This game was better than it had any right to be. I adored so much of it from the visuals to the main gameplay loop that from start to finish I was having an exceptional time. The turn based combat was an interesting gimmick to break up long stretches of platforming and the platforming itself was designed well enough to not mandate exploration but heavily reward those who did.

The combat was far deeper than I was expecting, it allowed me to struggle early on without any real punishment that gave a natural sense of progression and feeling of mastery as I became more knowledgeable on the types of fights the game had. I'm a sucker for anything with perfect parries so that being included and not a surface level block/attack system was a welcome addition. The combat really does an incredible job of being lenient enough to not require full mastery but still challenging enough to encourage a deep understanding of what is being asked of you until you hit late game. The four boss fights leading up to the ending were PHENOMENAL (mostly). They were all good but some felt more polished and satisfying than others.

The exploration was another aspect I felt was incorporated well. Your "life" bar being tied to organisms and cards that you had to seek out instead of being tied to your skill tree made all the backtracking feel not like a waste of time and I thought that was something handled adequately. The progression of movement mechanics was done alright enough, the early game can feel kind of slow with only dash b being available but once you get run, shift and shadow grapple after being introduced to shift the game flows a lot more naturally.

My only real gripe with the game was the ending. I later learned there is a secret boss fight that sort of makes up for the whacky ending but even then not really? The game loosely does a job of guiding you towards the conclusion that the story is about the big bang and the creation of the universe and what I believe to be a statement on trying to deny "fate" but I dont necessarily feel that story is told in an all too comprehensible format and this becomes exemplified at the final "boss" which is effectively just an entity speaking an unknown language at you as you waste turns in a pseudo quick time event. The game up until this point was going great and the bosses leading up to this one were handled well so it's a strange ending to me to have the final stretch of the game being effectively just a minimally interactive cutscene.

All in all still a solid game, just one blemished by a lackluster ending.

This is a game of all time. It feels like it started so strong and was ambitious in feeling like it took some iconic pieces of the souls games it was mirroring but just a few bad decisions here and there took the game from a certifiable classic to an above average souls-like at best.

Originally I only had minor complaints in quality of life things like having to return to the hotel to level up, or just personal grievances like not enjoying mobbing in any souls game but the closer I got to the end of the game there started being legitimate gameplay issues that were detrimental to the experience as a whole.

Pacing being one of my main issues, the game starts solid enough with appropriately difficult bosses both in move complexity, readability and damage output. The game allows you to tackle it with a variety of loadouts or playstyles that feel comfortable without outright handing you wins. However as we transition more towards the mid and endgame we start hitting awkward power spikes both in mobs and bosses. Some early/mid fights feel a little challenging for where they are, some late fights feel too early for where they are and some super late fights feel flat out easier than some of the beginning bosses. Now some of this is down to the games mechanics and personal leveling order/loadouts but it still comes off as almost amateurish game design.

Status ailments is another issue I had towards the middle and especially the late game where EVERYTHING was loaded with them. You had some status ailments early but they were minor and generally not too detrimental, but late game bosses almost instantly stacking a DoT to your health and weapon durability, an instant kill status, a stamina drain effect, it starts to feel like cheap difficulty more than well meaning design choices. The later you get into the game you start getting hit with "gotcha' deaths more than a lack of skill or understanding.

Now while I do have my issues with the game, the boss designs while not all knockouts, are very well done and while I do feel some are particularly brutal to learn and don't necessarily have the most welcoming user experience, when you go into a fight armed with all the knowledge you need 9/10 times you can come out the other side feeling like you accomplished something rather than just having survived a fight. Luxasia a late game boss is a prime example of a perfectly healthy phase 1, with a brutally difficult and not super clear phase 2 especially given camera issues but when you fully understand the fight there are few fights in any souls games that reach that same level of mastery feeling. It was the first fight I was forced to parry everything instead of being able to do a mix of dodging and parrying which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.

I wanted to put this game alongside other all time greats but between a fairly linear world, a rather lackluster ending and some questionable gameplay design choices it hit a cliff that was hard to recover from. It's definitely a game I would recommend to others if it ever went on sale but for full price your money is better spent elsewhere. I enjoyed the game and don't regret my time with it, but it has issues that can't be ignored.