(DISCLAIMERS:
1. I was given a code for this game courtesy of the Metroidvania Review , a wonderful curator on Steam focusing on Metroidvanias of all kinds. I recommend giving them a look-see if you are looking for quality Metroidvanias on Steam.
2. At the time of this review, I have not finished the game. While I was not given guidelines on how to carry on my review, I initially felt compelled to finish the game before giving it a proper review. Real life got in the way, so I decided to post a preliminary review now and revise it when I finish the game. I promise I will finish the game, I just need time for it.)

Eagle Island is a complicated game to talk about. Like many games I like playing, I was most attracted to the cozy pixel art aesthetic. I suppose that was the first thing that wowed me when I got to the title screen. If anything, Eagle Island presents itself in a way where every pixel, every note, every line of dialogue and every game mechanic reeks of love and care. I would compare it to a child that's been intensely doted on from the day it was born.

Right away, my first instinct was to check the options menu. Holy Hannah, are there so many options and tweaks in this game. You've got all the mandatory ones like graphical tweaks, volume sliders and control mapping, but this game also has options I would have never considered. You have gameplay tweaks for people who dislike the base gameplay (more on that later), the ability to record gifs and share them on social media, tools for speedrunners and even correction options for people with conditions or disabilities that would otherwise prevent them from enjoying a game like this. It's incredible how much has been done here to make the game accessible to a large audience. I may never be able to explore them all, but mad props to the developers for their attentiveness on this matter.

When you start up a new game, you are allowed to select one of four difficulty settings: Casual, Lite, Core and Hardcore. Casual essentially doubles your health pool and gives you hearts at every opportunity, making it hard to die unless you purposefully get hit. Lite cuts boss health and requires lower combos from you. Core increases the challenge but not much else, and Hardcore makes it hard to heal and obtain manaroc from combos. The game recommends Core, but you are in no ways punished for selecting a lower difficulty. I selected Core at the beginning to get a feel for the game, then gradually dropped to Lite when things got too heated for me. Your mileage may vary, but Eagle Island is in some ways challenging and in other ways completely accessible.

The game begins with some context about our protagonist, Quill. He is on a seafaring journey with his pet owls, Koji and Ichiro. A storm runs them aground, and only a few minutes into exploring their surroundings, Ichiro is stolen away by a vicious eagle named Armaura. To get him back, Quill must attain the elemental powers on the island before Armaura does. The story is not a huge focus of this game and that's perfectly fine with me. I judge games primarily on their gameplay anyway, and while story is good to have, I don't think this game needs a huge or complicated one. We're just getting a friend back, and that's all that matters.

The first thing I noticed when gaining control of Quill is his jump. Quill jumps like a classic Belmont, meaning you have to commit to a direction when you jump because turning mid-jump is for cowards. I thought this was going to make things hard for me, but fortunately this is not a game where you have to worry about bottomless pits. The worst that happens to you if you fall into one is you lose a few seconds of your life watching yourself getting picked up by Koji. You don't get to the main gimmick of the game - throwing Koji - until shortly after Ichiro is kidnapped, and the criticisms are justified. This is a combat-heavy game, and Koji requires a lot of practice and careful thinking to control.

Koji, by default, can only be thrown in eight cardinal directions, and there are many instances where you are guaranteed to miss because an enemy is at an angle that can't be thrown at. You don't have much time to plan out an attack - just barely two seconds - and when Koji misses, it takes about the same time to have the chance to throw him again. In that time, Quill is vulnerable to attack, and it was the most common cause of death in my many runs of each area. If you CAN aim well, Koji is a boon, as you get to attack immediately after collision with an enemy, but these instances are few and far between for me. Koji's hitbox is also incredibly deceptive; I swear sometimes I feel I'm perfectly lined up with a target and some kind of level geometry says 'nope.' Rarely, Koji even seems to pass through objects he shouldn't be able to pass through. There are also many, MANY instances of Koji stopping just short of a target. You feel that disappointment and frustration hard in crowded areas.

THANKFULLY, in a recent patch, the developer added a 360-degree option for aiming Koji. This counts as a gameplay tweak, which means if you check it it will prevent you from obtaining an S-rank in an area. If you're playing as badly as I am, however, this doesn't matter at all. I never got anything higher than a B rank. Anyway, 360-degree aiming definitely feels more precise (though the visuals still assume you are aiming in eight cardinal directions, which is a bit disorienting). It doesn't completely mitigate the issues I have, however. You can still miss if your aim is off, you can still hit against the level geometry, and Koji can still fall short of an enemy, leaving you vulnerable. It just makes aiming feel less clunky and unnatural.

The gameplay loop is otherwise fairly solid. Throughout the island hub, there are areas you can unlock which you must traverse through to reach the elemental birds. Every time you go through an area, the layout randomly generates itself, so no two runs are the same. You kill enemies to progress and occasionally spend currency collected from enemies to open chests full of money or power-ups. At the end of each area is a boss you must defeat, after which you get the means to access the next area. It's vaguely metroidvania-styled in this way, but there isn't much opportunity to sequence break in this way unless there's some kind of glitch I don't know about. At least this game caters to speedrunners somewhat.

If I have any feedback to give about this game, I feel that Quill needs a way to defend himself outside of throwing Koji all the time. A short-range melee attack should do the trick. If that can be implemented, I think it would eliminate all the unfair deaths that come from misjudging my shots or the game punishing me for wanting to be aggressive when it's so combat-focused. Even if being helpless without Koji is the point, it grinds against what I look for in a game like this. I'm driven to kill things because I'm rewarded for doing so quickly and consecutively. Roguelikes can be difficult, yes, but they shouldn't be unfair. There's something in this game that's keeping it from feeling completely fair, and I don't think I'm the only person who thinks this way.

I compared Eagle Island earlier to a child that's been doted on way too much. It's a game with great charm, good ideas and a lot of promise, but it's still trying to figure itself out. I'm certain there's a lot of work to be done on the developers' end, and I hope my criticisms were constructive enough to help them make this game great. My frustrations with the combat aside, I'm still intending to play this game to the end, even if I have to deliberately lower the difficulty (which you can do after every death, for the record). I don't think it's a deal-breaker, but try the demo before you buy. Despite the developers' intents and efforts, it's not a game for everyone.