Intro
i really like this game. i think this is the metroidvania with the most horizontal progression i've ever played, and i fucking love horizontal progression. there's a fuckton of equippable 'relics' and equipment that changes what your parry does, and a ton of different spells to swap out. additionally, there's a lot of abilities, with many routes you could possibly get through the game and tons of optional abilities. i got all 3 endings on normal difficulty, and i still don't have every single ability.
Bloat
now, while i think it is awesome to get new unique things your character can do for exploration as opposed to just a "damage up" or something else vertical/numerical, it can start to feel a little bit bloated at times. personally, i don't really have an issue with it, as i think it will make the game more replayable for me in the future, and if an item randomizer ever gets created for this, i'll be lining up at the door 8 hours in advance. yet, it's possible that some people might have a problem with the amount of things in this game.
Movement
the movement in this game is unique and fluid, and there's a large amount of emergent techniques gained from combining different movement mechanics. while there's often an 'intended' way to get through a platforming challenge, there's a lot of synergy with the abilities that let you free style your way through some of the obstacles after enough practice. there's even some mechanics that feel reminiscent of celeste speedrunning tech, which is quite fun, and i think would make speedrunning this game quite interesting from both a routing and movement perspective. some of the optional platforming sections are very difficult, and i have a lot of experience with difficult platformers, so i don't expect doing all of them is widely accomplishable by people that are not as versed in precise platforming as i am. an incredibly nice feature is the generous usage of 'red spikes' that will damage you back to your last stable ground location, but will not damage your HP, so you don't have to be stressed about finishing a movement based room in only a few tries. additionally, the game tutorializes a lot of these more complex movement mechanics in a way that is analogous to Celeste (2018) mod Community Collab gyms with in depth explanations, input sequences, and even in-game recordings in easily retriable obstacle courses that are organized by movement ability.
Combat
combat isn't the most insane, and the bosses are mostly just serviceable (no real standouts). however, as you progress, you get more and more movement options that also double as combat options and even expand the attacks that your spells can do, such as the difference between hitting a spore spell normally and spin-slashing it. as such, i was pretty satisfied with the combat and enjoyed stringing together random attacks and abilities against bosses, but it's nothing special. at least there's a parry which works fine enough.
Interface and Art
my biggest issue with the game is the interface and art. in the relic select screen, if you don't have enough points to spend on equipping a relic, its sprite will be greyed out, which is a pretty normal way to signify something isn't selectable. however, because the sprites for all of these SIXTY relics total aren't very distinct even with color, it is very difficult to look at them on the screen and know "oh that's [X] relic and that's [Y] relic." here is an imgur image showing this with color. it's not very distinct, and the similar variations even within the effects make it a little agonizing to use the interface and discern between your massive inventory. the map is large and expansive, but the map interface is lacking detail or landmarks. in Hollow Knight (2017), for example, if there's a significant statue in the world, or a small village or something, it's represented with a little drawing on the map. while Lone Fungus has shaped rooms on the map, there's none of this detail, so it's dreadful to match the map to your visual memory of the rooms. also, the achievements on steam visually look gross and muddied.
Conclusion
in short, i think this game is fantastic for movement and platforming, and i suspect has a large amount of variance in the order of completion with numerous sequence breaks possible. i am definitely going to go for all steam achievements eventually (which includes a permadeath 100% file completion), but i'll probably give it a little bit of a break before then. however, if you're looking for a good looking game with an interesting story and engaging combat, this probably isn't the one for you.
i really like this game. i think this is the metroidvania with the most horizontal progression i've ever played, and i fucking love horizontal progression. there's a fuckton of equippable 'relics' and equipment that changes what your parry does, and a ton of different spells to swap out. additionally, there's a lot of abilities, with many routes you could possibly get through the game and tons of optional abilities. i got all 3 endings on normal difficulty, and i still don't have every single ability.
Bloat
now, while i think it is awesome to get new unique things your character can do for exploration as opposed to just a "damage up" or something else vertical/numerical, it can start to feel a little bit bloated at times. personally, i don't really have an issue with it, as i think it will make the game more replayable for me in the future, and if an item randomizer ever gets created for this, i'll be lining up at the door 8 hours in advance. yet, it's possible that some people might have a problem with the amount of things in this game.
