It has the making of an amazing game but sadly i found some things that didn't get better the more i played.
So metroidvania or search-action of the game is not lacking its just the worst version of it. It starts to be pretty repetitive and monotone, It has solid game mechanics and it gave me the feeling of a very good Gameboy Advanced game.
I'll make a short list of good and the bad.
Good:
-Art syle is sharp and readable
-Platforming
-Map was standard for this type of game
-Music
-Story i would say was intriguing enough
-Creative use of the armor changes that impact how you traverse the world.
-I loved the mechanic with the light being your shield that you can do a quick time event to regain a lot of it.
-Certain side characters and bosses were cool.
Bad:
-Combat is very basic and it doesn't get any better
-No markers for the map
-coins are near useless
-No teleportation between save rooms or dedicated warp rooms
-Backtracking is a chore and a half
-Death sending you to the last save room is too harsh for a game like this especially when save rooms don't feel frequent or placed in convenient places so that the death feels like a minor setback and not a 3 hour loss of progress.
-Most upgrades don't feel like they do anything and almost forgot to mention them in this section, the only worth while one is the health and light upgrade which is just your health and other health.
And that is pretty much it i don't want to discourage anybody from playing this game but it has earned its Mixed review on steam for a reason.