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.
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.