The Game Kitchen cooked with this one. This is a fantastic Metroidvania with some of the best pixel art, and atmosphere I've ever seen. The soundtrack, world, enemy, and character designs all complement each other perfectly, and build an interesting world that you want to explore. I loved the grotesque look of things, it made the world feel more alive. The game feels slow at the start, and I could see many people dropping it. In fact, I did when I first played this on my Nintendo Switch many years ago, but I gave it another shot, and I'm glad I did.
As much as I like this game, and easily recommend it, there are definitely some flaws:
The difficulty of the base game's pretty easy, however, the DLCs are astronomically more difficult, to the point where you feel some whiplash. I would like to see more consistency here.
The platforming mechanics are inconsistent and questionable. The base game has relatively easy platforming, but the DLC's a completely different story. The [spoiler]Miriam mirror[/spoiler] challenges in the DLC were some of the most rage-inducing platforming I think I've ever experienced. Not because they were too hard, but more because they reveal to the player that the platforming mechanics are lackluster.
The ledge grab has far too much delay on grab and release. For fast platforming, this is a huge problem. For example, compare the ledge grab frame delay to something like Smash Ultimate.
There's too much landing delay from a fall. [spoiler]There's a rosary bead that fixes this, but most players wouldn't know about it[/spoiler]. Once you try that [spoiler]rosary bead[/spoiler], you realize that the base delay should've been reduced. This [spoiler]rosary bead[/spoiler] becomes a platforming dependency instead of a complementary tool for some areas.
The base dash cooldown's too long. [spoiler]There's a rosary bead that fixes this[/spoiler]. Once you try that [spoiler]rosary bead[/spoiler], you realize that the cooldown should've been reduced. I quite literally never took this [spoiler]rosary bead[/spoiler] off, as it really slows down the game otherwise, and takes up a slot that could've been used for more interesting builds. I believe this is one of the main things that made me drop the game early the first time I tried it.
The lantern jumps are super inconsistent. Yes, I know how you're supposed to do them, and even when you do them that way, the weird angle required is too precise/narrow.
Sometimes jumping atop ladders would result in you getting physically stuck above the ladder in a ladder climbing state. You couldn't leave this state by climbing up or down the ladder because you weren't physically on it yet. I don't know what the cause of this is. I think it had to do with keeping the jump button held while landing, or something like that, but it didn't happen often. One place in the last [spoiler]Miriam mirror[/spoiler] challenge would reproduce it often for me.
Spikes being an OHK (one-hit kill) is annoying. However, the bigger problem with them is that their hitbox is too large. It extends past the actual spikes, so you get magnetized into them, especially when approaching from the side.
Certain aspects of this game weren't tested properly on controller:
1. [spoiler]Once you upgrade the Prie Dieus from the church enough to teleport[/spoiler], the teleport button and the leave button overlap. The controller button only actually leaves, so you would have to press the space bar on a keyboard to teleport...
2. [spoiler]Once you upgrade the church enough to cleanse guilt, but before you max it out[/spoiler], the leave button, and the cleanse button overlap. Same problem as #1, but just in a different place.
For some reason, the game's capped at 60 FPS. This is extremely minor, and by far the least important criticism here, but why? There are no mods either to fix this, so I had to mention it. This game uses the Unity engine, and Unity doesn't require you to tie your physics to your framerate, so I don't know why this limit is here.