Movement
the movement in this game is unique and fluid, and there's a large amount of emergent techniques gained from combining different movement mechanics. while there's often an 'intended' way to get through a platforming challenge, there's a lot of synergy with the abilities that let you free style your way through some of the obstacles after enough practice. there's even some mechanics that feel reminiscent of celeste speedrunning tech, which is quite fun, and i think would make speedrunning this game quite interesting from both a routing and movement perspective. some of the optional platforming sections are very difficult, and i have a lot of experience with difficult platformers, so i don't expect doing all of them is widely accomplishable by people that are not as versed in precise platforming as i am. an incredibly nice feature is the generous usage of 'red spikes' that will damage you back to your last stable ground location, but will not damage your HP, so you don't have to be stressed about finishing a movement based room in only a few tries. additionally, the game tutorializes a lot of these more complex movement mechanics in a way that is analogous to Celeste (2018) mod Community Collab gyms with in depth explanations, input sequences, and even in-game recordings in easily retriable obstacle courses that are organized by movement ability.
Combat
combat isn't the most insane, and the bosses are mostly just serviceable (no real standouts). however, as you progress, you get more and more movement options that also double as combat options and even expand the attacks that your spells can do, such as the difference between hitting a spore spell normally and spin-slashing it. as such, i was pretty satisfied with the combat and enjoyed stringing together random attacks and abilities against bosses, but it's nothing special. at least there's a parry which works fine enough.
Interface and Art
my biggest issue with the game is the interface and art. in the relic select screen, if you don't have enough points to spend on equipping a relic, its sprite will be greyed out, which is a pretty normal way to signify something isn't selectable. however, because the sprites for all of these SIXTY relics total aren't very distinct even with color, it is very difficult to look at them on the screen and know "oh that's [X] relic and that's [Y] relic." here is an imgur image showing this with color. it's not very distinct, and the similar variations even within the effects make it a little agonizing to use the interface and discern between your massive inventory. the map is large and expansive, but the map interface is lacking detail or landmarks. in Hollow Knight (2017), for example, if there's a significant statue in the world, or a small village or something, it's represented with a little drawing on the map. while Lone Fungus has shaped rooms on the map, there's none of this detail, so it's dreadful to match the map to your visual memory of the rooms. also, the achievements on steam visually look gross and muddied.
Conclusion
in short, i think this game is fantastic for movement and platforming, and i suspect has a large amount of variance in the order of completion with numerous sequence breaks possible. i am definitely going to go for all steam achievements eventually (which includes a permadeath 100% file completion), but i'll probably give it a little bit of a break before then. however, if you're looking for a good looking game with an interesting story and engaging combat, this probably isn't the one for you.
I wanted to like this game a lot more than I did. But there were two main issues that got in the way for me.
1) Ability gating felt super arbitrary at times. There were objects that I'd look at and go "do I have the ability to do something with this?" and sometimes I would just not know. Same thing with some of the platforming sequences. Although fortunately some of them have an NPC who tells you if you have everything you need.
2) (and this is the main one) I can't quite tell if this is a me issue or what, but the bosses feel like they have a lot more health than they should. I get the impression that I was supposed to be using the spin jump a lot more (since you do more damage when spin jumping), but it puts you at such a significantly greater risk of getting hit that I kinda brushed off using it for boss fights (especially since some of the ones right after aren't great for that ability). It just feels very unreliable and hard to control in comparison to your normal slashes and I feel that it should have been left as a tool that more advanced players can use to make fights go faster rather than an expectation for any player hoping to finish the game.
1) Ability gating felt super arbitrary at times. There were objects that I'd look at and go "do I have the ability to do something with this?" and sometimes I would just not know. Same thing with some of the platforming sequences. Although fortunately some of them have an NPC who tells you if you have everything you need.
2) (and this is the main one) I can't quite tell if this is a me issue or what, but the bosses feel like they have a lot more health than they should. I get the impression that I was supposed to be using the spin jump a lot more (since you do more damage when spin jumping), but it puts you at such a significantly greater risk of getting hit that I kinda brushed off using it for boss fights (especially since some of the ones right after aren't great for that ability). It just feels very unreliable and hard to control in comparison to your normal slashes and I feel that it should have been left as a tool that more advanced players can use to make fights go faster rather than an expectation for any player hoping to finish the game.
