absolutely beautiful game. the sound design for this game is very satisfying and clean, and the music is incredible and fits every chapter perfectly. the art is amazing and also feels in line with the rest of the game. the story is nice, although a little cliche, and the characters feel very real.
the movement is hands down the best in any platformer i've every played, and there is so much depth and tech to the movement that it's massively replayable. the base game isn't particularly difficult, but the extra content such as b and c sides are quite a challenge, and none of the difficulty feels artificially raised. the strawberry collectibles are a nice way to add replayability to the base chapters, and they all feel pretty balanced in difficulty.
there is one free dlc at the time of this review, which adds one more chapter which is vastly more difficult than the base game, and probably harder than the b sides as well. this is easily the longest chapter in the game, and it took me almost as long as the main seven chapters combined. the dlc chapter, farewell, teaches the player the wavedash, which is a piece of movement tech that had been utilized by speedrunners since the game came out. this chapter has more beautiful music, incredible artwork and backgrounds, and precise gameplay.
one of the most difficult parts of this game to complete are the golden strawberries, which appear at the beginning of each chapter after beating the core c side, and require you to beat the whole chapter entirely deathless and in one sitting. given that (from what i've seen) the average amount of deaths on first completion is around twenty thousand, it's pretty daunting to attempt to collect these. however, i think it adds another layer of replayability, and they are pretty fun to grind for all things consider, as long as you do it casually
golden strawberries don't count for achievements, so feel free to avoid them if you want 100%
the modding community is huge for this game, with custom levels and map packs being released constantly. there are several large collaboration projects like strawberry jam or spring collab that are incredibly high quality with amazing music and art.
my biggest complaint with the game is the crystal heart collectibles, they are locked behind very abstract puzzles and references, and are incredibly hard to find without a guide. this wouldn't be an issue if not for the fact that they are literally required to progress past the first half of the dlc chapter, unless you want to do a speedrun skip. if you arent very confident in your puzzle solving skills, i suggest just looking up a guide or at least some hints for the crystal hearts because they are definitely frustrating to look for.
i've completed all achievements for this game on steam, and collected the golden strawberries for the main game chapters as well as the c sides and some of the b sides. ive spent over a thousand hours in the game so far at the time of review, a large part of that being speedrunning.
this is one of my favorites, if not my favorite video game of all time.
absolutely incredible.
the movement is hands down the best in any platformer i've every played, and there is so much depth and tech to the movement that it's massively replayable. the base game isn't particularly difficult, but the extra content such as b and c sides are quite a challenge, and none of the difficulty feels artificially raised. the strawberry collectibles are a nice way to add replayability to the base chapters, and they all feel pretty balanced in difficulty.
there is one free dlc at the time of this review, which adds one more chapter which is vastly more difficult than the base game, and probably harder than the b sides as well. this is easily the longest chapter in the game, and it took me almost as long as the main seven chapters combined. the dlc chapter, farewell, teaches the player the wavedash, which is a piece of movement tech that had been utilized by speedrunners since the game came out. this chapter has more beautiful music, incredible artwork and backgrounds, and precise gameplay.
one of the most difficult parts of this game to complete are the golden strawberries, which appear at the beginning of each chapter after beating the core c side, and require you to beat the whole chapter entirely deathless and in one sitting. given that (from what i've seen) the average amount of deaths on first completion is around twenty thousand, it's pretty daunting to attempt to collect these. however, i think it adds another layer of replayability, and they are pretty fun to grind for all things consider, as long as you do it casually
golden strawberries don't count for achievements, so feel free to avoid them if you want 100%
the modding community is huge for this game, with custom levels and map packs being released constantly. there are several large collaboration projects like strawberry jam or spring collab that are incredibly high quality with amazing music and art.
my biggest complaint with the game is the crystal heart collectibles, they are locked behind very abstract puzzles and references, and are incredibly hard to find without a guide. this wouldn't be an issue if not for the fact that they are literally required to progress past the first half of the dlc chapter, unless you want to do a speedrun skip. if you arent very confident in your puzzle solving skills, i suggest just looking up a guide or at least some hints for the crystal hearts because they are definitely frustrating to look for.
i've completed all achievements for this game on steam, and collected the golden strawberries for the main game chapters as well as the c sides and some of the b sides. ive spent over a thousand hours in the game so far at the time of review, a large part of that being speedrunning.
this is one of my favorites, if not my favorite video game of all time.
absolutely incredible.