I'm done with the game (as in I finished it). Mini Spoilers and how it felt to play and finish/mini review.

[Soul]

It was on Gog hence the lack of a mouse icon but yes I played it.
And I legit did most of it,yes I played 8-9 hours straight,got most of the achievements including the "end it without conflict",its quite the short game.
So I'll keep it to the mid-late game stuff.I won't tell what the ending is but kinda how to get to it.So don't worry about story spoiling.

Did the neutral ending boss
Found all the lore stones and activated them and saw the story about "the ones before us" (that weird dude following us around)
Find all those stupid green pieces that the game tell you NOTHING about how finding them,just theres one in each worlds,thats it,good luck mate. (tbh most are behind a big boss,but some are just randomly placed in a really hidden place,the white flower world one legit took me 25min to find and I hated it),You need them to open the last world.

Which lead to the "path of pain" that seem like every platformer need since Hollow Knight had one,seriously it was a slog and with all the abilities you have its a mash of buttons.It wasn't fun,it was just a "oh bs now back to the start" moment for the 15min it took me

So right after that I get to the true ending boss,I won't tell who it is but he's in one of the trailers.
Its bad,its boring,I didn't like it at ALL,it ask 5 locks break (they are hidden so you have to spam all your moves to guess them then use them more to actually break the locks),but guess what,if you don't break them all on your turn... THE ONES LEFT ARE RANDOMIZED,SO YOU HAVE TO SPAM MOVES AGAIN.

Then its first phase end with him grabbing one of your 2 forms,its bs,the form start with a fast either unblockable magic that as dark form you have to evade or as light you have to magic block.
OR can run up to you and THEN either unblockable physical or quick combo.Dark form if you evade the unblockable cool but if its the quick combo you get to eat that ♥♥♥♥,gg just guess better its tekken now.

Then the 2nd phase is him summoning orbs above you that randomly fall on you,so you have to spam again for the random locks AND avoid this ♥♥♥♥ raining on you,making it even longer.

I won't even talk about the next phases,Its already irritating enough.

Btw during all those phases,he will spam magic attacks randomly of all elements,so if you are in the bad form,well screw you switching to counter it is most of the time too late specially if its dark form cause unlike light form it doesn't have a perfect parry and since it spam every attack 3-4 magic moves,evade DOESN'T WORK HERE,ITS LITERALLY A FLAWED DESIGN MOMENT. It sometime do one big physical attack,but it deal massive damage so you better just perfect parry it.
Also obviously you can't heal,so sometime (like once per phases,sometime NOT AT ALL) he actually will heal you,BUT,he use the same effect as his unblockables (a green circle on his hand) so if you block or dodge it you don't get it,like ok I get it but then make it really different from the one shot attack then...

Overall,The game was fun,I enjoyed it a LOT,the combat felt complex enough specially with the 2 forms to not feel spammy or "this button to win",the platforming was really nice and responsive and I liked the flow,I liked the story for what it was and always wanted to know how it would end,the real final boss is a slog and legit made me forget all the good stuff and took easily 15-20% of my game time alone and made want to throw the game away remembering "its bad".

Thanks for coming to my ted talk,how did you find the game? And the final boss if/when you do it lol.

[Dsyphus]

I have to disagree with most of your complaints here the green pieces felt like they are parts for the secret ending, and i enjoyed looking for them all. it tells you which zone you still need one from which seems like plenty for what it is. Its not too hard to just check down all the paths. the fun of exploration. The path of pain as you call it, i thought was a ton of fun. I loved going thru that, you had to finesse the whole thing in one shot. It was very satisfying to complete and I wish there were more of them. you mention mashing buttons, which is counter too the entire build of this game, everything should come out methodical, spamming seems like the best way to screw yourself over. wether in combat or movement. The boss seems like your having the same issue. you are spamming and button mashing when thats a very brute force method that doesn't seem fun or effective. The 5 locked skills are pretty easy to manage, one tap each magic, call an assist. (that barely 1.5 seconds) and you already hit 3-4 checks, then you can dash in swap then do whatever didnt show up in the assist. thats a full sequence that you dont need to do, since your going to land something and can then just build up the meter from there. The whole game plays like a dance, not just chucking out move willy nilly. He grabs your from at the same point everytime so its easy to know when its going to happen so you can choose which it will be. and the puppet always act in a predictable way, if you have a charge it will use tech, if not its melee or magic, just watch it and block accordingly. is enough to do when their is only 2 options. and the attacks are the same you are used to using thru the game. The orbs arnt random at all. it will float above your head then flash, stop then drop. If you are not spamming buttons its easy to dash in with an attack or fire some magic, then move in or dash back once it flashes. when its both just dash in or dash back into the explosion of the first one too dodge the second. As for the attacks, idk what too tell you, its nothing special from anything else, in dark form, dodge the big single attacks, block the multi hits, assimilate the magic when you can. For its heal, if you need it then just watch its hand too learn the gesture, it is different from an attack. I could be mean and just say "skill issue, git gud scrub" but really it seems like you enjoyed the game overall and just didnt like the specifically harder optional content, since it didnt mesh with your style of playing games. And I respect that. Also i have no idea how the lore rocks work so i cant comment on that.

