Loved this bundle of miraculous contradictions.
It's a Metroidvania Soulslike, but somehow respects your time.
It's quite hard, anxiety inducing, yet it's not stressing somehow.
It's dark, even grotesque at times, yet beautiful in its own way.
I'll discuss each of those points below.
- It's a metroidvania that respects your time.
I get lost very easily at metroidvanias, and I hate backtracking, as I have a hard time remembering the locked spots.
But this was fully countered by a GREAT map system, showing passages, discovered or not, and secret completion.
- It's a soulslike that respects your time.
I was afraid of raging and getting stuck at the same boss for hours, but it never happened. The bosses were mostly quite fair and at worst I've spent 40 minutes retrying one of the bosses.
Losing progress when you die is also a quite common trope in the genre, yet death has no punishment other than going back to the last safe spot here.
- It's hard and anxiety inducing, but not stressing somehow.
Overall exploration is riddled with enemies, that get progressively more annoying to deal with. Fighting all enemies of some areas is more difficult than some of the bosses, in my opinion. It's not an easy game.
Yet, perhaps thanks to lack of punishment for death and the various safe spots, it wasn't stressing to explore.
The bosses felt fair, especially in the lategame where you're more than powerful enough to beat them on the first try if you have good reflexes. I'm not, but I still beat a lot of them on the second try.
- It's beautiful despite being dark or grotesque.
The environment was perfectly crafted, and most of the time tells the story with visuals alone. It's lonely, it's broken, it's corrupted, yet pleasing to see most of the time.
There are areas at the end of the game that are outright grotesque and unsettling, and I can't say those were pleasing, but they served a great purpose to increase tension and even anxiety.
Also, Lily is cute and the spirits are cool.
Some extra thoughts:
- Movement feels great and the progression for it is also rewarding.
- I could reach max level without any grind, just not skipping enemies most of the time and wearing the XP buff items.
- Getting to 100% achievements wasn't hard, just be mindful of walls and floors that look somewhat different.
- The OST is AMAZING at some parts, but somewhat weak at others. I personally disliked the last area's soundtrack, with gasping and no melody. Felt like a forced way to overwhelm and stress the player. The OST from the start is wonderful.
- Builds are quite relaxed and that's cool, you can go with mostly anything you want, I didn't even use the strongest version of the main spirit to finish the game.
Some of the flaws were:
- The secrets, although optional and most of the time intuitive, force you into a habit of hugging the walls. I luckily didn't have much trouble with it, but it's not that good.
- There are too many enemies on the areas close to the endgame, so I felt pressed to skip them. Some are quite annoying even, especially at the northeast section of the world map.
- There are multiple paths you can take at times, but some are clearly meant to be taken first. I somehow went for the wrong one every time. I'm not sure if I take the blame there or if it was lack of intuitiveness.
Overall, loved the game.
Beat it 100% in 21 hours, while playing relaxed.
Can recommend it.
The credits song slaps.
It's a Metroidvania Soulslike, but somehow respects your time.
It's quite hard, anxiety inducing, yet it's not stressing somehow.
It's dark, even grotesque at times, yet beautiful in its own way.
I'll discuss each of those points below.
- It's a metroidvania that respects your time.
I get lost very easily at metroidvanias, and I hate backtracking, as I have a hard time remembering the locked spots.
But this was fully countered by a GREAT map system, showing passages, discovered or not, and secret completion.
- It's a soulslike that respects your time.
I was afraid of raging and getting stuck at the same boss for hours, but it never happened. The bosses were mostly quite fair and at worst I've spent 40 minutes retrying one of the bosses.
Losing progress when you die is also a quite common trope in the genre, yet death has no punishment other than going back to the last safe spot here.
- It's hard and anxiety inducing, but not stressing somehow.
Overall exploration is riddled with enemies, that get progressively more annoying to deal with. Fighting all enemies of some areas is more difficult than some of the bosses, in my opinion. It's not an easy game.
Yet, perhaps thanks to lack of punishment for death and the various safe spots, it wasn't stressing to explore.
The bosses felt fair, especially in the lategame where you're more than powerful enough to beat them on the first try if you have good reflexes. I'm not, but I still beat a lot of them on the second try.
- It's beautiful despite being dark or grotesque.
The environment was perfectly crafted, and most of the time tells the story with visuals alone. It's lonely, it's broken, it's corrupted, yet pleasing to see most of the time.
There are areas at the end of the game that are outright grotesque and unsettling, and I can't say those were pleasing, but they served a great purpose to increase tension and even anxiety.
Also, Lily is cute and the spirits are cool.
Some extra thoughts:
- Movement feels great and the progression for it is also rewarding.
- I could reach max level without any grind, just not skipping enemies most of the time and wearing the XP buff items.
- Getting to 100% achievements wasn't hard, just be mindful of walls and floors that look somewhat different.
- The OST is AMAZING at some parts, but somewhat weak at others. I personally disliked the last area's soundtrack, with gasping and no melody. Felt like a forced way to overwhelm and stress the player. The OST from the start is wonderful.
- Builds are quite relaxed and that's cool, you can go with mostly anything you want, I didn't even use the strongest version of the main spirit to finish the game.
Some of the flaws were:
- The secrets, although optional and most of the time intuitive, force you into a habit of hugging the walls. I luckily didn't have much trouble with it, but it's not that good.
- There are too many enemies on the areas close to the endgame, so I felt pressed to skip them. Some are quite annoying even, especially at the northeast section of the world map.
- There are multiple paths you can take at times, but some are clearly meant to be taken first. I somehow went for the wrong one every time. I'm not sure if I take the blame there or if it was lack of intuitiveness.
Overall, loved the game.
Beat it 100% in 21 hours, while playing relaxed.
Can recommend it.
The credits song slaps.