Probably enjoyed this more than I should. The platforming is a little awkward, but for some reason I like dealing with these finnicky jumps and figuring out how to get up those platforms and walls. The movement had it's unique quirks that made it fun, although the camera made it hard to deal with.

Combat is what you're doing 90% of the time though and it's fine. I like the parry system and how flashy the combos are. There's also magic spells to find and use, and orbs to collect. Gotta love orbs.

The enemy design is pretty lackluster. Most enemies seem to only have one or two attacks and you can just wait it out with your block and then press the attack button to counter, no real timing required. Bosses made it a little harder since they have counters of their own, but jumping over them or to the side and hitting their backs did the job fine. Yakuza 3 tactics, baby.

Probably won't play this again, but had lots of fun in the 5-6 hours I spent with it.

For what it did, this game is immune to criticism.
You can just pick up any 5-star reviews written in backloggd and I would mostly agree with their points.

However, I really hated the late-game part.

My line of thoughts is that Rain World's strength is never a precise platforming action. Maybe it's the issue of playing the game with the joystick only, but adjusting the minimal movement in the corner or over the ledge always felt like picking a sticky rice with chopsticks, and the static camera shot didn't help the intuitiveness when it moves the screen vertically.

What I liked about this game was mostly about making improvisational choices while weaving through heavily detailed wild animal AIs, which is still pretty brutal, but has some respect for players, because the failure state isn't always black&white, and there are (most the time) plenty of solutions and prep time for given situations.

The continuation of Five Pebbles, Chimney Canopy, and Sky Tower was probably the lowest point of my overall enjoyment because there are slippery death pits everywhere. At that point, I felt like I was playing a trial-and-error platformer but with RNG vultures sprinkled over it. The fact that those levels are gated by the Karma gates didn't help it too.

Also if I had to pick two more nitpicky stuffs....
- I hated that the time limit for the day cycle is randomized but then it doesn't penalize you for resetting right away to get a better day cycle. What's the point of this, rolling a slot machine or something?
- Maybe the ending sequence is too long and too visually aimless. If you have seen the ending, you would know that it would be really difficult for players with darker monitor settings. I was that poor hypothetical player btw.

Basically, that minus one star came from my pettiness.