Absolutely divine Metroidvania. Combat is fast and fluid, some of the best in the genre, but not so complex that you have to engage with all the tricks, moves and combos on offer. Platforming challenges are perfectly placed, mostly out of the way, but worth seeking out as each one brought back fond memories of surveying a treacherous room in Sands of Time, knowing what needs to be done, and setting out to do so. That sigh of relief is almost enough in itself, but all such challenges graciously rewarded me with other treasures to make each one worthwhile.

While a lot of the experience is smooth and streamlined, there are still some mild wrinkles, like traversing across the map or knowing what collectibles have/haven't been found, but these complaints only really arose for me when I was doing my late game cleanup. Players who aren't concerned with achieving 100% will likely not feel these as acutely.

Overall, up there with the best Metroidvanias on offer.

I found the first third of the game to be pretty unforgiving, but after pushing through that wall, my enjoyment increased dramatically.

What a beautiful, twisted, horrific, majestic world this is. I played through with Spanish audio, which I found to be particularly enjoyable, not just to engage with a language I don't speak or hear as often as I ought to, but because it just resonated with the setting and the dev team. And also because the Spanish VO is truly on another level.

Regarding the DLC: I do wish I had known about Ending C prior to passing the point of no return, but perhaps I will one day return to Cvstodia to earn that finale, even though it is not in my nature. That should speak to this game's exceptionality. On the flipside, thank god for Quicksilver & Nacimiento. I can't imagine trying to hurriedly quaff ten bile flasks mid-combat, especially with some of the bullshit these enemies like to do, ESPECIALLY in some of the added areas. Goddamn, indeed.

Fun, oblique take on the Metroidvania that had me wrestling with the core movement controls a bit towards the end, but not in such a way that spoiled my experience. Wish there was a map for 'incomplete Scarabs' because I don't think I have it in me to go look for the ones I haven't activated.

EDIT: Thankfully, incomplete Scarabs are marked on the map when a certain threshold is crossed, so thanks for that. Still a bit of a nuisance to go get to all of them, but at least it was a directed nuisance. 😋