[Soul]

Originally posted by Dsyphus:

just didnt like the specifically harder optional content, since it didnt mesh with your style of playing games. And I respect that. Also i have no idea how the lore rocks work so i cant comment on that.

I'll just talk about that cause the rest is your feeling on it and its cool,I just didn't feel it was a nice way to fight it or do the parkour path in a way that felt satisfying in the end.

I played/enjoyed types of game that play quite close like indivisible/Valkyrie Profile.

Oh and when I say spam buttons I don't mean randomly,I mean more as in "you have to break your fingers doing the right sequence cause of all the abilities and swap you need to do",obviously randomly pressing would get you nowhere.And like I said I enjoyed the platforming a lot,it reminded me of Celeste,and I 100% it,its just that in this green course it felt too tight on some moments specially the dark form triple grab.

And one tapping each magics just to check the weakness is what I refer to spamming since you just press them all to go "oh so thats the ones" instead of maybe a visual cue to tell what he'd be weak to now,which would actually help the flow,like the dance you said.You react to what you see.

The whole game wasn't much trouble and had a good learning curve and I enjoyed the flow it had,the last boss just felt too much of everything rather than a skill check,every boss before that had clearer patterns and felt more fleshed out such as the demon with its 3 phases each leaning into a style more,or the thunder boss being a faster type but at the same time rather predictable,or even the thunder world boss with the spear,having clear patterns.

Here it just throw it all and clutter the whole thing,it didn't feel like a dance rather like a pattern check like a QTE cutscene you just play on repeat until you get them all right in a row rather than playing on instinct.I didn't enjoy that.And your comment show it even more with all those "check its movement here and if you have this it will do this".
That and the fact that it was quite the long fight and most of the time 2 mistakes even between phases was enough to be a reset,cause he does quite the stupid damage.
It took me like 7-8 try to beat him,but losing close to the end all for having to redo it to get a "try" at what went wrong,doesn't feel good.Pacing wasn't the best on this one.

As for the stones,you stand on them and switch form/do the radar thing depending the order from the top clock wise.
The world you start in give you a hint on how to do it,tho that was the 5th one I unlocked,I kinda understood how it was working based on the fact it made a sound when I stepped on them/switched forms as the stone shown.Getting those also let you see what you miss there in term of those grey blocks you collect.

As for the green blocks,like I said some felt ok to look for like the reverse rain one going up from a cave,or the maze in thunder world,others felt just randomly placed like the water one (idk how to really describe it but basically the world you get to run on water the most lol),and yeah the "flower" made of them tell you which worlds you didn't find it in since its in a pattern similar to the world,but they could've give you some cue like the green particles you find showing more as you get closer,anything really than running around,it didn't felt like exploration,specially when you already had explored a lot of it,it just felt like busy work,just you checking every corner of your screen in case it would just show a bit.

[Dsyphus]

Originally posted by Soul:

It took me like 7-8 try to beat him,but losing close to the end all for having to redo it to get a "try" at what went wrong,doesn't feel good.

