After finishing it I have some serious issues with he game.

I love how the WORLD interconnects, very Dark Souls 1....
BUT
The pacing of the areas is off-putting, areas between bosses are too short. Saves are far too frequent.

I love the ART direction...
BUT
There is a massive inconsistency in many assets especially late game... For example an enemy that was clearly blown to around 400% of its size resulting in really really ugly pixelart and it sticking out like a sore thumb. Or how about how a certain boss-room has an unfinished background.

I love the MUSIC.
BUT
It often breaks, especially in some bosses where the music transition would occur.

I dont like the SOUNDS, there is a huge amount of missing or badly set volumes, and they continue playing even if the source is dead or staggered. Boss voicelines stack because they are longer than their move's cool downs. There is a severe lack of feedback in many cases, and some sounds are really puny.

I dont know what to say on the STORY... It's a looot of philosophy about death which is to be expected but most of it is not above the high school class level. Its also very inconsistent in tone, but not in a fun campy way. For me it was a mess. But hey if you read maybe 5 or less books in your life it may appear as deep to you.

The GAMEPLAY...
Oh boy here is where the mess begins. Game feel is BAD, sorry I would love to say its good but it's really not. There is a severe lack of feedback especially when YOU get hit, its also super inconsistent, some bosses and attacks will elicit proper feedback while others that are far more dangerous dont. It's often really hard to read you got hit besides the HP going down. Stagger is very very inconsistent, some attacks will make you fly 40 meters away, while others wont make you flinch while taking off 75% of your HP.
Oh and bosses have unskippable intros.... some as long as a minute. And I dont mean the unique line ones.

Movement is good-ish but there are issues with ladders for example. Also especially in a late game area the lack of feedback on what is and what isn't acceptable to jump down into is bad. I am sorry but I only found one of the late game bosses because I fell down, but if you fall down an identical, looking gap you die....

Enemies are messy. Some are well designed, articulated and timed, some are obviously late development boosted to make up for their lack of AI and attacks. Archers, SOME who look identical to others will have exploding arrows... there is no way to know. There is an "invincible" type of enemy, or I think it is I never found a way on how to kill them, my guess is they only take damage from magic, if that's the case that is a terrible design for a game with classes and builds. If there is a way to beat them I apologize.(EDIT: confirmed they CAN be killed, the method is pretty cool, but logically I dont think it makes much sense since they were haphazardly thrown around areas where they should die, but still good idea.)

TECHNICAL things.
The game runs on a cursed engine GMS, I know its pains very very well... I know it can be a mess, but during my play-through I found countless very primitive mistakes that anyone even slightly familiar with the engine should have been able to avoid. Moonwalking, menu endless selection, audio cancellation, etc etc. I was expecting a competent production that I can look up to in awe and say, yup they could do it, but no. Unfortunately this feels either rushed to market (somehow...) or very late design changes.
The fact that the whole grapple mechanic was removed from the game is sad to me, it looks like the devs ran into a bit of trouble they did not expect... and unfortunately it shows.


This is still a good game, there is plenty to love, but there is a lot to hate even if the engine is not getting in the way.


I CAN recommend it BUT preferably buy it later when they fixed a few things, hopefully.

After finishing it I have some serious issues with he game. I love how the WORLD interconnects, very Dark Souls 1.... BUT The pacing of the areas is off-putting, areas between bosses are too short. Saves are far too frequent. I love the ART direction... BUT There is a massive inconsistency in many assets especially late game... For example an enemy that was clearly blown to around 400% of its size resulting in really really ugly pixelart and it sticking out like a sore thumb. Or how about how a certain boss-room has an unfinished background. I love the MUSIC. BUT It often breaks, especially in some bosses where the music transition would occur. I dont like the SOUNDS, there is a huge amount of missing or badly set volumes, and they continue playing even if the source is dead or staggered. Boss voicelines stack because they are longer than their move's cool downs. There is a severe lack of feedback in many cases, and some sounds are really puny. I dont know what to say on the STORY... It's a looot of philosophy about death which is to be expected but most of it is not above the high school class level. Its also very inconsistent in tone, but not in a fun campy way. For me it was a mess. But hey if you read maybe 5 or less books in your life it may appear as deep to you. The GAMEPLAY... Oh boy here is where the mess begins. Game feel is BAD, sorry I would love to say its good but it's really not. There is a severe lack of feedback especially when YOU get hit, its also super inconsistent, some bosses and attacks will elicit proper feedback while others that are far more dangerous dont. It's often really hard to read you got hit besides the HP going down. Stagger is very very inconsistent, some attacks will make you fly 40 meters away, while others wont make you flinch while taking off 75% of your HP. Oh and bosses have unskippable intros.... some as long as a minute. And I dont mean the unique line ones. Movement is good-ish but there are issues with ladders for example. Also especially in a late game area the lack of feedback on what is and what isn't acceptable to jump down into is bad. I am sorry but I only found one of the late game bosses because I fell down, but if you fall down an identical, looking gap you die.... Enemies are messy. Some are well designed, articulated and timed, some are obviously late development boosted to make up for their lack of AI and attacks. Archers, SOME who look identical to others will have exploding arrows... there is no way to know. There is an "invincible" type of enemy, or I think it is I never found a way on how to kill them, my guess is they only take damage from magic, if that's the case that is a terrible design for a game with classes and builds. If there is a way to beat them I apologize.(EDIT: confirmed they CAN be killed, the method is pretty cool, but logically I dont think it makes much sense since they were haphazardly thrown around areas where they should die, but still good idea.) TECHNICAL things. The game runs on a cursed engine GMS, I know its pains very very well... I know it can be a mess, but during my play-through I found countless very primitive mistakes that anyone even slightly familiar with the engine should have been able to avoid. Moonwalking, menu endless selection, audio cancellation, etc etc. I was expecting a competent production that I can look up to in awe and say, yup they could do it, but no. Unfortunately this feels either rushed to market (somehow...) or very late design changes. The fact that the whole grapple mechanic was removed from the game is sad to me, it looks like the devs ran into a bit of trouble they did not expect... and unfortunately it shows. This is still a good game, there is plenty to love, but there is a lot to hate even if the engine is not getting in the way. I CAN recommend it BUT preferably buy it later when they fixed a few things, hopefully.