Tedious, aggravating platforming elements ruin an otherwise interesting game experience. Good narrative, well-developed characters I cared about, and a fascinating space environment (including piloting a spacecraft - which I really enjoyed) could not compensate for the repetitive, horrendous platform elements. After 11 hours with the game I was forced to stop playing because all of the fun was sucked out of it by having to yet again, for what felt like the millionth time, do the same type of tedious and very unforgiving climbing and jumping platforming element that I had been agitated by so many times before in the game. While I may be biased because platforming is probably my least favorite aspect of games, I've played a lot of platformers that mix up the type of platforming activities you are doing, making them far less boring to execute. As much as I had been enjoying this game, and as much as I wanted to see the conclusion of the story, I just couldn't bear the negative feelings I was having playing that grew with each chapter as I was repeating the same boring and aggravating mechanics over and over. Very disappointing as a great concept that could have been such a great game if the levels had been designed differently.

Kirby can take interesting new forms in this release, and the levels are beautifully designed. Game is approachable for more casual players and boss battles were more fun than frustrating. Customization of the village was very underwhelming, bare-boned, and disappointing. My greatest disappointment with this game, however, is that at the end of the game the final boss is "locked" behind your being "completionist" with the previous levels rather than just beating them, so if you want to fight the final boss you may find yourself having to repeat levels (and perhaps even more than one more time). As a busy person with a huge backlog and short attention span, I don't have time to repeat levels of any game unless I loved the game so much I crave the experience again. That was not the case with this game, although I enjoyed the levels the first time through. Because of this, I had to abandon the game right before the final boss which felt very unsatisfying.

Most moving, compelling story since the original FFVII and currently my second-favorite game of all-time. The characters were so well developed through the storyline that I cared for them very deeply by the end of the game. Beautiful level design that is puzzle-like at times (I admit - there were times when a walkthrough was my friend while playing this game). A unique world to explore that expands through height rather than width. I love cats, and playing as a cat is fun, but the story here is so amazing that even "dog people" or others who aren't big cat fans will be endeared by this game (and may even develop a soft spot for cats in the process!) This game is a masterpiece and treasure in my gaming library that should not be missed, and the length make it something even busy gamers will be able to complete on a practical timeline.