I also now see in the first post that the parkour puzzle took you 15mins... and the boss took you 7-8 tries.... WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT?! seems like the jumping needed to be way harder for you. You dont need to "git gud" I DO. I was running that puzzle for 45mins at least. and i never once felt like a jump was too tight or unfair, every mistake was my own. As for the boss fight. i still havent actually beat it, and none of it seems like a mess or too many systems. again its just a skill issue on my part. beating it in 7-8 tries is nothing, seems like you breezed thru all this. I got no idea how you find any of that difficult or frustrating by any means. Sorry if this seems like a bit of an attack on you. I'm just baffled at your statements even more

[Soul]

Originally posted by Dsyphus:

Originally posted by Soul:

It took me like 7-8 try to beat him,but losing close to the end all for having to redo it to get a "try" at what went wrong,doesn't feel good.

I also now see in the first post that the parkour puzzle took you 15mins... and the boss took you 7-8 tries.... WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT?! seems like the jumping needed to be way harder for you. You dont need to "git gud" I DO. I was running that puzzle for 45mins at least. and i never once felt like a jump was too tight or unfair, every mistake was my own. As for the boss fight. i still havent actually beat it, and none of it seems like a mess or too many systems. again its just a skill issue on my part. beating it in 7-8 tries is nothing, seems like you breezed thru all this. I got no idea how you find any of that difficult or frustrating by any means. Sorry if this seems like a bit of an attack on you. I'm just baffled at your statements even more

Well I never said in my post it was "hard",it was just tedious and kinda meh for me,and the boss felt more like a memory test ,prob was faster for me cause I love platformers and am familiar with this style of combat (I love this style its so unique not many use it) so I got used to it real fast.

As for the parkour,again it ain't that "oh it was too hard" its just that they chain a lot of mechanics in a row that felt it could've been spaced a bit better,noneless it felt good to finish,the process wasn't the best.

An example would be (on top of my head it was yesterday and I slept in between lol) the triple grab surrounded by death ceilling/floor into the 4 wall jumps and wallrun>doulble jump other wall/grab light in darkform>run wall again.

If it was a one character thing with all those things it wouldn't feel as heavy on the controls,but here the constant switching and akward run wall (like legit the whole time I wished the air dash would instant run instead of stay on the wall for a sec before letting go) and dark form grab being locked for like a sec after grab,making it impossible to correct a mini mistake in the 3 grab in row surrounded by death walls,make it "harder" than it need to be.

[Destroyahman]

Originally posted by Soul:

Originally posted by Dsyphus:

one tapping each magics just to check the weakness


You can use the seal break on the dark form to instantly show the weaknesses, but I get what you mean.

[RaphaelVehuiah]

I couldn't see anyone mention these tidbits, but I thought they might help someone else, even though I haven't beat the Green Dragon yet:
For the (?) blocks you need to break to stagger it, while I got caught in the mindset of trying to rapidly test weaknesses, when I tried the green skill "Unified Division" I found it both damages and reveals what all the (?) block types are.
I didn't find that super clear from the skill's description, but opening a turn with that skill sure helped get through Phase 1 once I realised what it did.

For the phase where the Dragon takes control of one of your characters, you can *partially* predict what they'll do.
Specifically, they will always use Techniques if they have them charged, and they have them charged if they did when they were still under your control. Once they don't have any Techniques, they are much more randomised.

So a decent strategy to get through that phase quickly is to have an Attack Tech charged on Orange, and a Shield Tech on Blue. Orange will open with a Technique, and if you interrupt with a Shield Counter then you can potentially do enough damage (Lightning is Orange's weakness) in a single turn to regain control over Orange.

After that...
I don't know much more so far.
I've gotten to where I can get past the phase where the Dragon gets a halo, but it starts charging a nuke spell that is a one-hit KO.
It seems to be some kind of time limit but I haven't really gotten close to filling the Absorption gauge on this boss yet.
So I feel like I'm either missing something (which had been the case for a few previous enemies), or I just don't play as flawlessly as this boss demands.

I hadn't figured out what to do with the stones with the symbols on them, and I found out here, so I'll probably do that before taking another few swings at the Green Dragon.

[Dsyphus]

Originally posted by RaphaelVehuiah:

I couldn't see anyone mention these tidbits, but I thought they might help someone else, even though I haven't beat the Green Dragon yet:
For the (?) blocks you need to break to stagger it, while I got caught in the mindset of trying to rapidly test weaknesses, when I tried the green skill "Unified Division" I found it both damages and reveals what all the (?) block types are.
I didn't find that super clear from the skill's description, but opening a turn with that skill sure helped get through Phase 1 once I realised what it did.

