Very pretty, very short. Those are the two things that come to mind when describing Gris. Its basically a Journey clone, but with more of an emphasis on side scrolling puzzle platforming. The story is almost non-existant, although it alludes to themes of death and grief, and a mother/daughter relationship. Graphics and soundtrack are gorgeous, and easily the games strongest suits. But I definitely had that slightly empty feeling of "Oh really, that's it?" as the credits rolled.

Ill go back and clean up the collectables for the Plat, but I doubt Id replay this down the track. Its nice while it lasts though.

Edit: Got the Plat, took about an extra 4 hours. Always a bit annoying when tracking down meaningless collectables takes like twice as long as the main story.

So I needed something to cleanse the palate after 100,000 hands of Balatro and this did the trick nicely. Beat the game in 10 hours-ish and now going back to find all manual pages.

Stuff I really liked: The manual of course. Its so goddam cute, and a nice way to give hints and maps to the player. The music is superb, with some absolutely gorgeous tracks (between this and Cocoon, we're in a great era for indie soundtracks). I like how it rewards the player for exploring every inch of the maps, as secret rooms are often out of sight and obscured.

Stuff that was ok: graphics are nice, but not jaw dropping. Combat is basically Dark Souls-Lite, you got attack, dodge and then items and magic to use. Pretty basic, but serviceable. The game is pretty hard, and you will get more than a few very cheap deaths because the combat is not refined enough, and also the camera is too pulled back for really precise combat. Level design is ok, and the way the maps all connect is cool (and once again very Souls).

Stuff that got old, fast: cheap combat deaths, annoying enemies. Bosses are pretty hard, but mostly because of how spongy they are and how easy it is to get hit because of the imprecise controls and camera not being close enough to the action. Backtracking and not knowing where to go next. The manual gives you just enough hints, but man there is so much random wandering around and backtracking through areas, over and over again. Constantly pulling up the manual to check the maps to see where to go, just to get to the fast travel nexus area, to get to another area, just on the off chance there is some treasure or some room that wasn't accessible the first time through, but now with new abilities might be.....yeah that aspect of the game is tedious and boring.

With its Zelda inspired aesthetic and Dark Souls mechanics, this was a lot of fun. I like how getting the manual pages are so important, because without them you are basically wandering blindly through this world. Cute graphics, great music. Really good game, and with a few tweaks could have been a classic.

Edit: an extra 5 or so hours to get the Plat. The puzzles you need to decipher to get the secret treasures and fairies, not to mention getting all the manual pages and opening that friggin' mountain door tho.....ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. Took me about 5 hours using online guides, without those it would have been about 50 hours, if I could have done it at all. Really obscure crazy "how the fuck did anyone work this out?" kind of logic. That input to open the mountain door is just bananas on its own. I kinda respect it, but at the same time, I don't wanna have to use guides to work this shit out. If anyone got the Plat without using a guide or getting any help, I call bullshit.

Jesus Christ, this thing has its claws in me, but good! I was immediately hooked, and the last few days have been me playing a few hands of this whenever I have a spare minute, with sessions going way past the midnight hour. This is the game I needed to fill the big Inscryption size hole in my heart, and I'm loving the hell out of it. A story would be nice, or some characters of some sort, and that's where Inscryption has the edge, but its still an absolute banger. I could have spent $125 on a new AAA game, but I took a chance and bought Balatro. Best $17 I ever spent. Just give it a chance people, you wont be disappointed.

Edit: Bumping it to 5 stars. 50 hours in now am I'm only just starting to feel a touch burned out, which for a game this simplistic in its gameplay is a miracle. Fiendishly clever, deep and almost insidiously addictive. Determined to get every Joker, deck, and beat every challenge there is. Can easily see myself putting in another 50 hours.