Check out our Possessor(s) Review to see what we thought of Heart Machine’s latest release!

I always love a good Metroidvania. Starting with nothing. Then, exploring and working out the different abilities you might expect to acquire to help you overcome seemingly impassable areas. It’s fun, and a great way to explore a world. I don’t think I’ve played one since the excellent Metroid Dread (my first 2D Metroid title). Of course, with Metroid, you’re (usually) on your own, we’ll forego the Myles controversy in the upcoming Metroid Prime 4…for now. In that regard, the focus isn’t so much on the character development in terms of story, and moreso your quest to defeat the big bad, and explore every nook and cranny as you go. Possessor(s) does all that, as well as give you a fully fledged story with characters and everything! A story about demons, experiments, possessions and…love???

Check out the launch trailer below:

Demon(s)chool

Possessor(s) takes place in the city of Sanzu, well, what’s left of it anyway. The city is in ruins, and in lockdown due to the appearance of a giant rift that has unleashed hordes of demons upon the humans. The rift, a consequence of the secret research of a Resident Evil Umbrella Corp type company, Agradyne, who have been experimenting on demons in their secret labs beneath Sanzu.

Chaos ensues, and the lead, Luca, is doing her best to survive. Unfortunately, she is crushed by falling debris as she tries to find safety, losing her legs and almost certainly going to bleed to death. As she helplessly pulls herself…anywhere, out of sheer desperation, she comes across a wounded demon, Rhem, also on the brink of death. In their desperation, they make a deal: Rhem can restore Luca’s legs, and save her life, by possessing her, but leaving Luca with her free will. In return, Luca agrees to help Rhem get home, by taking him to the rift in the Research Lab under the city.

We’re Going on An Adventure!

They then set out on a quest to access the lab, exploring all areas of the city, in search of four eyeballs, needed to bypass the retinal scans keeping the Research Lab locked up tight. This adventure takes you all over the place, seeking out the humans, usually possessed by demons and claiming the eyeballs. As the story progresses you learn more about Luca and Rhem, they now share memories and can see what the other is thinking about. For Luca, she is haunted by her relationship with a friend Kaz, who to be honest is an absolute ass to her. Whilst Rhem is tortured by his experiences being experimented on with his partner, Dessa, an old friend and lover.

Dessa, has survived the torture of the lab, but is angry, very angry. So angry that he wants to consume all the energy (the chroma) he can, from humans and demons alike, to become powerful enough so that he can rip apart the fabric of both the human and demon worlds. It’s up to Luca and Rhem to work together and stop Dessa.

Demonic Depression

Something that really struck me from the off in Possessor(s) is the personalities and characterisation in both Luca and Rhem. They’re stuck together and have a lot of dialogue and back and forth with the situation they find themselves. Luca is tough, young and brash. She doesn’t always think before she says something, and she’s not scared to tell Rhem how she feels. She feels really human, which is an odd thing to say, but her character feels right, she’s not a terrified scaredy cat that has to get used to the idea of the situation and comes to terms with everything. Luca just cracks on, and when she has minute, she might stop to think about the situation, survival first! Rhem, on the other hand, is less than cooperative and is incredibly aloof. Hating on humans, and the situation he is in with Luca, lamenting everything they did.

It’s an interesting dynamic, and certainly made me laugh more than once when Luca, frustrated with Rhem would insult him, calling him “a dick” or a “piece of shit”. As they get to know each other, through their quest, and through their shared memories, more empathy develops and middle ground is found. There’s still some friction, given the stress of the situation. I found this refreshing, they just didn’t become friends and it was all fine. They challenge each other throughout the entire game, and I really appreciated the storytelling not going down that more predictable, perhaps safer narrative. It makes the ending feel more genuine and heartfelt.

Keepin’ It Real(s)

I really liked how Possessor(s) handled the combat, its weapon, and upgrades. Possessed by Rhem, you now have access to a variety of abilities (when you find them, this is a Metroidvania, of course). This includes dashing, air dodges, a lasso / grapple thing for swinging and pulling your enemies towards you. Your weapons, and upgrades aren’t specialist or some sort of demon weapons, they’re things you find in Sanzu. Your first weapons…kitchen knives. The first special attack? A computer mouse. It made me laugh, and I really liked the coming together of the two worlds, the human physical forms, empowered by the demon abilities.

Similarly, you’ll find buffs (affixes) that you equip to your weapons using shops scattered across the maps. These are run by mice (I assume demon-possessed mice, but they’re friendly enough). These are a bit more on the macabre side, but affixing a pair of lungs or some blood to your weapons give your buffs that strengthen your attacks, or regenerate your health, for example.

Demon Soul(s)

The combat is fun and varied. Each area brings a bit of variety to the enemies you face, to a degree. Feral demons that have lost their mind and become hostile without sentience. There are slight evolutions to similar enemies, but there’s enough variety that they don’t feel boring or repetitive. And, they hit hard. Boy, oh boy. A lot of the enemies have projectiles they fire at you, or charge attacks, and it was often the case that you get absolutely slammed. You only have two health bottles to start you off, and you’ll go through them fairly quick to start with I’d wager.

You can replenish your health and health bottles at Possessor(s)’s checkpoints. Here you can deposit your earned chroma, so if you die, you don’t lose it (respawning gives you the chance to return to your death location and retrieve your chroma). Dying before that, though, and it’s gone, ala Soulslikes. You do get the ability to parry fairly early on in the game which adds a great dynamic to combat. Between your weapons, special attacks (up to three can be equipped), dodging, air abilities, and juggling enemies if you can uppercut them, there’s a really fun combat to be had. I mained the baseball bat once I got it, but the five different main weapons give you different playstyles and abilities which were good fun.

