It's been a few years since I played it to really talk about it in depth, but regardless:

It's a solid enough game with a generally likeable cast and interesting time travel shenanigans, but it ultimately just feels like a forgettable experience. Not much about it really stood out to me.

Mini spoiler rant but I also didn't really understand the villain's actions and motivations prior to the path he ended up going in leading to the events of the story. Perhaps I just didn't understand it at the time, but it didn't feel satisfying either way.

I'd recommend it for a casual playthrough, I first played it on my phone so it was easy enough to play it on my own pace or to just pass the time before doing something else. Otherwise it's up to you if you're interested enough.

Gonna try keeping this review short, I'm actually finding it hard to say much about this game because all of its positives are pretty immediately noticeable from the get go that you're better off seeing it for yourself by booting up the game than to read a description of what makes it good. The other thing is that, doing this replay after having played the sequels already, the faults with this game are abundantly clear and it's hard to write a review that isn't just extensively dunking on this game and how the sequels improved on it so much.

Regardless, it was still a fun time. The combat is unique and solid and aesthetics are on point, the writing is charming and funny even if the emotional moments could use a little more oomph. The graphics, artwork and music, god, love it so much. The game really stands out for how unique it is, I don't think I've ever really played an rpg like it or the series in general. And it manages to be both fun and addicting. I got immediately hooked on to it back when I first played it, and I was still thoroughly engaged this time too. For a first timer to the series, this is still a pretty solid entry to get into.

That said, the faults are pretty frustrating with this game; they're more noticeable if you've played the other games, but even for someone's first time there's too many annoyances to it that really should have been taken care of from the start then be dealt with in the sequel:

As addicting as the combat can get, the lack of an escape button (that, y'know, doesn't require a battle chip) and no way to lower the encounter rate in any way leads it to become kind of a drag halfway through. The encounter rate isn't particularly high, but the uniqueness of the combat also means you can't really just button mash it thoughtlessly so things just start feeling slower in general. This is further exacerbated by the navigation of the Net and dungeons as well as some of the puzzles involved in said dungeons: all battle network games include the Internet as its main cyberworld area, with BN1 taking a more labyrinth type approach where the Net more or less feels like a huge dungeon of its own. Unfortunately this maze-like approach, the same look to every net area, and the lack of an in-game map actually made me start to dread exploring the Net in later parts of the game where failing to properly navigate your way around just means more random encounters to deal with. Regular dungeons aren't as expansive but their focus on puzzles means you can get stuck for a while doing them, again meaning you'll keep facing the same enemies on and on which gets extremely repetitive. This was my experience with the waterworks dungeons primarily leading me to loath it so much, but the Powerplant comes close 2nd for its trial and error focused puzzles.

This isn't to say most of the dungeons are this frustrating; I actually liked most of them quite a bit, but again, due to the issues with random battle encounters this also means most of them start to feel like a drag by the time you're done with them. At the least, your health regenerates after every battle and you can save anytime anywhere.

The writing is generally nice but as said before the emotional moments just don't have as much impact on me as later games do. I'll cut this game some slack though since by the end of it, it does feel like they've already planned to develop these characters further and move the plot forward in sequels.

I mostly ended up ranting, oops! Ultimately, I do think this game is still a solid playthrough. I'd recommend it for anyone's introduction to the series though I can understand wanting to quit or skip it for the sequel. For people that are already BN fans, this is a hard to one to get back to replaying lol. It's been about 4 or so years for me since I played BN1 so my experience with it this replay felt fresher at least. But there's not much reason to come back to this title than any of the other ones really.

I recently re-watched snesdrunk's review of Ardy Lightfoot where he describes it as comfort food. That pretty much hits the nail on the head for what this game is like for me: it's nothing exceptional, nor bad, its just comfortable. I've got a soft spot for it as it was a childhood game, but having done a recent playthrough again its flaws and all are a lot more apparent to me now.

Getting the best parts out of the way first, the presentation of the game is pretty cool. The only bit of dialogue is before the first real level of the game, explaining the purpose of the rainbow gems, after which its entirely conveyed through actions and expressions. The character sprite work here is good, everyone expressing a clear emotion in response to a situation or in an effort to give an idea of their personality, ultimately conveying a decent story. Cutscenes also often seamlessly transition to and from gameplay.

The music is perhaps my favourite part of the game. Its just sooo good. They all fit their respective moments and locations and really lend themselves well to enhancing the game's adventurous, long journey vibe. Hard to pick a fave track, its all just really memorable for me.

The gameplay is the majority of what makes up Ardy Lightfoot and unfortunately is also one of its weakest points. Its a simplistic platformer with the addition of a springy tail that lets you jump higher, your enemy eating buddy Pec, and a magic mirror that makes you immune to attacks for a few seconds (for some reason). The controls feel "off"; its hard to explain in words, but Ardy feels too slippery for my liking and too speedy for a game that seemingly doesn't want you to go fast more often than not. That issue blends in with the level design; the game is a breeze up until the pyramid after which random difficulty spikes crop up, namely with the platforming, which combined with the controls makes for an unnecessarily annoying time. Not to mention what appears to be collision detection issues that really ruin vital jumps and attacks. Bosses are similar where they're generally easy (and easy to cheese as well) but the difficulty really amps up with the lengthy final boss fight. All of it becomes a tad more frustrating knowing you only really have two hitpoints (and Pec acts as your first hitpoint, so losing him also makes dealing with enemies more annoying.)

Majority of the levels are kind of samey. The platforming in most of them is generally similar that the only things that can really make a level stand out are its music or a specific set piece. I would say the looks too, but the colour palettes of levels seem to share or have similar colours and tones, which blends them too much in my mind at least. The levels that do stand out most either look more visually interesting or have a particular gimmick to them; the latter part mostly ends up being prominent in later levels though, so the distribution definitely feels pretty unequal.

The gimmicks are really hit or miss, and this extends to both levels and bosses. Some levels like the underground passage are cool cuz of the puzzle element to them or having more interesting platforming, others feel more bullshitty or made worse by the controls and/or collision detection issues e.g. the one throne room section where you have to platform on arrows, god it sucks. Bosses' gimmicks suffer in that they're either easy to exploit or get the boss stuck in a loop, the only exception being the final boss whose 2nd phase has an annoying gimmick instead. The one notable missed potential is with Pec because two of the notable gimmicks grant him an ability important for progression, but there's only really 3 instances of this happening and with only 2 forms. These tended to be the most fun parts for me, so its a shame they didn't utilize Pec more like this.

That's really it, I guess. I'd go more in depth on individual levels but again they're not distinct enough, I'd be just repeating points. I will say my favourite levels were the one section in Throne Room with red Pec, Underground Passage and Catry's Tree Fortress for their music and progression, and Eaten where you explore the creepy and nauseating insides of a monster.

Overall, I don't know if I'd recommend Ardy unless you're curious. I like it, but its also just perfectly "ok". It's a quick playthrough at least.

If the "To be Continued" indicates anything, there were probably plans for a sequel that fell through. Which is unfortunate, because I feel like a sequel really would have ironed out the kinks this game had and be a smoother experience. Alas, it was not to be.