Excellent visuals and music, but the mediocre story and poorly paced gameplay leave something to be desired. The opening few hours are very slow to get rolling, with a lot of very simple platforming. Once additional skills/magic are unlocked the combat opens up quite a bit and becomes a lot more engaging. Many of the levels are just a bit too long, and although the enemy design is very appropriate they are reused enough that combat can feel like a bit of a grind later in the game. Exploring is fun and the rewards are appropriately satisfying, but I wish obtaining the "secret" items was a bit more challenging, if not harder to find. Although SNES-era platformers are successfully evoked, the design is overall nowhere near as tight as something like Shovel Knight. It's a beautiful homage, but arbitrary design choices hold it back from being a great game.