For the phase where the Dragon takes control of one of your characters, you can *partially* predict what they'll do.
Specifically, they will always use Techniques if they have them charged, and they have them charged if they did when they were still under your control. Once they don't have any Techniques, they are much more randomised.

So a decent strategy to get through that phase quickly is to have an Attack Tech charged on Orange, and a Shield Tech on Blue. Orange will open with a Technique, and if you interrupt with a Shield Counter then you can potentially do enough damage (Lightning is Orange's weakness) in a single turn to regain control over Orange.

After that...
I don't know much more so far.
I've gotten to where I can get past the phase where the Dragon gets a halo, but it starts charging a nuke spell that is a one-hit KO.
It seems to be some kind of time limit but I haven't really gotten close to filling the Absorption gauge on this boss yet.
So I feel like I'm either missing something (which had been the case for a few previous enemies), or I just don't play as flawlessly as this boss demands.

I hadn't figured out what to do with the stones with the symbols on them, and I found out here, so I'll probably do that before taking another few swings at the Green Dragon.

Yea the descriptions arent super clear and you need to either look it up or do testing youself. In this case, the big green sword deal all dmg types. the seal attack deals "magic" the icon is the white light, but that means it does all magic types so you can check magic easily that way, then you can call for assist to check for the physical instead of relying on the big sword.

As for the big oneshot, it doesnt always kill you, honestly not sure if its a health check, or you can actually guard it. but when it goes off try holding your guard counter or assimilate , if you dont have it ready just try blocking and hope. If you live it goes back to phase 1 (i think i always win or die before it gets a chance to change again). Other than all that. focus on not getting hit. Losing out of dmg is better than having your progress chunked down by taking hits.

Just another note to remember, when you use guard counter or assimilate they boss wont reset the '?' blocks and wont put up new ones if you have them broken. Other than that, its just a hard fight, defiantly a skill check.

[RaphaelVehuiah]

Ah, I knew I'd forgot something.
I did notice the Shield Counter and Counterspell skills prevent the Blocks from randomising.

Although just to clarify about the Green Sword, since it counts as everything, it'll reveal all the Block types, regardless of whether they're Magic and Physical, as well as any element, which really cuts down on the guesswork whenever you can use it.

In terms of the one-shot I was getting to, as far as I can tell it's basically a cutscene once it fires, where I didn't seem to have control.
It reminds me a lot of some SMT/Persona bonus bosses when they just decide you're done and nuke you with a one-shot.
I'll give blocking a shot, though.

The main other thing I realised I'd forgotten about, which I haven't tried yet (because I unlocked a map feature somehow that's made cleaning up remaining health fragments much easier), is that both the Axe and the Seal weapons apparently have counter properties.

I'd never actually used that property, because there just aren't many enemies who attack during your turn, but I thought that might do more to deal with the light orbs the dragon drops on you compared to just dodging them with Bow/Whip and Teleport Strikes.

The very last health fragment is kinda stumping me. Not sure where else to look in the section of the Tower the map says it's in.

[Dsyphus]

Originally posted by RaphaelVehuiah:

Ah, I knew I'd forgot something.
I did notice the Shield Counter and Counterspell skills prevent the Blocks from randomising.

Although just to clarify about the Green Sword, since it counts as everything, it'll reveal all the Block types, regardless of whether they're Magic and Physical, as well as any element, which really cuts down on the guesswork whenever you can use it.

In terms of the one-shot I was getting to, as far as I can tell it's basically a cutscene once it fires, where I didn't seem to have control.
It reminds me a lot of some SMT/Persona bonus bosses when they just decide you're done and nuke you with a one-shot.
I'll give blocking a shot, though.

The main other thing I realised I'd forgotten about, which I haven't tried yet (because I unlocked a map feature somehow that's made cleaning up remaining health fragments much easier), is that both the Axe and the Seal weapons apparently have counter properties.

I'd never actually used that property, because there just aren't many enemies who attack during your turn, but I thought that might do more to deal with the light orbs the dragon drops on you compared to just dodging them with Bow/Whip and Teleport Strikes.

The very last health fragment is kinda stumping me. Not sure where else to look in the section of the Tower the map says it's in.

