Recent reviews by Hakara

They did it back in 2005 and they did it again in 2023. Easily one of the best games of all time.

I want my money back

I see a lot of potential in this game! It's incredibly fun and nothing I have played so far in VR. I really hope this game gets more attention and gets frequently updated.
I can see myself pouring a lot of hours into this if it had more stuff into it!

Pretty meh ngl, 4/10

The only game I swallow my gamer pride and play on ''Easy''

I have known Binding of Isaac since its flash days and played a fair chunk of it as well. I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near a hardcore Isaac player but definitely not a casual as well, so when the Repetenance DLC got announced I was nothing but hyped about it.
After playing over 20 hours of the DLC and finishing the new major routes/endings I was left with a pretty mixed opinion. Why is that you may ask? Well firstly I will discuss the positives:

1. Visuals - The updated sprites in my opinion look very suiting and great, if before you could argue that some of the enemy/boss sprites were starting to ''show age'' then now that's absolutely not the case. The lighting enhancements with proper lighting in darker areas look very stunning as well

2. OST - To no surprise the new tracks for the alternate floors are amazing and most of them are absolute bangers.

3. Enemies/Bosses - I have barely played the Antibirth mod so I don't exactly know what enemies/bosses got directly 1 by 1 transferred to the DLC and which ones had to be changed (stat-wise, attack wise don't know) but mostly all offer something new skill and difficulty wise, however, there are other things I have to mention regarding the enemies and bosses which I will talk about when pointing out the negatives.

Speaking of negatives, these are the things that left me either annoyed or disappointed:

1. The item nerfs - The idea of wanting to buff the bad items to make them more usable and nerfing some of the most broken ones is very understandable to make the game more balanced, items like Brimstone and Dark Bum in my opinion need them IF it was just the base game floors we were talking about pre-repentance.
Taking the new alternative floors in mind the changes make it so most of the time player goes very unprepared or underpowered to go face the enemies that await them and unless you are very skilled or get very lucky with good items in early floors it's very likely that a player will die before even reaching later floors.

2. Enemies/bosses and alternate floors in general - Speaking of enemies and bosses again, the floors are SIGNIFICANTLY harder and it almost seems like Mausoleum and Gehenna are some end-game floors I would encounter shortly before or after The Chest mainly because of how chaotic and fast everything is, and where mobility is needed to succeed without taking damage, and that's not including the rooms where not even second after entering them you get blasted with bullet hell of bullets and brimstones from fast-moving enemies.
Some might say ''get good'' but as a player with over 200 hours who is having difficulties dealing with the enemies then what is a new player supposed to do who is trying the game for the 1st time or is very inexperienced?

3.Devil deal nerfs - Again, just like with item nerfs perhaps it would have been fine if only considered regular floors, but this DLC having such difficulty increase devil deal nerf seems like another ''obstacle'' than a balance change in runs.

4.Less soul heart/pick-up drops in general - This is probably for me the most noticeable change and what left me the most annoyed. The fact that there are so very few soul/black heart drops now is ridiculous. 90% of the time I am left with 4 or fewer hearts when entering floors that deal full heart damage, and it's even worse for characters that rely specifically on 1 type of heart. Of course, I am not expecting health pickups being dropped left and right but having 3 or less almost feels like every character is now Keeper, Lost difficulty, or something.
To make matters worse getting to Corpse will make you lose even more health mainly because of how risky the knife pieces are to get and the fact that Mausoleum and Gehenna cost 2 hearts to enter.

5.Having specific ''good'' ''bad'' item pools that increase or decrease the chances of a certain item to spawn - This is an absolutely unnecessary feature that got added and in my opinion and to me makes no sense. If items spawned based on RNG then now it feels forced and the excitement of going into an item/devil/angel room is very subtle because of the fact that you are more likely to end up getting a bad item than a good one.

Overall I like to be proven wrong and as time goes on I hope I do change my perspective regarding the ''issues'' I have with the game currently. I will be more than willing to change my review as time goes on and if certain things possibly get improved but as of now I am currently bending more towards the ''not recommend'' because of how big of a change game took. I truly wish the game the best and hope some middle ground is found in the following months and the game can improve with the community's help!

Rip and tear, until it is done.

10/10
Would lie to my friends again.

As a big fan of rhythm games, this one was no exception, it's simple but yet so addictive. The game has nice music variety and it's very beginner-friendly. Having different characters with their specific skills is also a nice addition to the game since it can match up every player's need and playstyle. The game is 3$ which in my opinion is dirt cheap, the game also has a DLC (haven't bought it yet as of now) which is pricier, but adds 2x times if not more of content which is worth your while if you love the base game.

In my opinion, Visual Novel tag should be added, since it might throw off some of the players. I don't mind the simple gameplay and visual novel aspect of the game and have been enjoying the game so far, although as of now I would definitely not recommend the game for its full price since it's mostly a VN (which is not bad), battle and map wise it doesn't change much and the game itself isn't too long (took me around 12 hours to beat the story, if you are going for 100% it's going to be over 30 hours) Unless you are an Azur Lane fan you probably won't enjoy the game that much. If you do decide to buy the game definitely wait for a sale.