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Dandara Trials of Fear Edition

A Metroidvania Adventure Hunt

Ratings

Age

13+

Category

Action

Languages

English

In a world where the oppressed are on the brink of oblivion, Dandara has awoken to reshape the world of Salt. This unique 2D Metroidvania discards traditional walking for a fast-paced, surface-to-surface leaping mechanic. Explore a vast, interconnected map where the direction of 'up' is relative and every wall is a potential floor. The Trials of Fear Edition expands the original experience with new bosses, areas, and a secret ending. Featuring stunning pixel art and a soundtrack that perfectly captures the melancholy and hope of its world, Dandara is a challenging adventure that rewards precision and curiosity.

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

92/100

Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition is one of the most innovative Metroidvanias I've played in years, largely due to its movement system. In a genre defined by walking and jumping, Dandara refuses both. Instead, you zip across surfaces like a bolt of lightning. It’s disorienting for the first five minutes, but once it clicks, it feels incredibly empowering. The level design is a masterclass in spatial puzzles, forcing you to rethink how you approach every room.

The 'Trials of Fear' content adds a significant amount of depth to an already great game, providing new areas and a much-needed expansion to the lore. The boss fights are a particular highlight—they are brutal but fair, requiring you to master the 'bounce' mechanic to survive. The pixel art is surreal and gorgeous, and the soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful. If you're tired of the same old platformers, Dandara is the breath of fresh air you need.

Dinsun reviewed on: Wed Feb 25 2026

Features

1

Innovative surface-to-surface movement

2

Challenging combat and platforming

3

Vast world with hidden secrets and lore

4

Breathtaking hand-crafted pixel art

5

Enhanced with new Trials of Fear content

Featured In

Turn Your World Upside Down
Turn Your World Upside Down
Dandara completely reinvents the mobile platformer. Tap to read how.
Freedom Fighter
Freedom Fighter
Meet the real-life rebel who inspired the platformer Dandara.

Tips & Walkthrough

Gameplays

Screenshot

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Q&A

Yes, Dandara supports MFi and other Bluetooth controllers, which many players find helpful for the high-speed movement.

It includes 3 new areas, a new big boss, new powers, and additional story sequences not found in the original release.

Ratings & Reviews

Invalid Date

Great potential but too difficult/repetitive
Sun Feb 18 2018 dnchristie

First of all this game has lots of great aspects the best of which is probably the fluid natural controls. The retro graphics, music, map, and power ups are also great. It is an addicting game that’s hard to put down, and I only find that once in a while on iPhone. The main downside to the game however is the very infrequent save points. You have to repeat very long stretches of gameplay many times to progress. But it feels like rather than mastering the game’s mechanics, this repetition mainly serves to help memorize particular rooms which won’t necessarily be visited again. I just encountered a boss that is far from a save point, and I know I’ll have to try several times to learn the boss mechanics, and the long map traversal every time is SO TEDIOUS. I decided to stop playing the game as I’m no longer having fun despite action rpg and puzzle platformers being my favorite genres. Some more minor issues: -On the iPhone X the swipe for movement very often triggers the home screen gesture, and I have to switch back to the app and resume every time (often taking damage in the process). This typically happens to me about every 30s of gameplay which breaks the immersive experience. -When you die you lose all XP. You can get it back if you find your body again but if you die before this happens the XP is gone forever (you can’t even go back to the original treasure chests to find it again). Because of this I find myself in a cycle where I can no longer level up.

