I guess this is going to exist perpetually in my backlog.
Originally, I played this up to the Tree of Life point and once I got there, I fed it to the backlog monster so I could play some other stuff that was more appealing at the time.
Time passes, I come back and find out my save is corrupt. Eh, it happens, but I remember it being fun enough, so let's start up again! And...some weird jankiness is going on where Death continued to list to the right when I was moving in the opening area, so I deleted the game and threw it onto the backlog again.
Several years pass, I finally go back and the controls are behaving fine this time, so I beat the opening area...and backlog it again.
And...it's April of 2022, I finally come back to it. It's got that Metroidvania-meets-Zelda-with-other-gimmicks feel that I remember that's charming...until you go through a couple dungeons and realize it's TOO puzzle-oriented and the experience system is strange.
You can't grind extra levels because enemies eventually just pay zero experience...which is fine, I guess. But this means that if you're good at fighting things that might be out of your league early, you're suddenly getting equipment that you can't use until Level 10 and you're Level 5 and the only thing you can do is just progress the game normally...and by the time I got to level 10, I had better equipment than the reward I was given from an optional boss fight in the first place.
The decision to use Diabloesque loot drops is fine, but when they eclipse the special rewards you get from beating something optional and significant, it seems like maybe this game is just seated too far into the gimmick territory.
The world is amazing, but it's a shame that the dungeons feel so flat by comparison because it's just stone with different colors to them and maybe some lava or water. I made it back to the Tree of Life area and then went to do an optional boss fight, which descended into doing ANOTHER lava dungeon and my brain just switched off.
I love the first game, but this just feels like the pinnacle of mediocrity. I'll probably come back to it yet again at some point and hopefully my save won't be corrupted this time and I'll discover that the future dungeons aren't just stone with an element theme attached to them and boatloads of puzzles to pad the dungeon time.
Sticking with the 2.5 star rating until further notice.
Originally, I played this up to the Tree of Life point and once I got there, I fed it to the backlog monster so I could play some other stuff that was more appealing at the time.
Time passes, I come back and find out my save is corrupt. Eh, it happens, but I remember it being fun enough, so let's start up again! And...some weird jankiness is going on where Death continued to list to the right when I was moving in the opening area, so I deleted the game and threw it onto the backlog again.
Several years pass, I finally go back and the controls are behaving fine this time, so I beat the opening area...and backlog it again.
And...it's April of 2022, I finally come back to it. It's got that Metroidvania-meets-Zelda-with-other-gimmicks feel that I remember that's charming...until you go through a couple dungeons and realize it's TOO puzzle-oriented and the experience system is strange.
You can't grind extra levels because enemies eventually just pay zero experience...which is fine, I guess. But this means that if you're good at fighting things that might be out of your league early, you're suddenly getting equipment that you can't use until Level 10 and you're Level 5 and the only thing you can do is just progress the game normally...and by the time I got to level 10, I had better equipment than the reward I was given from an optional boss fight in the first place.
The decision to use Diabloesque loot drops is fine, but when they eclipse the special rewards you get from beating something optional and significant, it seems like maybe this game is just seated too far into the gimmick territory.
The world is amazing, but it's a shame that the dungeons feel so flat by comparison because it's just stone with different colors to them and maybe some lava or water. I made it back to the Tree of Life area and then went to do an optional boss fight, which descended into doing ANOTHER lava dungeon and my brain just switched off.
I love the first game, but this just feels like the pinnacle of mediocrity. I'll probably come back to it yet again at some point and hopefully my save won't be corrupted this time and I'll discover that the future dungeons aren't just stone with an element theme attached to them and boatloads of puzzles to pad the dungeon time.
Sticking with the 2.5 star rating until further notice.