The map feature showing where the health is located is the from doing the lore stones. And i think i might know the one you are talking about. You wont find the tyical "hands" holding the piece like most of the others, there is a spot where the backround and foreground will line up with an empty spot in the middle. use sonar there and its will appear. Sorry if thats vague, i dont really know how to explain it. the parallax of the level will line up in a certain spot. you dont have to be too precise. worst case, go up the central tunnel spamming sonar

[RaphaelVehuiah]

I did find it in the end not long after my last post, and yeah, it was basically just an odd background element in the tower zone that dropped it after using the sonar, like you say.

In terms of Green Bahamut, I got within sight of the win for the first time after surviving Mega Flare somehow, so I guess it does just do a huge amount of damage, instead of a guaranteed insta-kill.

[The Comedian]

Any tips on the last two shards I'm missing? I found a hand in the purple world, though I have no idea how to activate it. In the red world, there is a locked gate, it's probably there, but I can't find a way around it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3094261731

[Dsyphus]

Originally posted by The Comedian:

Any tips on the last two shards I'm missing? I found a hand in the purple world, though I have no idea how to activate it. In the red world, there is a locked gate, it's probably there, but I can't find a way around it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3094261731

The one on the upper right i believe is the one where you have to sonar the plants in order, on the platforms. I think that one is just 1-4. And the one on the left is either the foreground backround one (check my previous post) or its the same as the counting one but you have to do it in a certain order. just pay attention too the plants

[RaphaelVehuiah]

Like Dsyphus says, there're a few shards where there's a scenery element on each platform that correspond to numbers, something like the plants having different numbers of leaves etc. and you need to sonar them in order.

But you say the purple world...
Is that place where the shard is between two waterfalls?

[The Comedian]

Ok, I got both of them, thanks. Each had a flower puzzle.

[Blurrg]

Originally posted by Soul:

So right after that I get to the true ending boss,I won't tell who it is but he's in one of the trailers.
Its bad,its boring,I didn't like it at ALL,it ask 5 locks break (they are hidden so you have to spam all your moves to guess them then use them more to actually break the locks),but guess what,if you don't break them all on your turn... THE ONES LEFT ARE RANDOMIZED,SO YOU HAVE TO SPAM MOVES AGAIN.

With good strategy, you can clear the first set of locks in turn one technically. But the first set isn't really that bad. You probably want to break them on turn 2 normally.

Something you probably didn't notice or run into, but if you successfully counter attack (Y guard) anything he does it actually reveals all the question marks for the next turn, allowing you to break everything quite easily.

Then its first phase end with him grabbing one of your 2 forms,its bs,the form start with a fast either unblockable magic that as dark form you have to evade or as light you have to magic block.

If you let him take light form, it isn't that hard. Just hold guard with dark form and spam magic, he will only ever get two sets of attacks off. Basically just hold guard, and if you notice he goes a double charge magic just let go and teleport instead at the right moment.

You will take a little bit of damage, but its no big deal.

Then the 2nd phase is him summoning orbs above you that randomly fall on you,so you have to spam again for the random locks AND avoid this ♥♥♥♥ raining on you,making it even longer.

Definitely annoying, but like I said, if you manage to counterattack any of his abilities, it will reveal everything!

Btw during all those phases,he will spam magic attacks randomly of all elements,so if you are in the bad form,well screw you switching to counter it is most of the time too late specially if its dark form cause unlike light form it doesn't have a perfect parry and since it spam every attack 3-4 magic moves,evade DOESN'T WORK HERE,ITS LITERALLY A FLAWED DESIGN MOMENT. It sometime do one big physical attack,but it deal massive damage so you better just perfect parry it.

After you break his very first set of 5 guards, you can actually stay in Dark form the entire time for defensive play and win. Yes you will take damage, but dark form has a heal with his counter attack, even if you fail the counter.

If you're observant, you can switch to light form for some of the obvious physical attacks (such as the big slam).

Also obviously you can't heal,so sometime (like once per phases,sometime NOT AT ALL) he actually will heal you,BUT,he use the same effect as his unblockables (a green circle on his hand) so if you block or dodge it you don't get it,like ok I get it but then make it really different from the one shot attack then...

Dark form CAN heal my friend!!!! Absorption is amazing!

Sorry you had to go through that fight without that information, it must've been terrible and very difficult. I personally went through the whole game without knowing how to counter attack but had to learn it for this fight because I thought I was missing something, so I tried using the things I never touched.