Decided to change my review again cause I'm crazy. Before we begin, the game isn't entirely polished yet and there is still some things that are incomplete, (ie: the one of the volume sliders does nothing, resolution has always been a bit wonky, etc), but these things aren't really too much of a big deal since many of them don't affect the main game itself. Anyway, first off, is the game fun? Yes but quick warning, this game is a bullethell and can get really challenging to people that aren't good with them. Other than that, its a really nice take on a bullet hell, every enemy that isn't a summon is a boss and its a rougelike so every playthrough is different. Really makes it a good mashup of the bullethell genre.
Also, just to help people out I will also be putting some tips in this review cause this game right now doesn't really have a tutoriel so skip to the next paragraph for the review to continue. Allright, so things I need to note: First off you may be wondering what every stat does in this game since it may not entirely be clear. Strength increases dmg, essence increases max essence and I believe also has your essence recharge faster, perception is your teliport cooldown, dexerity is your speed, vitality is your health, and state is I believe your duration for your transformations. This may seem pointless to many people since they think it'd be obvios but I have seen people that werent able to figure out what does what and for a while during the early stages of the game there was nothing that said what any of these things even did so its worth mentioning. You may notice as well when you progress through the game that there are 6 other hidden stats that can affect your game as well. I can't say what all of them do as update 18.0 just released so I haven't been able to play them much, but I'll say what I do know. The 6 other stats are despair, paronoia, loathing, vanity, bliss, and hope. You may have noticed that 3 of those stats don't sound good, and that is because they aren't. These 3 stats make your playthrough harder and more challenging, (ie, doing less damage, surviving less, etc), so its best to avoid these if you can. Meanwhile the good stats, bliss, vanity, and hope, will passivly boost you and make you stronger on your playthrough. I'm not entirly sure what vanity and bliss do, (I'm pretty sure they increase dmg and defence however), but I do know that hope increases the chance of finding items after bosses, so its worth getting these if you can. You may be wondering however, how do you get these hidden stats? The two ways to get these stats are items, (which can be found now thanks to the 18.0 update), or the optional bosses. Sometimes when you beat a boss, an optional boss can appear, and if you start a fight with them and defeat them, you auto pickup their stat, good or bad. You can tell the stat they give based on their facial expresion, body color, shape, and how the boss behaves before you fight them. TO explain, if its one of the bad bosses, it'll slowly follow you can try to force a fight onto you. It is hard to do, but if your fast enough, you may be able to escape the boss by entering another room and ignoring the boss alltogether. Meanwhile for the good bosses, they just float forward passivly and will disappear on their own if not instigated with. These bosses are tough so if you do fight any of them, good or bad, you will have a tough time none of the less. Now, when you start the game, you wont have any of the item descriptions for any of the items. SO its important that you are able to differenciate what they do by looking at their picture itself. For instance, each item is put into a different stat group, and will appear more the more of that stat you have. You can tell what stat group an item is in based on their border color. You can also tell what an item gives based on what they look like but that isn't the best way of figuring things out, but its worth a shot. Now, when you look at your map, you can see different shapes, and these room usually give items, (through the shop, item room, or a quick boss rush), but sometimes when you enter one of these rooms, there's a boss in there, and when you beat em, they drop no item. So what do these bosses do? They give credits to unlock transformations, or "states" as their called. To unlock a state, you need to unlock three of the same kind of state credits. To unlock state credits, you must have high enough stats, get items that give you state credits, or fight optional bosses in item rooms that give you state credits. You can tell what credit a boss will give based on their look. For example, if the boss looks all spiky and shelly, then it'll give a spike credit. IF the boss is all mage like, then it'll give a mage credit. If the boss looks all round and fierce, then it'll give a beast credit. And etc; you get the idea. One more thing to mention, at the top left are your hearts. You can drag and drop to them in a different order, even during combat. Use this when you want to use a heart's effects, if you don't want to lose a heart, or whatever else you come up with. That's all the tips I figure I'd give here, anything else you can figure out on you own, so on with the review.
Now one thing I gotta mention about this game is the setting. In short, your spirit got dragged into a dream state and you gotta go into the depths to do.... something. The reason I am talking about the setting is because it basically means you can fight demon pacman with a pair of giant scissors. The weapons and sometimes bosses too can basically be anything. The bosses are a bit more strict since they kinda have to reflect the idea of being in a dream state but the weapons however barely follow this rule at all. You can wield anything from explosive essence to a sword to even a bubblegum machine gun. And the weapons themselves are also really fun to use as well, if some of them aren't a bit overpowered. Like in one playthrough your be wrecking bosses easily with your army of anvils just to get wrecked by knockoff superman, then you play again and have a different overpowered setup and a better build; and its all fun to do. The weapons really make this game really interesting and fun to go through.
The game play has many things that set it apart from other bullethells and makes the game fun to play each time. Along with its unique premise of being a bullethell boss rush rougelike, this game comes with several unique gameplay features to make the gameplay fun and interesting. First of is that there is a teliport function. Now some people may think that a teliport in a bullethell would make this game really easy, but I like to say that its balanced pretty well. The bosses are made tough themselves and the teliport can be really useful if you get cornered so you don't have to be forced to take a hit, which happens quite frequently. You also can't spam it so you can just instant transmision everywhere at the start of the game. Overall, changes things up from a normal bullethell and makes gameplay more interesting. Then there's the health system. To explain, when you start the game you have 3 hearts, with each one having there own heath. Once a heart has run outta health, the heart will be destroyed and will never come back again unless its an undead heart or an ability is used to reguviate them in some way. To counter this, every boss you beat regenerates your heart's health fully. As well as the fact that getting hit does a lot of damage in this game, this system is a interesting take on a health system. Then there's the states. Once you get to zone 3 with the nessesary requirments, you can transform into one of many forms and gain new abilities and start wrecking bosses up. The states do last a limited time, but can be recharged if the yellow essence is even somewhat filled. (review continues in comments...)