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a really impressive commitment to the bit, but ultimately this feels oddly paced, mechanically frustrating at times, and nowhere near as polished as the titles it draws its inspiration from. despite that, when the future of the industry appears to be sentient live service games that choose to do evil because it makes them happy and executing everyone at a studio if their game doesn't earn the gdp of namibia in the first week, it's hard to be too mad about it. a smaller developer making a plucky little dark souls rip off about a crab is like a peek into a universe where people are able to make fun games that are deeply inspired by others but still maintain a renegade spirit all their own, and that feels like a slightly sunnier universe where reading kotaku maybe wouldn't make me want to kill myself (for reasons other than the normal ones you would want to kill yourself after reading kotaku).