The best way to describe this game would be "what if your uncle came back from a trip to japan and bought you a used famicom game you never heard about". It somehow perfectly replicate the experience of having no idea or context about what you're doing and you have to learn by trial and error, as well as guessing what the pictures in the manual are trying to convey.

That being said it's not all perfect. First of all I think the combat system was ok for a Zelda-like game. Not very deep, not very difficult. Enemies are just there as a distraction and not really a challenge.... until the game wanted to bad to be dark souls that it starts throwing unfair stuff at you. You CANNOT attempt to have a difficult souls-like combat with absolutely none of the depth from the actual game. Your options are so limited and overcoming the challenge isn't satisfying in the slightest. I'd rather focus on the exploration and brain teaser.

Speaking of brain teaser: the alphabet system is really cool and I gave it a shot at deciphering it. However i simply couldn't do it for the life of me. After attempting it for hours I gave up and looked it up online. Not a big deal if it was just flavor text, but it really soured the entire experience when the last 2 secret treasures absolutely required it in order to 100% finish the game. There is no cheeky subtle hints to do without it like all the other puzzles.

Still, one of the best game I've ever played.