My first Metroidvania, and what a Metroidvania it was! I loved the breathtaking visuals that Team Cherry put so much effort into. 2D hand-drawn visuals in a game of this caliber are jaw-dropping. Every enemy felt natural to their environments and very well designed.

The mechanics were straightforward to grasp as there wasn't really much to learn, but they made platforming a fun aspect of exploring the game! I never felt that there should've been more added to the moveset of the Knight.

The gameplay as a whole is a blast up until two-thirds of the way through, where it feels more like a chore, and not an adventure. You may have to do a few menial tasks to receive something, but the rewards are not horrible in value. It's just that getting there will take a bunch of repetition and practice. No, it does not ruin the experience as a whole, but I wanted to mention the moments that stood out most to me, and this is one of those occasional moments. Sometimes, it did feel frustrating trying to find where a specific ability was so I could access multiple areas and progress further. Maybe I could have disregarded hints and clues about finding these key items and I will own up to that. Though there were many important items that I found based on happenstance, and I don't really know if that's done intentionally, but I personally prefer a little direction.

The story felt hard to understand at times, and to be honest, I wasn't focusing on it for most of my session. At face value I understood the main issues, exposition, and connection in the most shallow form. I liked the story it set out to portray of the ancient kingdom of Hallownest and the infection that decimated the civilization. I just wish there was more. I would've loved to see more animated cutscenes for longer periods of time, but working on the time constraints and small team they had, I totally get it.

This game was just a mindless exploration that I loved going through. Everything felt right, the visuals, soundtrack, enemies… Everything. There were very few times that I felt bored to get off after long sessions, granted, it felt tedious at times. I'm sure this is a nitpick that others have had before, but I hope silksong has a fast travel system for the benches (if that's what they use as a checkpoint system). I get that the tram and stag are there to make it easier to get from area to area, but I would've preferred fast travel points being the benches. I'm just lazy and like going back in areas to find some things I may have missed quickly. The dreamgate is helpful but not in the way that I would normally use.

All in all, this was a fun time and I can't wait for the next Team Cherry game!