Now, there's going to be a lot of complaining in this review, but that doesn't really reflect how much I liked the game. There's many things that could be improved, but none of these are major issues and the core gameplay is solid. Overall, this was quite a nice metroidvania.
First and foremost, the game suffers a bit from having slightly too many abilities and upgrades, and would probably have been a better game if a few had been removed and more time and polish were spent on each of the remaining ones.
Map is large and fairly good, though backtracking is a bit of a chore. There's a bit too many long and windy passages without any shortcuts, and the fast travel system wasn't good enough for most of the game.
Save points are also a little sparse and not discoverable enough. That is compensated somewhat by the lives-system, but it feels a bit out of place and like a band-aid solution. The sparseness is also a problem because by default, the map only updates when you visit a save point. Now, this behaviour is easy to change, but I wish the game had just committed to one and designed the map to suit that one.
The optional platforming challenges remind me of Celeste and I liked many of them, but also disliked many because of how fiddly the timings are.
First and foremost, the game suffers a bit from having slightly too many abilities and upgrades, and would probably have been a better game if a few had been removed and more time and polish were spent on each of the remaining ones.
Map is large and fairly good, though backtracking is a bit of a chore. There's a bit too many long and windy passages without any shortcuts, and the fast travel system wasn't good enough for most of the game.
Save points are also a little sparse and not discoverable enough. That is compensated somewhat by the lives-system, but it feels a bit out of place and like a band-aid solution. The sparseness is also a problem because by default, the map only updates when you visit a save point. Now, this behaviour is easy to change, but I wish the game had just committed to one and designed the map to suit that one.
The optional platforming challenges remind me of Celeste and I liked many of them, but also disliked many because of how fiddly the timings are.
It has a lot of amateurish design and some of the bosses are a bit jarring but overall it's a very solid metroidvania. The platforming and movement is hands down the best part of the game and I'd recommend it on that alone.
really well-polished metroidvania. love the movement/platforming focus. map's maybe a bit Too Huge tho, and the bosses are kinda easy
This review contains spoilers
Lone fungus!
Tldr: Fun platforming challenges, great exploration and abilites, lacking bosses and skill expression in combat.
PS: If you don't like bosses rolling over start on hard mode instead of normal.
An enjoyable metroidvania that focuses a lot on exploration, freedom and collecting a bunch of items. There are bosses but personally i think they are one of the weaker aspects of the game. The progression basically allows you to just go any way you like at any point with very few hindrances. You'll come across items you cannot collect and the occasional dead end but it really felt like i could just wander and get lost basically wherever my heart desired.
It has little structure except some hints of where to find mushrooms that can help guide you on your way. And i quite liked that honestly. The story is told by talking to mushroom statues or reading tablets around the world. Story wise it is very basic and i think the reason for that is to complement the very open ended nature of the game. I personally would have liked some more story events as at times it felt like i was exploring for the sake of exploring. Kind of loosing my purpose and drive if i wandered too much. There were some reminders when talking to statues where they would tell you but there was no real feel of urgency at any point. That can be both a good and a bad thing i suppose. It made many things more relaxed but also slightly less meaningful.
However there are a TON of items scattered across the map and it is packed to the brim with stuff to find. So the large map never felt empty to me. One of the most fun things to find are these teleportation gates that take you into the loopyland dimension where there is an obstacle course to complete to grab some type of shard(still don't know what they are for after the first ending) These are some of the most fun i had in the game because they can actually get challenging and they use the movement abilities you collect in unique ways. I have not beaten all of them yet but they let you combine and use most of your abilities maybe not to the fullest. But far enough for me to be pretty satisfied. And i think the genius part about them being in a different dimension is that the obstacle courses do not clutter up the map. If they were laid out across the map then backtracking would become much more of a tedium i believe. So these are great!
