First game I’ve beaten this year!!! It probably doesn’t deserve 5* for how cryptic the last dungeon, solomon shrine can be. As well as some boss fights that are pretty bad (bat demon guy in book 1. Darm is also one of the hardest bosses in any game I’ve played, if not the hardest). And the combat feeling rather janky at times. But I’ll give credit where it’s due, for a game that was released in 1989, it generally does a pretty good job of giving you hints on what to do next, so I only had to resort to a guide maybe twice for each part of the game. The QoL is also surprising, menu saving is a godsend in this kind of game.

And to cap this off with things I liked about the game:
-Maze level design is fun! The game almost feels like a metroidvania at points because of it.
-Music is fantastic.
-Bump system, while previously stated as janky, still has a lot of charm within.
-Story as well as the world building is decent-good