A very well made metroidvania. Perhaps a bit uninspired and not quite as strong mechanically as others in the genre, but the execution as a whole is strong and it stands out with its stellar atmosphere, art direction, and music.

Its strongest aspect is the setting, with an atmospheric kingdom to explore and all the bosses you face being its people tragically turned into monsters. They do a great job setting its melancholic tone, with lots of varied areas and a nice soundtrack.

The combat’s also pretty good. Sluggish at first, but opens up once you unlock more abilities and has some cool boss fights. There’s a lot of spirits and relics to find and use for different playstyles, though I mostly just stuck with the same few for most of the game.

One thing I noticed about the gameplay is that exploring it wasn’t very stressful, there’s always a save point close by (right before bosses too), there’s fast travel, and the map marks when an area’s been fully cleared out. Appreciated this when backtracking with new abilities.

That said, the level design could’ve been a bit better. The world didn’t really feel interconnected to me, more like linear rooms that are structured basically the same which made it less interesting to explore. And some areas late in the game were a bit more bland visually.