And it all handles really well, in the main. Occasionally, I found the controls a touch finicky. Largely with the platforming. Luca would grab platform ledges eagerly, but sometimes you’re trying to drop down, and she get grabbing the ledge. One point I nearly metaphorically threw my controller when that kept happening and where I was dropping down to had a mattress directly below that sprung you back up!

Like a Bos(s)

There’s a whole load of fun combat experiences to be had in Possessor(s). There’s a smattering of mainline and side quest bosses to take on. These are all varied, and are sometimes full on demons, or possesed and alterted human form demons. Hell, at one point you fight a possesed shredding machine! They provide a good challenge without feeling punishing. If you’re having a good explore, as you should, then you should find upgrades and new affixes / abilities to help you take on the bosses.

And it’s worth seeking out all the side quests and bosses as you get to encounter some weird and wonderful characters and stories of people surviving, or equally losing their minds (and their humanity). And some a surprisingly heartfelt too, tying them to the main story. No spoilers, but there’s a quest in the Sunken City where you need to help a father find his little girl, which was particularly engaging.

Who You Gonna Call? Possessor(s)!

Other side quests have you exploring for items and I’m still seeking out the last ones of some of these. Which brings me to a bit of a bug bear, the map. Largely, it’s fine, you can find maps to ensure you haven’t missed anything, but this was often at the end of exploring the area, and because I’m thorough it didn’t really help me much. But that’s me, the main issue is that I don’t know when I’m done with an area. With Metroid Dread, as I recall, it gave you a little percentage marker to help you see how much of a section you’ve completed, but there’s none of that with Possessor(s).

I’m sure purists will tell me that you should enjoy the exploration, and to a degree I do, but when there’s a huge area, and your exploration is indicated by a clearing of fog over the map section, it becomes hard to know where I have and haven’t explored. Some large, open-air areas will remain fogged because there’s nothing there, and no way for me to get there, but it’s hard to track your progress.

Maps the Way I Like It

You can place map markers as reminders if you spot a collectable / upgrade but can’t access it yet. I would even welcome something like an upgrade after completing the game to help me locate the last bits. With my limited adult time, stuff like this should be more considered to respect my time a bit more. It’s no deal breaker, but I feel so close to getting the platinum trophy that some quality-of-life improvements like that would be greatly appreciated.

On top of that, there were a couple of sections that seemed impossible to reach. In a few places, it feels like the design of the map had a double jump in mind, something I also thought you’d get at some point. However, there isn’t that ability but there were perhaps two areas that weren’t don’t feel made for the abilities included. I had to improvise using a pretty painful combo of using an up attack with the hockey stick, cancelling with an air dodge, and repeating to gain a bit of height. Repeat ad nauseum to get high enough to reach where you wanted to go. No main story routes were like that, but if you’re wanting to get that 100%, prepare for some aches and annoyance in those very few areas.

I’m Lost, in This Misery

As is often the case with my experience with Metroidvanias, there’ll be a point where I get lost. No idea where to go, convinced there’s an ability I’ve not found, or some small section hidden behind a tricksy bit of scenery or something. There was a point fairly early on in my time with Possessor(s), maybe 5 or 6 hours in, where I was stuck. Every route was a dead end, and I seemingly had no abilities that could help me progress. Except I did, but I had no idea. The game gives you the lasso thing super early on, and this can be used to pull down specific walls. But the game never tells you this! It does give you some instructions about what the whip can be used for, but never specifies the walls.

Now, before you come at me! I accept I could have tried it. Used my intuition to give it a go. But to be honest, it never occurred to me. I am annoyed at myself, given how much I’ve praised Atomfall and Hell Is Us for encouraging you to do that. It didn’t feel set up in the same way. I got there in the end!

Can You See What I See?

Possessor(s) looks fantastic. The 2D hand-drawn artwork really comes to life in the game. The characters, enemies and environments all look fantastic. The interiors are equally great, travelling between an abandoned mall, a sunken city, an open air dockyard, to an underground research lab, there’s plenty of variety.

SImilarly, there’s great lore told in the different locations too. Either through characters you encounter, or by accessing emails on still working computers scattered across the map. Reading the emails gives you different perspectives on the citizens and what they were up to.

All the scenes and story is told via text dialogue. There are no voiced cutscenes (given the voiced launch trailer a weird vibe). It very much works. You do hear Luca exhale and grunt as she navigates, fight and get hurt, but you shan’t hear her speak. But I don’t know that it’s needed.

Sonically, the music and effects in Possessor(s) work really well. Enemies make suitable noises and shrieks as they attack. The background music is lowkey but fits with the tone of the game. Boss battles, similarly, remain the same. There’s no epic Final Fantasy VII level boss music here. I was surprised that the final battle had no music at all. It seemed a bit flat.

There was a very brief issue with sound in one section. The sound seemed to all but disappear, bar Luca’s attacks. Thankfully this didn’t persist. It may well have been patched in my time playing. I noticed several patches drops over the 20 hours or so I’ve played so far.

We’re All a Little Bit Human

Possessor(s) took me by surprise. I knew nothing about it going in, bar the reveal trailer I watched as I discovered it. It is fun, funny, and heartfelt. It tells a fairly emotional story, one that reflects on humanity, our drivers, and what makes us human. Whilst giving us a whole load of demonic bad guys to murder.

The occasionally tough but satisfying combat, coupled with varied boss fights, makes for a great action-packed Metroidvania. Some quality-of-life bumps to exploration would have been great, however. And, the few minor issues I encountered didn’t detract from the overall fun I had.

Possessor(s) was a game I felt compelled to keep playing whenever I was able, like I was possessed or something.

Possessor(s) was developed by Heart Machine and published by Devolver Digital.

Possessor(s) was reviewed on a PS5 Pro. It is available on PC and PS5. It released on 11 November 2025.