[h1]POSITIVES[/h1]
[b]Music[/b]
The music in this game varies greatly depending on where you're at, but each track has a ton of effort & love put into them in order for them to fit the theme of the area they're played in.
The Egyptian desert level has entrancingly beautiful Egyptian-like music playing, which invokes a feeling of mystical nostalgia & unknowing, suiting the design of the level greatly.
The ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up bootleg Mario level invokes a feeling a agonising dread on my eardrums, but again, it suits the level it's played in greatly.
[b]World Design[/b]
Overall design of the areas is great, even if the functional/navigational aspects of them can differ.
The landscapes of areas you visit are unique from one another. You'll have the generic street areas where you just wander around a city, & then you can stumble across skyscrapers, spaceships, & end up inside a computer at some point.
You never know what you are going to stumble into next, which is great, as that's kind of what is advertised by this game, wandering around some dream-like world. It's set up well.
[b]Story(?) & Secrets[/b]
[spoiler]As you could probably imagine with having such a large game world, there are many silly & interesting secrets you can stumble across in the game.
Things like silly characters which offer little moments of dialogue for you to listen to, interactables that provoke a reaction/response from Sally when interacted with, Hitler Lizard- the list just goes on!
But there's more than just stupid jokes all throughout this game. Some secrets & interactables give information on Sally as a character, & some of her past.
There's a point in the game where you enter a small village. In this village is a window that shows someone with their head turned away, sleeping in their bed.
When you interact with it, Sally will make a comment saying they wish they weren't so mean to them as a teen.
At another location, a school, you can come across a... photo? drawing? of Sally back in college, giving more info on Sally's past when interacted with.
All of these little secrets don't really lead to anything, or at least, I didn't discover anything. It's just there to flesh out Sally's background, but it's still interesting.[/spoiler]
[h1]NEGATIVES[/h1]
[b]Obstacles[/b]
At many points in the game, you will meet large barriers/inclines that require you to gain significant height to get over, without any platforms leading up to get over them.
You are expected to use the game's movement system in order to gain the height instead.
However, sometimes it is near impossible to get over these obstacles without using a very tricky ability, an edge jump ability.
When you jump just as you are about to fall of the edge of something you're standing on, you will jump super high, negating the need for any other methods of gaining height. However, this move is extremely hard to pull off, requiring frame-perfect input to get the most height.
I found that you're forced to use this edge jump ability many times as you explore the game world, which leads to lots of frustration when trying to pull the move off.
There was also a point in the game where, after going through several large areas, I had entered some rainbow-covered cave area that had an exit that didn't work. It didn't lead anywhere different, or loop back to another area. it would just do nothing when interacted with.
I'm still unsure if that was just the game being broken/unfinished, or if I was missing something. I never found out what the issue was.
Either way, this meant I was forced to backtrack through, like, 5 of the areas i had previously gone through to get to that point, just to find another pathway to somewhere else.
[b]Interactables & Movement System[/b]
You may use interactable objects such as trampolines & fans when navigating the game world. Sometimes you encounter objects that you do not fully understand how to use properly.
You can come across a bunch of floating islands, & you are expected to use these air geyser things to shoot off to the other islands floating in the distance.
However, when you attempt to use these geysers, they don't shoot you even half way to the other islands, which makes you wonder if you are missing something, or if the game is just unpolished.
I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong when using them, & ended up having to use the assist mode, which turns gravity off, in order to successfully reach the other islands.
If I was missing something that I had to use, like an item to help shoot me further when using the geysers, then it would have been nice to have been hinted towards that, before I attempted to figure out what the issue was for like half an hour.
Water was another issue. You can swim in water, & shoot up out of water by jumping inside it. In a challenge area (a platforming challenge area where you have to navigate tough obstacles), you are expected to use water to shoot up onto a platform above.
However (again), you are not properly taught on how to use the water to gain the height you need. You are forced to struggle to figure out the mechanics implemented without ANY guidance.
That is a major issue with this game. You are left in the dark about MANY of the mechanisms of the movement system.
The tutorial level is a nice introductory to it, which I honestly think is a requirement to go through if you're playing for the first time, but it still isn't enough. It doesn't cover everything you might get stuck on.
[strike][b]Feathers Requirement[/b]
In order to get to the finale of the game, allowing you to at least get an ending, you are required to find every feather hidden within the game world.
This is stupid. Do I really need to go over why this is ridiculous?
Unless they find something substantial, something that makes each search worthwhile, no one is going to enjoy searching for a bunch of previously missed crumbs in an gigantic world that they're already done experiencing. It just gets repetitive, ruining the experience people have with the game.
There's also the issue that some feathers are locked behind EXTREMELY TOUGH challenges. Challenges that require complete mastery of a giant platforming course, that must be navigated to the end in like 15 or 30 seconds. Again, these feathers are REQUIRED to beat the game, there's no optional ones.
It would have been nice if there was a way for people to end their experience with the game on a high note, providing a way to avoid the repetition that comes with the game's main objective.
However, since collecting all the feathers is THE MAIN OBJECTIVE, I can understand why there is no alternative path.[/strike]
[b]Save/Checkpoint Placement[/b]
You are required to save manually. This wouldn't be so bad if you could just save in the pause screen...
[i]but you are instead required to find save points in the game world in order to save the game.[/i]
Again, this wouldn't be so bad, as long as you are provided with plenty of save points around the game world...
[i]but you aren't.[/i]
Some areas you can go to don't even have a SINGLE save point! & if they do, the area might be too big to find the save point within it.
This means you might be forced to travel to an entirely different section of the game world in order to save, which can take a few minutes, which might be an issue if you're in a hurry to quit the game.
Checkpoint placement & functionality is also wonky in this game. You can be hurt, which sends you back to the last checkpoint you touched. If somehow the source that is hurting you is ON the checkpoint you're respawning at, you are basically stuck, until you somehow wiggle your way out from the area.
If you just entered an area, & immediately die, you may be sent to a different starting entrance on the level, which can be very annoying.
♥♥♥♥, reaching the review Character limit.
I think the game still deserves more attention than it's getting despite its issues. Recommended.
I'd go further into why I think this, bu-
