Overall a pretty interesting experience, although I think as other reviews here have mentioned the sheer amount of trial and error as well as the coin flip system kind of cut into some of the enjoyment. Especially with the save system as you can clear out an area of enemies and as a result remove all possible negative encounters from that area, but then still fail the coin flip and "feel a killing intent" from something that no longer even exists! Having to leave and reenter an area just to save is pretty damn annoying.

Exploration I think was the highlight of the game, the areas and enemies were always pretty interesting, and it was enjoyable to just scrounge around the dungeon of Fear and Hunger. I think I probably enjoyed it most up until level 7 or so, the later areas were interesting visually but I think they kind of showed their hand too much. Unknowable horrors aren't that unknowable or horrific when they're just some guy.
The most disturbing enemies in the later areas end up being the normal enemies which is a bit of a shame.

https://imgur.com/vwujokk
(This guy is less intimidating than the first enemies in the game and he's one of the major bosses required for I believe all endings.)
https://imgur.com/MsxOBel
(Pretty nasty for a normal enemy that you can avoid fighting entirely.)

Wasn't super invested in the story. There are some decent twists but the setting is so ridiculously grim all the time I was never particularly invested. The game makes it clear pretty early on that if something good happens you'll just get screwed over later so I kind of just checked out on the plot.
The various horrible things you do sort of just feel like selecting options after a point, which I guess is probably part of the intent.


I only did one playthrough but the three endings I did see (A, D, and E) were satisfying enough that I'm going to call this finished. I'll probably go back and get B done quickly and do a second playthrough for C at some point. I think there are also some special character endings but as mentioned before I wasn't ever particularly invested in the story so I'll probably just skip those since they seem time consuming to get.

Edit: I should also add that the soundtrack and sound design for this game are really really quite good. The sounds kept me on edge for most of the game even once I got to a point where I didn't really need to worry about enemies.

Minor spoiler, but at the beginning of the game if you stay too long outside of the dungeon of Fear and Hunger you will get attacked by dogs and probably die. The dogs barking sound effect isn't too terribly scary but the dogs themselves are pretty nasty. Later in the game this same scene gets reused out of nowhere and hearing those dogs bark was probably more terrifying than the actual dark gods you end up fighting.

Just an excellent example of training the player to be afraid of certain things.