lots of good stuff and lots of irritating stuff. i mostly wish the world and the characters were more fleshed out. the aesthetic shift from goofy and wacky to dark and surreal came too early and was too underutilized. the main character is a murderer who unwittingly works for a cannibalistic sociopath, but the edgy aspects of the story are given the same amount of weight as the wild and wacky hijinks of bright city. there's a way for both of those elements to coexist, but the execution totally whiffs that opportunity in the first 30 minutes of the game. i also particularly enjoyed the dimensional-rifting, time-traveling antics of busdriver and the protag, but these concepts aren't fleshed out in any meaningful way either. andrew brophy tells the player himself (by way of a post-game message) his goal was to create a world that feels like a living, breathing entity, that exists outside of the plot as its own organism, but this intention is not actualized. i see and appreciate the moments of conceptual depth, but the story lacks the maturity and nuance to make these moments count.
the battles were also balanced really strangely, meaning i never felt any stronger from beginning to end. most of the minigames inside of battles were pretty alright, but some got on my nerves and made me wish that some would just end the second you met their fail parameter. i also found the "normal attack" minigames frustrating in their variety. the circular attack game, to me, was the most efficient damage dealer, and i felt ripped off every time one of the other two minigames popped up. with no way of dealing good damage consistently and minimal special moves, the main player character felt useless to have in battle, serving as an inferior copy of dolus in terms of utility.
though i've spent the last two paragraphs shitting on the game, i really enjoyed the game's art and sound design, and its funny moments usually knocked it out of the park. it's a labor of love, which is very apparent in its overall aesthetic. i'm only so hard on the game because i want it to be great, and it falls just short of that.
all in all, knuckle sandwich is a worthwhile experience, but i think the story and gameplay are not polished enough, leading to a game that does not measure up to its quirky RPG peers.