A very short but high quality Metroidvania.

Manages to represent Sakuya's time manipulation well and uses it as the core hook of gameplay. Well designed, if a bit on the easy side as a result. Stopping time feels powerful but never broken.

The feeling of core mechanics, throwing knives, moving, jumping, gliding - all of it feels great. As in any good execution of this genre, platforming around the world and killing enemies as you go is satisfying even when you've done it a few times already. Few games are as succinct and immediate in letting you get into the main course, and it feels like everything was designed with the time slow/stop in mind. Platforming, enemies, bosses. All great.

The bosses are fun! Touhou bosses through and through, with fun patterns and some overwhelming moments you use time manipulation to make possible. The 'graze' mechanic to restore HP/MP is super fun - high risk/high reward options in the middle of a boss fight is adrenaline-inducing. Sadly they're a little easy, and the last bosses are disappointing on that front, even though they're beautiful fights.

The actual layout of the map for a Metroidvania is pretty nice, with most rooms being fun, and the hidden areas being intelligently placed. It's not a massive world, but it looks lovely, and is a good imagining of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. A problem is that it's very linear. Maybe this is by design, but if you want to play this like a regular action platformer you basically can, with no reason to backtrack outside of item upgrades, which stops some pain points of this genre but also loses out on enjoying the feeling of a coherent and linked world.

If I had a serious criticism, it would be difficulty. The later levels are fantastic - difficult gameplay to 'solve' with your movement upgrades and time stop, but by the time the curve ramps up to be super satisfying the game is over.
Bosses are also too easy - they would be perfect if you had half the HP, because they're too forgiving. I'd definitely play the game another few times if I had a harder difficulty option.

Visually the game's a treat. Character animations are excellent, and despite being a visually noisy game it's easy to tell what's going on at all times. The stage backgrounds are lovely across the board, while not the highest quality art in a 2D game it always looks good, stages are visually distinct and match the theme of the area and character perfectly. Definitely how I'd imagine a game-y version of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Enemy visuals are sometimes a little bit off - some are clearly fitting like the fairies, but some of them feel like they're designed for another game (which they may have been, given asset re-use between this game and the Lodoss game, judging by the trailer - tiny problem, happy to have those sacrifices when they're still designed well for gameplay).

The BGM is also great. As a fan of Touhou music I was looking forward to the music in this game and I was not disappointed. Each stage has a single track that's a remix of the respective character's theme and while not the best arranges I've ever heard, they're all very good. SFX basically perfectly fits with the aesthetic of the game and helps add up to a great experience.

Overall, the game is well executed and full of flavour, and I'm excited to see what Team Ladybug do with the next update and in future. I had a lot of fun with the Konosuba game and I look forward to the Lodoss one now even more, although I'm going to miss the Touhou world and Sakuya's abilities.

Thank you, Team Ladybug. I enjoyed your game and I hope to enjoy the next.