[b]TL;DR:[/b]
[b]I recommend this game, with a bit of an asterisk.[/b] The game has a lot of issues. Some of them are minor bugs and unpolished edges, while others are more fundamental. Exploration isn't consistently satisfying, obtainable abilities leave much to be desired, and the short runtime (6 hours in my case) can leave you wanting more, even with the decreased price from launch. However, there are strong points. The game looks gorgeous, the game feel is solid, the characters and dialogue are charming, and combat is (mostly) fun, and the music is a vibe. For all of my complaints, I enjoyed my time with the game. I'm not fully sure if it's worth its asking price or not, but it'd feel wrong to say I flat out don't recommend the game.
[b]Traversal & Exploration:[/b]
Moving around as Poe feels great. Jumping and running feel good, and the midair gunhop Poe has access to makes even early-game traversal a lot of fun. This only gets better as you acquire more traversal abilities. My only complaint is that the dodge roll you start with feels quite slow, so it can get overshadowed even as a precision dodging tool once you get other abilities (namely the [spoiler]dash[/spoiler]). I would love if it traveled the same distance but covered that distance faster.
While micro-level platforming feels satisfying, macro-level exploration feels lacking. Many of the nooks and crannies in each room lead to dead ends, and the ones that aren't only offer chests with low-reward tickets. I would've liked to see more weapon mods—which you can equip in a grid to modify your weapon—appear in chests rather than in shops. Another big issue is that rooms fill entirely on the map when you enter them. This not only gives away the structure and exits of a room the moment you get in, but it also makes it hard to tell what parts of a room you haven't been to yet.
Some of the worlds, particularly the ones containing dewdrops, follow a very similar formula: go down the main path, run into a gate, go down the secondary path to acquire a key (or keys), unlock the gate, continue down the main path, get the dewdrop, and backtrack to the nearest fast travel point. There were a couple of worthwhile side paths that stood out to me (e.g., [spoiler]Longford's house[/spoiler]), but most felt underbaked.
Lastly, this game is [i]short[/i]. It took me 6 hours to beat the game, and that's with fumbling around at the beginning because I couldn't find the first ability. There [i]is[/i] more to do for 100% completion, but I honestly didn't feel compelled to go for it (it's just grinding currency for shop items and finding collectible, often unhidden "fitterflies" strewn around the map).
But I will note that despite these complaints, I did mostly enjoy my time wandering through Underland. Even if the world layout and composition was a bit boring, traversing that world as Poe was enjoyable enough that I still had fun.
[b]Visuals & Audio:[/b]
Aesthetics are easily one of Dewdrop Dynasty's biggest strengths. The pixel art is super charming, the animations are great, and much of the UI looks super clean. I especially appreciate the different hats Poe can wear and the effort that must've gone into animating them for all of Poe's different movements. The mixels—different pixel sizes—can be a bit much at times (e.g., explosions having massive pixels), but the game looks amazing in spite of that.
The different regions of Underland look particularly gorgeous. While the concepts of most biomes are pretty basic (your typical [spoiler]jungle[/spoiler] area, [spoiler]lava[/spoiler] area, [spoiler]snow[/spoiler] area, etc.) the bright, saturated colors give each one a lot of character and distinguish them a lot.
On audio, the music slaps and the sound effects are juicy. Not much more to say here.
[b]Abilities:[/b]
Being a metroidvania, Dewdrop Dynasty of course has obtainable abilities. Some of them are passive upgrades that you can use all the time. Others are items that must be equipped to be used. You can only equip two such items at a time, so you'll often have to go into your inventory to swap stuff out if you want to use certain abilities.
The abilities are one of the game's major weakpoints imo. Some of them, particularly the traversal ones, are super satisfying to use and have plenty of utility. Others, however, only serve as keys used in a small few areas—sometimes even just one region (looking at you [spoiler]time-stopping clock[/spoiler])—throughout the world. There's also a lot of overlap between most of the traversal abilities, so each new one you get sometimes means using the ones you got before a lot less. Many abilities felt like they could've been more useful with some tweaks (e.g., [spoiler]dynamite being easier to aim with less fuse time, flamethrower dealing a more powerful burn effect[/spoiler]), but they're left underbaked.
I also didn't care for the equipping system. Since many of the equipables are just keys, I'd just keep the same two in my inventory and briefly swap one out whenever I came across a "YOU MUST HAVE THIS ABILITY TO PASS" gate.
[b]Story & Dialogue:[/b]
The story is pretty simple, but that's not a bad thing. I do think there was space to flesh out the lore a bit more, and I found the writing at the end uncompelling ([spoiler]loved the concept behind the twist for the final boss, but found the dialogue iffy and would've liked a bit more beyond "mwahaha we want our power back and we're the truuuuuue eeeeeeeevillllllllll 'NOW DIE'"[/spoiler]), but for the most part it serves its purpose well in giving some context to the world and making us care about Poe.
The characters you meet throughout the game are lovely, both in design and in dialogue. It's all very silly and lighthearted, and I love it for that. I also love Poe's little animations that he uses to talk (his "no" head shakes are always so well timed).
[b]Combat & Bosses:[/b]
Combat is a bit mixed, but overall my opinions lean positive. Poe's gun feels great to use. You can shoot it in four directions, which means that while you can't shoot diagonally, you [i]can[/i] move horizontally while shooting up or down. It's a very satisfying system that works especially well with the gun's platforming uses.
My main complaint with combat is that enemies have a lot of health, and you never really that much more damage. I spent the whole game waiting for some new gun to replace the B33 revolver, but it never came. In lieu of better guns, the game has mods you can use to upgrade your gun. These mods are fun and really let you make your gun your own, but in my playthrough enemies still felt like tanks through to the final boss. Some enemies have even more health on top of the high amount of health every enemy gets and ALSO are a pain to fight, so I just tended to ignore those. The [spoiler]legally distinct kameks[/spoiler] did not need that much health.
Bosses are generally pretty good! The concepts are all nice, and they're mostly fun to learn. There was only one I thought genuinely negatively of: [spoiler]the legally distinct thwomp I forgot the name of, which (A) makes you wait ages to attack it and (B) can be cheesed by just sitting at the edge of the room[/spoiler]. There are also a few attacks on individual bosses that I feel need tweaks, particularly on the final boss.
[b]Conclusion:[/b]
As mentioned in the TL;DR, the game's a mixed bag. Enjoyed playing it enough for me to not [i]not[/i] recommend the game, but too many complaints for me to recommend it confidently. If you have reservations, consider grabbing this later (once more bugs have been fixed, QoL features added, etc.) and/or at a discount.