Now for some of the things i did not like as much. The bosses, there are quite a few bosses scattered around the map and finding one was always a positive interaction. The problem i have with the bosses is that they are too easy and too similar to each other. Now that they were too easy is a very subjective statement and im not trying to boast that im the ultimate gamer or something here but the problem is that you get a ton of really creative abilities and movement options. But the bosses barely challenge you to use any of them. You can beat most of the bosses with your basic loadout at the start of the game. And this is a huge missed opportunity i think. The warp gates with obstacle courses did a much better job of pushing the movement abilities then the bosses did pushing the combat abilities. And i think this is a huge opportunity to improve the next game that is in development. Some of the arenas had some platforms and spikes. But so many of the bosses ended up being a blob that you can pogo on that shoots a few bullets your way in a half assed attempt to kill you. In my opinion they need to get a lot more agressive, intimidating, and varied. (like the last boss, that one was actually great) I understand that i am asking for impossible standards from a solo developer here. But just a step in the right direction could make a huge difference in how satisfying it is to beat that boss. Another note is that i played on the normal(recommended) difficulty. If you plan on playing this game and think hollow knight has a good difficulty i would highly recommend starting with the hard difficulty instead. This is something i regret and might have changed my opinion on the bosses a bit. The issues about them being similar and not promoting the use of the new abilities and charms(sorry relics) still persists however and i think that this is the games biggest major weakpoint.
I liked the music, it was nice to listen too. Most of the tracks did not get tedious even after listening to them for a while and they fit the mushroomy cozy low threat enviroment of the game. One nitpick i have is that the music for sitting at a savepoint is amazing, BUT it cuts off after you leave the save point. If i got to hear the full save jingle even if i just stopped by a save for 1 second to heal. That would make my brain do many happy chemical.
Some of the dialogue did not flow as part of the world and felt like "go grab item x because reason y" and that is hard to avoid completely but i always like when games mask this well.
In conclusion i loved this game. I had a great time and i am excited to see what the developer decides to do with the second game.
Tldr: Fun platforming challenges, great exploration and abilites, lacking bosses and skill expression in combat.
PS: If you don't like bosses rolling over start on hard mode instead of normal.
An enjoyable metroidvania that focuses a lot on exploration, freedom and collecting a bunch of items. There are bosses but personally i think they are one of the weaker aspects of the game. The progression basically allows you to just go any way you like at any point with very few hindrances. You'll come across items you cannot collect and the occasional dead end but it really felt like i could just wander and get lost basically wherever my heart desired.
It has little structure except some hints of where to find mushrooms that can help guide you on your way. And i quite liked that honestly. The story is told by talking to mushroom statues or reading tablets around the world. Story wise it is very basic and i think the reason for that is to complement the very open ended nature of the game. I personally would have liked some more story events as at times it felt like i was exploring for the sake of exploring. Kind of loosing my purpose and drive if i wandered too much. There were some reminders when talking to statues where they would tell you but there was no real feel of urgency at any point. That can be both a good and a bad thing i suppose. It made many things more relaxed but also slightly less meaningful.
However there are a TON of items scattered across the map and it is packed to the brim with stuff to find. So the large map never felt empty to me. One of the most fun things to find are these teleportation gates that take you into the loopyland dimension where there is an obstacle course to complete to grab some type of shard(still don't know what they are for after the first ending) These are some of the most fun i had in the game because they can actually get challenging and they use the movement abilities you collect in unique ways. I have not beaten all of them yet but they let you combine and use most of your abilities maybe not to the fullest. But far enough for me to be pretty satisfied. And i think the genius part about them being in a different dimension is that the obstacle courses do not clutter up the map. If they were laid out across the map then backtracking would become much more of a tedium i believe. So these are great!
Now for some of the things i did not like as much. The bosses, there are quite a few bosses scattered around the map and finding one was always a positive interaction. The problem i have with the bosses is that they are too easy and too similar to each other. Now that they were too easy is a very subjective statement and im not trying to boast that im the ultimate gamer or something here but the problem is that you get a ton of really creative abilities and movement options. But the bosses barely challenge you to use any of them. You can beat most of the bosses with your basic loadout at the start of the game. And this is a huge missed opportunity i think. The warp gates with obstacle courses did a much better job of pushing the movement abilities then the bosses did pushing the combat abilities. And i think this is a huge opportunity to improve the next game that is in development. Some of the arenas had some platforms and spikes. But so many of the bosses ended up being a blob that you can pogo on that shoots a few bullets your way in a half assed attempt to kill you. In my opinion they need to get a lot more agressive, intimidating, and varied. (like the last boss, that one was actually great) I understand that i am asking for impossible standards from a solo developer here. But just a step in the right direction could make a huge difference in how satisfying it is to beat that boss. Another note is that i played on the normal(recommended) difficulty. If you plan on playing this game and think hollow knight has a good difficulty i would highly recommend starting with the hard difficulty instead. This is something i regret and might have changed my opinion on the bosses a bit. The issues about them being similar and not promoting the use of the new abilities and charms(sorry relics) still persists however and i think that this is the games biggest major weakpoint.
