Map or possility of going back?

[Simbabbad]

The game is great, but one extremely irritating thing in Celeste was how it combined precision platformer and exploration/collecting: often you'd miss a side objective because they're not clearly visible, but the game would often lock you from going back, and there is no automap helping you to not miss anything.

This led to tons of replaying the same levels over and over again for one item to collect, until you finally played while following a guide to avoid all the repetition tedium.

This game seems to take the same route. Often it locks you from going back for absolutely no reason, it has no map, so you miss tons of secondary objectives and must repeat the same level again and again for 100% until you use a guide to save time. It's a shame because the rest is great.

Would it be possible to remove the parts where you're locked from going back (why are they there in the first place), or add a map or some indication that you missed something?

[Gagonfe]

The locking walls are used to keep the players on the right track. Specially on the Underground chapter for example, the map is really big which can create some confusion on the players about where to go.

We usually block places so the player know they are following the right track by excluding the paths that won't get the player anywhere aside of possibly getting another collectable, but if they missed it in the first place, they would usually miss out on anyways, so in this case we prioritize making the player progression clear rather than making every path available.

Hopefully this made sense, but appreciate the feedback! We might do something regarding missing something on different areas.

[Simbabbad]

I understand, but this could be done with a simple sign with an arrow, or, to fit better with the universe of the game, an ancient statue pointing in the correct direction. No need for invisible one-sided walls that force you to replay the whole level.

To help the player notice if he/she missed anything without being too intrusive, you could add under those statues or in the pause menu a list of the gems/items to collect in the right order, if there's a gap, the player will know he/she needs to go back, like in Luigi's Mansion 2.