I've been looking for a game that game me a similar vibe and gameplay as Dead Cells, and that's just what I got from Children of Morta. I've never seen it recommended in any list like "if you like Dead Cells, you'll like CoM" and just downloaded the demo by random chance. Which was so good I bought the full game. It's a surprisingly well-crafted game where all the elements come together quite naturally. It's quite focused on the story, but it's never intrusive or info dumping you and it adds to the gameplay and goal of the game. Something I think a lot of games don't get quite right.
Maybe I should've added a half star on the rating, we'll see, but it's definitely better than the average rating indicates.

I don't know. This is more of the same from the first game, which I enjoyed very much, so I should love this game as well, right? Well, I didn't.

The humour this time around felt forced and not funny, and when they include the meta-aspect (the game knowing it is a game) they loose me, and the homages to other games (SF2 and Limbo among other) just takes away from some of the magic from a truly uniqe game series.

The fighting combos is still not properly baked into the gameplay. I could not find any situation where I was able to chain the fighthing combos you learn at Flamehead's gym. And when there's like 15-27 enemies in som instances on screen I even have problem seeing where I'm at, resulting in hack and slash button mashing and hoping for the best.

The upgrade system is alright but again, the fighting moves you learn = waste of time and money.

Almost finished with the game (82%) but couldn't be bothered when I didn'd find it fun at all.

17th march 24: Note to self: Watched the first hour and a half of gameplay on yt, a tour de force in exposition dumping with a boring as hell HQ and uninteresting lore dumping in first real mission. And it looks enemy spamming as hell as well. Stay away.

Older:
Why did you have to go for the woke shitty intro thing?
If you want to do the female girl boss thing: look to Darksiders 3. Fury just IS badass, she has no need to tell the world because her actions so clearly shows it.
And the art of "show, dont tell" seems to be lost in the world where scoring woke points is of priority. And it keeps going all the way into the HQ with angry stoic female characters and fumbling donuts aka "men".

This is probably more of a mental note than a review. This game is shelved per 25th of april, mostly due to slow gameplay, tedious fights and the game mechanics in general. More specifically:
Slow backtracking, wish the Crow could run
The upgrades mostly feels insignificant, f.ex on base level strength some enemies takes three hits with the sword and two with the hammer, which is the same number of hits they need even tough strength is upgraded to 4 of 5.
After the fight with the frog king the world opens up a bit more, but absolutely all exploring is meet with more bosses and more waves of fights and upgrades enemies.
- Secret area for upgrading the bow -> bossfight. same applies for both bomb and grappling hook
- new area to explore in the overgrown ruins -> fight these waves of enemies
- you think the ordinary Knight was a pain in the ass? Meet Poison Knight!!!
- New area in the Sailor area: fight these waves of enemies first
So yeah, that's some of the things that put and end to my journey into this game, for now.

The lore and story, and the execution of it is among the most intriguing I've come across. It's a bit more on the nose, than say Hollow Knight, but it's a real feat delivering cosmic horror in this fashion.

Gameplay wise I'd recommend you get a controller with a turbo function on it, because the fighting is button mashing and a numbers game. I may not be the most skilled player, but sometimes there's so much going on I can't even see my character, so be aware if you're more on the casual side.

I think you do this game a disservice thinking of it as a Metroidvania-roguelite. Of course these elements are there as building blocks, but they use them to make Sundered bring something new to the table.

Backtracking can be a chore as there's no fast travel spots, and the amounts of enemy encounters could've been toned down, just a notch. Otherwise a very enjoyable game.

A game I wanted to love, but no. They nailed the rock cliches and have done a great job with the characters, and the "chemistry" between them is perfect. The downside is average gameplay, repetitive sidequests and to little to engage in overall. The fighting with Eddie is fun, but controlling the headbangers not so much. More adventure and less RTS, thanks. I think that would've made a better game. Then they could have focused on the main crew, and how cool would it be if they had let Eddie be able to summon the Metal Gods (ozzy, lemmy) FF-style to wreak havoc on the enemy?

Having played SteamWorld Dig 2 before this one, and enjoyed it a fair bit, it feels like a simpler and more stripped down version of the same game. The digging has a soothing feel to it, but I bored quicker here compared to the sequel.

It's not a bad game by any means as they have taken everything from this one and improved and expanded it in SWD2. If you haven't played any of the games and just want the best go straight to the second one. If you want the full lore, you should start with this one.

The lore, style and tone was right up my alley, but gameplay wise it got old quite quick. Upon entering the third "world" the game just couldn't keep my interest as it was getting predictable by then. And the loading times between each stage (not just the worlds) became annoying very fast. Spending 12-15 sec before entering the shop, then spend 10 sec in the shop and another 12-15 sec before entering next stage is a pretty secure way of loosing momentum and "urgency" within the game itself as well.

A game I wanted to enjoy but did not.