it's crazy how little this game has been talked about! maybe i'm over hyping it but i had a really great time! the control and movement was SUPER fun, i loved all of the platforming gimmicks they had and it felt really good. the combat doesn't feel amazing itself (pretty similar to hollow knight but the swing is slightly slower i think) but the bosses are all solid, none are AMAZING imo but all are good. it also looks amazing! i loooove how this game looks, the art style worked so well for me. the abilities are all very standard but fun! the roll double jump combo is really fun for traversal and the cloud arrow is fun to use.

my only "downside" would be the upgrade system feels a little weak. they're decent upgrades but nothing super interesting and the way you get them feels a little odd. you collect a token and then choose 1 of 3 cards which upgrade you want. on one hand i like that you can choose what to prioritize but it also makes them feel very inconsequential and each upgrade very incremental. i didn't ever really FEEL the health or damage upgrades i had. it was more recognizable in boss rush but it never felt as good as something like hollow knight where you start 1 shotting enemies after multiple upgrades. this wasn't a big problem but it was less satisfying than upgrades in other similar metroidvanias.

would super recommend this one! it's a short game (i 100%ed it in like 8.5 hours) but super fun the whole way through!

Overall not bad, but nothing special either. My main criticism is that it lacks depth in combat, story, and level design.

I did quite like the bullet-hell bosses and the way re-attaching the islands opened access to new paths. But simultaneously I was disappointed because I had gotten the impression that the islands could be combined in multiple different ways, opening some routes and closing others.

Minor complaints: I didn't like the lack of healing. It seemed like your three options when you got an upgrade were random? Not a fan. Teleport arrow felt underutilized. Some of the late-game platforming challenges seemed to forget cloud arrow was a thing.

Also, fuck Snoot.

DISCLAIMER:
This review is entirely for my own sake. You are welcome to read it but it may or may not contain spoilers for the whole game.

I went in expecting expecting a top-down metroidvania, but I got a side-scrolling metroidvania instead. That is my fault, though, as I mistook this game for Crypt Custodian, which is this developer's upcoming project.

I find this game's upgrade system very interesting. Every time you find an upgrade point hidden somewhere in the overworld you get to choose between three possible upgrades. This makes every secret equally as important and valuable, be it in the begining of the game or close to the end. The only problem I find with this system is that the pool of upgrades does not match the amount of upgrade points in the game. If I understand corrwectly, this is so that you can always prioritize upgrades for the abilities that you commonly use, and ignore the ones you rarely utilize. But going into the game without this knowledge, I assumed I would eventually have to get the upgrades I didn't care about, therefore wasting points I could have spent on base stat upgrades like health.

Additionally to these upgrade points, you can spend currency to buy base stat upgrades (health, sword damage, and arrow damage) which increase in price with each purchase. This makes sense until you realize that the prize also increases when you upgrade these stats with upgrade points, therefore making it more profitable to buy upgrades in the shop first and only THEN getting upgrade points rather than the other way around. These shop upgrades also seem to lack a ceiling. This means that the game always has a place to sink your currency and also allows you to farm currency in order to get stronger in case you are struggling against a boss. This would make for a great accesibility option, but it should be advertised as such, because in my case I bought these upgrades without thinking much about it and, despite playing in hard, I still ended up demolishing through bosses before they could even change into their second phase. This made later fights a bit of a disappointment. I could have refrained from attacking in order to experience the fights correctly, but I believe it shouldn't be on the player to balance their own experience.

Currency can also be used to buy a couple upgrades for your map, like markers. But once you buy all three of them (which are quite cheap) money can only be used on stats. The only other upgrades you can buy are for your airship, but these take no currency and instead use macguffins, so they end up working just as metroidvania gating mechanics.

The upgrades your character gets generally improve your movement, which might be this game's greatest asset. You also get two different types of arrows which are needed to get through certain sections. They are, however, very cumbersome to use and quite useless during combat. I see this as a missed opportunity since the airship upgrades are definitely necessary during bossfights and they make for great attack patterns.

