Disjointed experience.

I got major "too many cooks in the kitchen" vibes throughout the various aspects of the game. And then all the pieces didn't match up. The themes, art, vibes, pace, gameplay, collecting, controls, individual stories, exploring, level design etc etc... Just all felt foreign to each other and even themselves. The vast majority of the individual bits are amazing on their own, I particularly liked the themes and universe, but they all didn't gel. But even the theme/universe were hurt by the story flow, which felt like it culminated with the hammer lady rather than the finale. And didn't match the art direction at all.

The lowest point for me was the combat controls. I'm getting a little long in the tooth so trigger and bumper heavy stuff still doesn't click with me great. But I found certain moves and transitions to be incredibly unresponsive at the worst times. The hammer move being the standout. This frustration was compounded by some battles with horrible respawn points. I am not ashamed to say I killed the difficulty on some battles as to not have to go through the bad respawn sequences again.

I would most definitely play a sequel that was smoothed and fleshed out with more care. But I feel like there was already too much outside and inside interference in vision here that the whole barrel might be spoiled. Something(s) went wrong. Tons of charm and love still made it to the end product though. There's something here and I don't regret playing it to the end. I just don't think it came together.