Easily the best game I played this year, and a worthy sequel despite not quite reaching the same heights.

After how much I loved the first game, I bought this as soon as it became available in Early Access. I waited until the full release in September 2025 to actually play it, though, because I prefer being able to enjoy a fully finished game. After roughly 100 hours of playtime I've completed everything: The story, the true ending, the epilogue, all prophecies, every achievement – and a few more things in-game that aren't officially tracked. It was an incredibly fun experience, and exactly what I had hoped for ever since the game had been announced.

Unfortunately it turns out I should have waited another month: Literally the day after I got the final achievement, the first post-launch patch was released. And in a rather unexpected turn of events, it contains not only a few balancing tweaks and bug fixes, but fairly significant changes to the writing and the way the true ending is unfolding. I'll not get into spoilers, but this aspect was by far the biggest let-down. I'm glad this is being polished up now, but disappointed that after waiting for 1.5 years I still ended up experiencing a sub-par version – no matter if it was because the 1.0 release was rushed or the originally written ending was just a genuine miss.

Two other minor negatives: 1) The soundtrack is not as good as the one from the first game. It's still great, I've been listening to it on constant repeat all month – but not a single track on it comes even close to how much of a banger "The King and the Bull" was. 2) The "Unrecognized Controller" popup that I got to see with my 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless every single time I started the game – the controller worked perfectly fine, so I really wish that warning had a "Don't show again" option.

Besides those quibbles, the game was as close to perfection as it can get for me. Everything about the gameplay is bigger, better, more polished, better balanced, and even more addictive. The art direction is out of this world, and the characters and world-building gripped me just the way the first game did. I'm looking forward to checking out the revised ending at some point in the future, but having already made peace with the version I've experienced I may wait a little longer before doing so.

Easily the best game I played this year, and a worthy sequel despite not quite reaching the same heights. After how much I loved the first game, I bought this as soon as it became available in Early Access. I waited until the full release in September 2025 to actually play it, though, because I prefer being able to enjoy a fully finished game. After roughly 100 hours of playtime I've completed everything: The story, the true ending, the epilogue, all prophecies, every achievement – and a few more things in-game that aren't officially tracked. It was an incredibly fun experience, and exactly what I had hoped for ever since the game had been announced. Unfortunately it turns out I should have waited another month: Literally the day after I got the final achievement, the first post-launch patch was released. And in a rather unexpected turn of events, it contains not only a few balancing tweaks and bug fixes, but fairly significant changes to the writing and the way the true ending is unfolding. I'll not get into spoilers, but this aspect was [i]by far[/i] the biggest let-down. I'm glad this is being polished up now, but disappointed that after waiting for 1.5 years I still ended up experiencing a sub-par version – no matter if it was because the 1.0 release was rushed or the originally written ending was just a genuine miss. Two other minor negatives: 1) The soundtrack is not [i]as good[/i] as the one from the first game. It's still great, I've been listening to it on constant repeat all month – but not a single track on it comes even close to how much of a banger "The King and the Bull" was. 2) The "Unrecognized Controller" popup that I got to see with my 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless every single time I started the game – the controller worked perfectly fine, so I really wish that warning had a "Don't show again" option. Besides those quibbles, the game was as close to perfection as it can get for me. Everything about the gameplay is bigger, better, more polished, better balanced, and even more addictive. The art direction is out of this world, and the characters and world-building gripped me just the way the first game did. I'm looking forward to checking out the revised ending at some point in the future, but having already made peace with the version I've experienced I may wait a little longer before doing so.