Most bossfights had interesting attacks and having healthbars is appreciated. Minor enemies, though, felt just like annoyances during exploration. The world was well designed with secret paths abound, though the puzzles were a bit lacking. Having islands connect together creating new paths where there were only dead-ends made for a great "explore-get upgrade-connect island-more to explore" loop, particularly during the third and fourth islands.

The story was mediocre, though there might be more lore than what I managed to gleam; but the characters, on the other hand, were amazing. Each of them filled with personality, backstory and character arcs. A smile came to my face every time one of them showed up. I never manged to unpetrify that one character, I don't know what I missed, but I still feel bad about it.

Overall, despite my complaints I enjoyed this game quite a bit. I recommend it to all metroidvania fans, just go in with two things in mind: Try to keep your shop upgrades to a minimum in order to not have a completely unbalanced experience; and when getting upgrade points, always prioritize the ones you care about and ignore the ones you won't use.

Never really succeeds at being more than just okay. It's not exactly a bad game, it was just consistently underwhelming in every aspect. The genre is so well-trodden at this point that I kind of expect more from a metroidvania in 2022. The level design is definitely the low point, but most of the abilities are kinda bland as well. Combining smaller maps into one bigger map and unlocking new paths is a great idea, I just wish the game surrounding it was a bit less lackluster. It's also extremely easy, which isn't necessarily a downside... it's just that I played the game on hard mode and it was still easy.

This is a fun short metroidvania game, follows the story of a little hero that goes into the world for an adventure, with lovely art aesthetics and biomes.
I've not played many games of this genre, but enough to notice since almost the begining of the game the lack ingame interactions, on game design with a lot of areas kinda of emptyish. For this type of games I really value the exploration and secrets discovery which this game lacked. In terms of gameplay the movement was pretty clean, simple and FAST, allowing you to parkour all around the map. The combat variety was limited and not so much engaging, but the fast movement gave some intensity to it. Bosses are mostly fun fights, but not that challenging even tho I played hard mode.

What a great Metroidvania.

For starters, Iko moves fast, but there's still room for precise movements. Most bosses and enemies incorporate some bullet-hell style attacks, so the fact that Iko's movement is so reliable is incredibly useful. The fast paced gameplay also helps when returning to old areas to find collectables and story progression. Iko's moveset stays small, gravitating around the sword and bow. That said, a number of unique abilities can be unlocked that helps add diversity to the game. On top of abilities, the player can find bonus items across the map. These offer the player a choice between three useful upgrades that are permanent. This makes each choice extra meaningful, and I can imagine future playthroughs are slightly more distinct thanks to this inclusion.

The game takes place on a number of separated floating islands. The player has a simple ship that can be used to reach these islands, and these parts offer a fun diversion from the normal platforming. The player's goal is to combine the islands together into a super island. Not only does this make using teleporters easier, but it also helps the player avoid getting lost. When combined, new pathways open between the islands, meaning there's always something new to investigate. Each Island has a number of unique biomes, and each one has its own story, characters, and encounters. The platforming challenges are great, but the highlight are the bosses. These can be quite challenging at first, but with enough practice, weaving through attacks is satisfying.

My gripes lie in some of the monotony. Despite the fast walking speed, backtracking can be a chore, especially if you need to travel to another island. This requires traveling to the ship, flying across the sky, landing on an island, and hoping you didn't make the wrong choice. I also never encountered a reliable way to heal. It's disheartening to survive with 1 HP for a long period of time only to die to something silly. I was still able to beat the game, so this is more of a nitpick.

Islets is a neat indie metroidvania that needs more recognition. The main island has been shattered into 5 pieces and it is your quest to be the next hero to rebuild these islands into one. There are some quirky characters along with some mysteries of the land. As far a metroidvanias go, the story and lore is as good as it gets and quite like it.
The level design, although quite large and easy to get lost I found to be well made. Especailly how you can explore some older areas when you bind the worlds in progression.
The difficulty overall is fine, I died a few times in the main world but nothing was too challenging.
The problem I have would be that the world is a little too big and can be confusing on where to go. My main issue is the bosses seem to have too much health causing them to be 'bullet sponges'. The bosses mechanics and difficulty of the bosses is fine, just a few less hits would balance better.
The game took about 9 hours to go though and was a relaxing experience.