A Stunning, Vibrant Original!
Sun Jun 16 2019 Dj Krawl

Dandara clearly draws heavy inspiration from many of the core classics that have shaped the staple mechanics and ideas we have today! The side scrolling genre can get old quick lacking originality. But the way this game is constructed through exploration, and platforming it kind of takes away from the focus of beating “bosses” so to speak to progress. Though there are plenty of bosses that are beautifully crafted with difficulty. Speaking of difficult, the skill cap on this game is demanding but fair. I never felt like I couldn’t overcome The obstacles set before me. Mechanically speaking the feeling of jumping from wall to wall was ever so satisfying. It feels great. I feel like I’m shooting a rubber band across the room with this super jump. Makes me feel like a hero! The only complaint I have is the combat it’s self with the shooting mechanics. I just don’t like that I have to charge my shots. Though it does add a layer of difficulty that is cohesive with the game. Lastly the world building and overall vibe, BRILLIANT! The world is an aesthetically pleasing array of eye candy and eloquence. It draws clear inspiration from games like “The Legend of Zelda”, “Metroid”, and even alittle like “Mega Man”. All in all though it’s own piece of magical art! I ADORE this game. So fantastic. And I recommend it to mobile and console gamers alike.

Yikes! The game turned into Dark Souls.
Sun Mar 10 2019 Boltfinger

After the few hours, this fun game turned into Dark Souls—huge difficulty level jump. Probably harder than dark souls actually. (Even I was able to finish Bloodborne) I think only hardcore fans would love this game. After killing the first main boss the difficulty jumped and made the game torturous to play for me. I guess the a.i character warned me of the difficulty coming, but it’s not like you have a choice to go anywhere else. Even when I managed to get passed a difficult room, I did not have a sense of fun doing it anymore—only to die in the next room. Like Darksouls, you lose your currency where you died, and if you want it back you have to work your way back to where you left off without dying, or else. I didn’t get far enough in the game to know what the Salt currency buys you. I have only 3 heart health bars. Using a potion takes 2 seconds to use and only adds one heart. I can get hit while I’m trying to cure myself. My bullets have limited range and can’t go through walls. Some enemies bullets have infinite range and go through walls—even random bullets enter the screen and seemingly came from nowhere. (Well I’m sure they came from somewhere but I was too frantic trying to avoid them to see) Some of the rooms you have to navigate quickly through and avoid the bullets—no time to use any health potion—you have to know what you’re doing or you die and drop your money, and go back to camp and have to do the course all over again. Oh well, at least the game was only a few dollars. Too bad. I think I was only 1/4 through the game.

Finally, Nintendo will be scared
Fri Feb 09 2018 T hizzle

I've never really written a review but here it goes. No matter how often I play iPhone games they're always lacking the feel of a portable handheld game made by Nintendo for their new 3DS or even their older handheld consoles. That finally changed with this game. The feeling I get when playing Dandara is a cross between symphony of the night (castlevania) and super metroid. The movement is unique to the game as Dandara flies from jump pad to jump pad, otherwise the weapons, music, graphics and overall feel to the game does not feel like an IOS touchscreen game. I truly think this feature could make Nintendo worth. Because, if games like this continue to be released there will be no point for a 3DS anymore. Amazing job guys. My only thing I would like to see is the ability to switch the movement joystick and the gun joystick as I feel like for left / right handed people this could make a difference. I won't rate you down a star for this as the game was just released. If I could do more than two thumbs up I would. Again great job and thank you

Absolutely Incredible
Mon Sep 30 2019 Roo2doo

After looking through a countless number of games to spend my few dollars I had leftover on, I came upon this little gem which seemed cool at first, so I kept it in the back of my mind. After looking and comparing reviews and trailers across many different games and systems, I figured that this was one whose controls would fit perfectly on mobile devices without any adjustments needing to be made. After purchasing it, I can say this is hands down the best mobile game and one of the best metroidvanias I’ve played to this day. Silky smooth sound effects, presentation, and (as I had assumed) controls which are incredibly intuitive. It’s content is extremely unique with almost no other games like it that I can think of due to the simple mechanic of traversal. Combat feels just as good as well. And for the cherry on top, there’s even a new game plus for an extra challenge. I can’t wait to see what else these devs masterfully create next. 😁

Game is really good but it keeps quitting and I lost my data
Mon Oct 12 2020 Kid backwards

