This game has so many qualities it is an insult on the indusrty as a whole : Perfect 10-12 hour duration, no grinding, novelty around every corner and even after beating the game, vibrant and colourful artstyle, excellent and sharp gameplay etc etc...

The emphasis on rythm was particularly interesting because everything in the game just underlines it, the environement reacts to the beat, the enemies attack in sync, so at the end of the game you just find yourself completely synchronised with the game and it's an excellent feeling. The story is charming, doesn't take itself seriously but stays focused enough, I have pretty much nothing bad to say, maybe a locking camera system would have been nice for certain fights, especially for boss fights.

I was interested due to the beautiful art style but actually it ended up being THE last straw for me as far as being completely done with conventional modern game design. Just completely devoid of any meaningful gameplay innovations or ideas of its own. Playing this made me go 100% Dark Souls 2 instead, Kena leaves me begging for an ounce of inaccessible non-standard elements.

Just kinda gross to see an indie game suffer from much of the same stuff the AAA scene does. At least this game actually does look pretty and animate well, unlike most of its AAA contemporaries that only pretend to look the part. Despite that, I still end up bored by its lack of environmental variety, and the overall stylistic direction is too modern, wasting what should be an easy S tier aesthetic. It's a modern Playstation game it's not allowed to have interesting direction, deadpan minimalism with a focus on being vaguely cinematic is the prison food we gotta endure even in truly enjoyable games. Combat is engaging, puzzles are puzzling. It's well made but that means nothing to me when every element is just going through the motions a thousand other games have gone through. They've got the recipe for "good game" down to a soulless science and it drives me crazy.

I think I'm about 65%ish done with the game. I almost exclusively review games I've finished, and I do intend to actually finish this someday. It's just been a slow uphill battle with multiple months between sessions. I just really doubt I'll have much more to say playing more. Perhaps an updated review with more specifics if I decide I have more to say but this is about it. Definitely a studio to look out for, even if this wasn't for me it's not a pitiful first effort. I can see someone less jaded by playing hundreds of games for 20 years finding this phenomenal. I'd like to see them branch out and make something special. Though I worry the focus on next gen graphics and cinematic minimalism will continue to be a creative dead end.