I'm only barely giving this a thumbs up rating, because a lot of the love went into it and the art and music are fantastic. That said, there are some huge downsides that could make this game a bad experience for you.
CONS
- Can't change controls on desktop. I managed to get used to the default controls and finished this on my laptop, so its possible, but there is definitively a period of getting used to it.
- Occasional crashes, soft-locking areas, and incomplete maps. If you save often, especially before entering/exiting a new book or temple, the crashes aren't too bad. The soft-locking areas you can easily get out of by saving and restarting once you have gotten what you want out of the area. As for incomplete maps, its only a handful of places, so as long as you explore thoroughly and/or use a guide, you won't miss anything.
- Short range on your horizontal attack. You almost always want to do jumping upwards or downwards attacks because of this, but until you figure that out you'll keep getting frustrated when you try to get up close to do a horizontal attack and accidently bump into the monster. And, there are a few monsters that you have to use horizontal attacks against.
- Getting hit once stuns you and throws you to the side. This results in certain areas where getting hit once means you ending up losing all your health to a chain of stun-locking attacks, or losing more health than you want from being thrown into a pit or group of monsters. This feels unintentional (they aren't boss fights or anything), and is probably just poor level-design from the devs.
- Slow animations, tedius quests. Together, they make for a very annoying experience. The load-times for entering new screens, new areas, opening doors, are all too long. And the game makes you run back and forth across each zone, so you have to go through the same areas again and again. The art and music are very nice, but you can only enjoy the art of a scene so many times before it gets old.
- Cryptic puzzles. If you enjoy puzzles that don't give good hints, or none at all in some cases, you could enjoy them. More likely, you will need to use a guide to play this game.
- Maps are not well designed for wall jumping. Unlocking water floats and double jump feel good. But unlocking wall jumps was a real bummer. When you try to quickly jump up a long slope you will hit one little side incline and end up jumping backwards. Or trying to climb through an area will get thrown off when what you thought was background decoration ends up being a wall and you are suddenly jumping the other direction into a horde of monsters or over a death pit.
The tragic thing is, a lot of these downsides are done on purpose to evoke that retro style feel. Its just in a post-Hollow Knight era of Metroidvanias, we expect certain quality of life features. Running back and forth across the map to find secrets isn't fun with slow loading screens and clunky controls. A lot of the game is incredibly frustrating due to the controls and tedius nature.
That said, I did enjoy it overall.
PROS
+ Amazing art. The retro ascethetic really worked well here. Wanting to unlock new areas to see the new art is what kept me playing the game through all of its flaws.
+ Amazing music. Captures a homely, fun feel, even if the gameplay doesn't match.
+ Plenty of playtime. 24 hours for me to 100% the normal playthrough, and I could go back through and play on plus mode if I wanted (keep upgraded items, harder difficulty).
+ There were some enjoyable gameplay moments. Unlocking the water floats and double-jump were legitimately fun. Figuring out a secret area or puzzle was rewarding. Some boss fights or sequences made you think of the mechanics in a different way that legitimately made me smile.
+ Deep world lore. An entire language made from musical notes that you get to uncover. Each area feels distinct, with monsterous guardians, bosses, and unique minions.
