This game was fun, I had a good time with it. I'm pretty mixed on the experience though. It feels like the devs poured a lot of love into this game, which I always love to see. However, my qualm is that it feels like they got a little lost in the sauce.

At first, it's pretty much just "find your brother" and then things start to spiral from there in a way that sometimes makes like... no sense??? I read my way through a lot of the material I found in game, hoping to help make things make sense. Unfortunately, it only made things worse. I can only suspend my disbelief so much.

However, the actual gameplay felt pretty solid. Some pretty fun fights, regular enemies were pretty fun to handle, and Greatsword + Katana + Pistol felt solid. The tech tree has some fun, albeit simple options and a parry that feels really good to master. Equipment felt kind of tacked on??? It didn't bother me to much. I spent a good while gushing about how good the roll feels, can't really explain why. Just feels good.

Where this game really shines though is it is STUNNING to look at. Lots of fun cyberpunk environments with a mixture of high res pixel art and 3D backgrounds that are a treat to look at. Most of my rating just comes from the look of the game alone.

If I had to rate every part individually I'd say:
Gameplay 7/10
Story 5/10
Art Direction 9/10
Landing it at a clean 7ish for my tastes. It's wild, and a solid time. Plus Protag has a ponytail which is always a plus.

Wanted to like this game based on the awesome spritework and environment design, but there just isn't much to keep you engaged. The overworld looks amazing, the cities are bustling and there are interesting locations in each of them, but the game largely takes place underground, which is quite bland aside from the underground encampment. Seems like an unforced error to me. Story is vaguely interesting, but the gameplay is not great. The combat is pretty bland, there's 3 weapon types and a whole host of unlockable combo moves, but you don't need any of it besides the light weapon and the upgrade the game gives you for free. There's a crafting system that doesn't add anything of value to the experience, and I wasn't ever sure what I should do with all the money and junk I picked up along the way- because I didn't need any new gear, and the game makes healing items plentiful. The upgrade tree also feels a little out of place. You don't get to use it that often, so it feels like each choice should make a big impact, but it didn't really feel that way. Unironically the best part about this game is the Jill Stingray cameo. There are some interesting elements here but they feel diluted. This game feels like the halfway point between a mystery game and a beat-em-up, while failing at what makes both of those genres fun. Points for making an interesting world with cool art, but I am not compelled to finish out the game