A souls-like where the shield is the armor and sometimes the weapon where managing shell durability and switching on-the-fly is important delivers a fresh twist on the combat. Also, it is not a stamina-based combat and still works with its intended difficulty although neutral dodge spamming and successive hammer hits can be somewhat questionable. Since I am parry inclined player, parries on block release is interesting as rapid parries are not viable and leaning more on a defensive style. In terms of difficulty, this is on the easier side with a more lenient parry window, omnidirectional block, and few delay based attacks. For its build variety, it has a two adaptation (spell) and three stowaway (ring) slots paired with each shell providing their own spell. Although, I think the equipment effects can be more meaningful to allow for different approaches. For an indie game, this has a surprisingly good amount of content with bosses, levels and optional paths although perhaps a bit much. With its vibrant visuals, this feels like a good souls-like entry that it not very demanding.

As for its narrative, the story is good enough alongside its political themes of spiral namely from the marine life deifying human trash and repeating the same conditions that led to their demise. Shells being broken and replaced is an apt mechanical metaphor. In this light, the ending is a solid conclusion despite the last section not really paced well. The main protagonist is interesting in that they are timid, naive and is practically a NEET thrust into fighting the mess capitalism has made. I love the point where a character says that losing the main protagonist's shell was possibly a good thing in that it opened their eyes to the growing issues of their society in that this shell can no longer provide them a sense of normalcy and thus their quest is flawed. It is a shame that this was not fully explored but what is there still works despite not being a fan of the humor and characters.

One remarkable thing is a good assist options for struggling players. From less damage, better dodge/parry timings, game speed reduction and outright a gun to skip enemies/bosses in one shot, this is a good set of modifiers although a percentage slider or description to what some of them does would be nice. I was tempted to remove pitfall damage because of the high enemy knockback and the lack of air recovery which is a constant frustration. Not a knock against games that do not have them, just want to see its acceptance for this genre that has a unhealthy discourse around it and this game is a good example of it.

What holds this back is some annoyances with the combat system. Firstly, the lock-on camera feels bad specially with multiple enemies or objects outside the camera. It locks on to sometimes incorrect or irrelevant targets far away instead of the closest threat. Since I set my field-of-view high, I can understand some clipping with the camera but it sucks when going through or fighting in small interior spaces such as milk cartons. Another is the input buffer executing past moves after an animation. For example, after executing a parry attack; it still executes a normal attack instead of moving which feels disconnected with player intent. Some attacks whether blocked or dodged pushes the character high up in the air which could be funny but not good and hopefully fixed soon. Lastly, attacking enemies above or below such as with ledges, floating enemies and the cursed giant crabs feel inconsistent to hit. While I do have other issues like enemies walking or dodging themselves off the edge, I occasionally felt annoyed fighting enemies.

As for other issues, it has significant frame drops when crossing certain areas which can be understandable as an open world; however, some of those points are near hostile enemies or hazards that I just stood still until it stopped loading to avoid taking unnecessary damage. The level design is strange with collisions and holes that make traversal and platforming annoying at times. For example, the wooden planks and wire meshes with some random gaps to fall in which feels unnecessarily punishing. While the content is above and beyond, it feels slightly too much where the lack of variety felt the game was dragging or not paced well. After finishing the game, I am happy to have played it but sadly did not want to replay the game for mastery.

Overall, this is value for money and recommended for fans and beginners alike.