This game is really fun, I love it very much. The music, the story, and the gameplay are all top-notch. But I’m writing this view just for a question. But recently I haven’t been playing this game as much as before and last 3 weeks ago I wanted to play it again, and when I launched it, the bar was around 50% and the game just quits and brings me back to my iPad Home Screen. I did this multiple times then decided to delete the app. I reinstalled it, but when I hit the Open button, it does the same things to me. Then when I go to my settings, I couldn’t find the game, like, it literally didn’t exist as an app anymore and I couldn’t even offload the game. I wrote a request to RawFurry support but I’m not getting any responses. Three weeks after (which is now), I couldn’t wait any longer and decided to delete the game, sign out of my Apple ID, and then reinstall the game. I just reinstalled my game; when I open it, it loaded without crashing! But then when I click “start game”, no files could be found and I had to restart everything, so I click “start game” on an empty file, then the app crashed. Could you please fix this? I love playing the game and I definitely wouldn’t give you a 1 star just because of an error, and definitely wouldn’t ask for a refund, but I’m waiting too long ;(

So much to discover! So Many Reasons to LOVE
Mon May 11 2020 Lydia Monster

This game was amazing!! Here is a list of why I loved it: - The visuals satisfied my love of retro gaming. The way next level areas were blocked is classic and clever in that you had to win/ discover the right tools before you could move forward. - Once mastered, the movement technique was awesome! I also love that I didn't have to worry about landing on something I wasn't supposed to, mostly. The movements also allow you to go FAST if you, like me, are a speed demon - but some levels forced me to focus and SLOW the freak DOWN. - I am so glad there was a level that involved artists, musicians and scientists. - The world is VAST and interesting! I was so excited to discover each new location. - I appreciated the color coding in the map. The twisting directions are challenging but if one keeps peeking at the map from room to room its easy to locate where you are. (I was a bit confused by the camera icon.) - Defeating enemies and acquiring salt was addicting. CHALLENGING! (PLUS A TIP FOR UPGRADES) - It took me two playthroughs to get the hang of why salt is SO IMPORTANT to upgrades. I didn't have enough life to beat the final boss... so I REPLAYED it (which I found I did not mind at ALL) and made sure to find a camp AS SOON AS I HAD ENOUGH SALT to upgrade. I maxed EVERYTHING OUT. Yet still, the final boss was preeeety tough (but enjoyable to play because REASONS and I don't want to spoil things) My only critique is that even being maxed out on upgrades, I still had to apply cheat codes when fighting the final boss. I'm incapable of being zen enough to limit my magic and move without getting too banged up! Alas, I don't care, it was an AMAZING RIDE. I might even play through it yet again, as I loved the feel of moving around the world. 100% explored.

Difficulty is an issue
Sat Feb 10 2018 Tung dych

( updated after developer feedback, appreciate the effort) Ok, just bought this, lets write some review: Reasons that will drive you away: 1. Survivability is an issue, you get to take 2 hits at the beginning, 3rd hit kills you, unless you can upgrade for more hp. However, the depth you have to progress in order to get enough resource to upgrade is scary. It doesn't feel like a upgrade curve(low level can upgrade fast, then harder when higher level) , it’s just scary at the beginning. 2. (Removed thanks to developer’s feedback) 3. You can’t panic, I mean, at all. In early game situations, some encounter will hit you hard that if you make a mistake(like miss a shot) you will lose another hp (remember you have 3hp only) . But I suppose this is challenging gameplay for someone. 4. Travel is an issue: you have camps, you have world map, but there doesn't seem to be ways to travel between camps. And the way this game rotates the room view( see it in the trailer) will make the map almost unreadable. 5. Risk is too high, reward is little: basically because of 2, every step in the game bears high risk, you worry about losing all your money all the time, but the game doesn't offer you the prize you deserve when you overcome these challenges. Reasons you want this game: 1. You are hardcore gamer that loves challenge. 2. You like to master precise control with touch screen. 3. Controls are good , intuitive and very smooth.

Some Youtube Videos found!

News found!

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