than this, even if their controls felt way less responsive than these ones, because the difficulty had some give to it.

I don't like thumbs downing for just one game element, but a big enough fly will ruin any soup. I'll play a bit more to see if I can change my mind, but otherwise maybe wait for a sale before grabbing Infernax unless you're really, really specifically a fan that has played original Simon's Quest.

Edit: Yeah nah, it does not get better lmao.