I liked the music, it was nice to listen too. Most of the tracks did not get tedious even after listening to them for a while and they fit the mushroomy cozy low threat enviroment of the game. One nitpick i have is that the music for sitting at a savepoint is amazing, BUT it cuts off after you leave the save point. If i got to hear the full save jingle even if i just stopped by a save for 1 second to heal. That would make my brain do many happy chemical.
Some of the dialogue did not flow as part of the world and felt like "go grab item x because reason y" and that is hard to avoid completely but i always like when games mask this well.
In conclusion i loved this game. I had a great time and i am excited to see what the developer decides to do with the second game.
This review contains spoilers
What a lovely surprise Lone Fungus was. I picked it up in a Metroidvania Humble Bundle and after beating the final boss, can say I had a lot of fun with it.
The Good:
- Fitting music that I didn't feel the want to turn off
- Fluid movement
- Plenty of content
- Cute asthetic
- Challenging, but not impossible
The Bad:
- There's so much movement tech in this game, that isn't necessarily taught very well. You'll struggle to do (and probably give up on) some of the astral challenges because of this.
- Whereas the main game itself is achievably beatable, 100% completion feels like a chore.
- The item that points out secret areas is very, very easy to
miss when it's indicating.
- Quite easy to miss where you're meant to go next and you end up stumped.
The Ugly:
- I had to give up on my pursuit for 100%. This is very rare for me :(
The Good:
- Fitting music that I didn't feel the want to turn off
- Fluid movement
- Plenty of content
- Cute asthetic
- Challenging, but not impossible
The Bad:
- There's so much movement tech in this game, that isn't necessarily taught very well. You'll struggle to do (and probably give up on) some of the astral challenges because of this.
- Whereas the main game itself is achievably beatable, 100% completion feels like a chore.
- The item that points out secret areas is very, very easy to
miss when it's indicating.
- Quite easy to miss where you're meant to go next and you end up stumped.
The Ugly:
- I had to give up on my pursuit for 100%. This is very rare for me :(
cranked out
Competent but dull metroidvania full of precision platforming challenges that make repeatedly navigating the world a chore.
Fun little metroidvania. Definitely inspired by Hollow Knight, but that is definitely not a bad thing.
Fungus? More like fungame am I right or am I right? (a bullet passes clean through my skull from 1km away)
Picked up Lone Fungus a few months ago but finally decided to play it after the most recent update added an ending. I very much enjoyed my time with it. The movement was the best part, I've seen a lot of people comparing it to this metroidvania or that metroidvania (usually Hollow Knight), but I think it really stands on its own in terms of gameplay, especially towards the end. Some of the bosses were not my favorite, and I thought more of them could have incorporated more of your moveset, but there are a few really good fights in the mix. I appreciate its non-linearity, though I did get stumped a few times in terms of where to go next. This was usually my own fault. The inclusion of a map with pins is very helpful in that regard, accurately taking notes as you go can be a great time saver, and I was only frustrated with retracing my steps a couple times. I would easily recommend it to anyone who enjoys 2D platformers. It is a super impressive game on its own, and even more impressive that it is a solo dev. I may revisit it once it officially gets a 1.0 release to go for some optional content and maybe some of the other endings.
Really good metroidvania with a LOT to explore and do. The gameplay is really tight and the movement of the player is really well done. Combat is on the simple side but really explores the movement abilities granted, which differentiates it from the rest of the MVs.
The map is huge and progress is truly non-linear, with several abilities to discover (I hardly got them all to reach the true ending). Some additional notes: (i) 100% is brutal, as the platforming challenges are REALLY hard on this game; (ii) lack of direction sometimes gave me trouble to figure out where to go; (iii) Fast-travel is not the best but is serviceable.
Highly recommended.
The map is huge and progress is truly non-linear, with several abilities to discover (I hardly got them all to reach the true ending). Some additional notes: (i) 100% is brutal, as the platforming challenges are REALLY hard on this game; (ii) lack of direction sometimes gave me trouble to figure out where to go; (iii) Fast-travel is not the best but is serviceable.
