A feat of gaming.
They programmed an entire solar system emulated by a pure physics engine? The worlds are unironically spheres? This is awesome.
They told you to go anywhere and somehow perfectly designed the worlds to keep you progressing at a constant pace?
The replaced traditional traversal 'upgrades' and 'keys' with learning and knowledge? How.
Mario will never do this. Mario would hate for you to learn. Mario spits on you when synapses fire.
This makes the game effectively playable only once in your entire lifetime, and that's a good thing.

This game has some set pieces and moments that are pretty astonishing.
I was hoping to take a little bit more from the story, but that's ok. I think this is a result when nearly every review says "This game changed my perspective on life! I literally never smiled until I played this game" Expectations can only be so high. I almost took a half star away for this reason.
But then I realized - name another game on this level as of 2024. There just isn't one that I'm aware of.
Breaking against the traditional game design norms can sometimes yield the most satisfying results.