Got the "layer 2" ending, with some admitted help from a guide on some of the trickier eggs. This is a really well crafted exploration game and I think it's truly genius about teaching you its mechanics. The items you get are unique for the genre too, which leads to a lot of fun discoveries and novel ways to solve puzzles.

Had an enjoyable time, but I will say there is something holding it back just a bit for me, a lack of escalation or truly pushing some of its later game items to work in tandem with each other to make more complex puzzles (I think both endings fall pretty flat as well which doesn't help that search for something a bit more satisfying). There are some extremely complex puzzles here, but they're more in the vain of ARG super freak codebreaking than getting the game's core toolset to interact in interesting ways. If you're a fan of the ARG type stuff though, it probably would go up a lot in your estimation.

Also shoutout to some absolutely stellar sound design.

I think what really threw people about this was the combo of the controls absolutely having a huge learning curve combined with Platinum's "the first playthrough is the tutorial" style design, you do both at once and the average player is going to be left with a horrible first impression. That said, even when you get over that hump there isn't a ton here. Moments of greatness with some genuinely fun bosses and setpieces hampered by a lot of middling levels and mechanics that don't feel fully fleshed out. Also the fact that this is ANOTHER Star Fox retelling is extremely lame and yes I will blame Miyamoto for that one