Highly recommended.
Too confusing and I couldn't really get into it. There's some depth too the movement tech you can do and skip over areas you normally can't by being creative. That was the only part I enjoyed. Think metroidvanias just aren't for me
yeah its good (hit a skill wall and will never finish lol)
Shelving for now, spike ball sections annoyed me more than enough. Without them, the platforming would be a 10/10
Funny mushroom game
DISCLAIMER:
This review is entirely for my own sake. You are welcome to read it but it may or may not contain spoilers for the whole game.
Expected a light and easy metroidvania. Turned out to be very complex (as in it had a lot of different abilities mapped to many buttons) Had a very strong focus on platforming challenges, HARD but satisfying. Highly customizable difficulty.
Overall, very fun. No big downside.
This review is entirely for my own sake. You are welcome to read it but it may or may not contain spoilers for the whole game.
Expected a light and easy metroidvania. Turned out to be very complex (as in it had a lot of different abilities mapped to many buttons) Had a very strong focus on platforming challenges, HARD but satisfying. Highly customizable difficulty.
Overall, very fun. No big downside.
hehehehehe
champñion
champñion
Banger game with big schmovement opportunities
An interesting Metroidvania that's not quite Metroid or Vania, but reminds me more of stuff like Super Meat Boy or Hollow Knight's White Palace with its abundance of platforming heavy rooms. Most of them are optional, but they definitely feel like the meat of the game.
Really fun time, but not as memorable as some of the finest 'Vanias out there
Really fun time, but not as memorable as some of the finest 'Vanias out there
good game, haven't played a lot yet
I really enjoyed my time with Lone Fungus. I still have some more things to do (100%, other difficulties) but I think I have enough of an informed opinion after getting 2 endings to review it.
The game is inspired by Hollow Knight heavily, and it wears that on its sleeve. You can see it everywhere from how the magic system works (hit enemies with sword to get energy to heal and cast spells) and how the basic sword attacks work. However, writing this game off as a Hollow Knight ripoff is doing it a major disservice.
The main thing that sets Lone Fungus apart from other Metroidvanias I've played is the complex movement system. You unlock a variety of ways to platform and get around the world faster in Lone Fungus, which gives it a unique feel compared to other Metroidvanias. The complex movement system really helps compliment the exploration and non linearity of Lone Fungus as well. Due to the he various types of maneuvers you can pull off, it makes you seriously question if you did something before you were supposed to or not; which I think is a good quality for an exploration game like this to have. I will say that when the game really wants to test your platforming capabilities in the Astral Gates or some of the other challenges strewn about it can be annoying but if you dislike them that much they're mostly (if not all) optional.
I mentioned it earlier but the non-linearity in this game really is one of its strongsuits. I'd say I don't like exploring the world quite as much as I do something like Hollow Knight or Super Metroid, as admittedly there aren't many interesting setpieces across the world like there are in those games. That being said though, Lone Fungus does have many power ups scattered around both mandatory for completion and optional, which makes it worth your time. I can understand how someone could find the lack of direction frustrating, but like, you chose to play a Metroidvania. Isn't getting lost the point?
I'm bad at writing conclusions but basically Lone Fungus is just a good Metroidvania with more focus on platforming than you'd typically expect that I'd recommend to anyone who's into or wants to get into the genre.
The game is inspired by Hollow Knight heavily, and it wears that on its sleeve. You can see it everywhere from how the magic system works (hit enemies with sword to get energy to heal and cast spells) and how the basic sword attacks work. However, writing this game off as a Hollow Knight ripoff is doing it a major disservice.
The main thing that sets Lone Fungus apart from other Metroidvanias I've played is the complex movement system. You unlock a variety of ways to platform and get around the world faster in Lone Fungus, which gives it a unique feel compared to other Metroidvanias. The complex movement system really helps compliment the exploration and non linearity of Lone Fungus as well. Due to the he various types of maneuvers you can pull off, it makes you seriously question if you did something before you were supposed to or not; which I think is a good quality for an exploration game like this to have. I will say that when the game really wants to test your platforming capabilities in the Astral Gates or some of the other challenges strewn about it can be annoying but if you dislike them that much they're mostly (if not all) optional.
I mentioned it earlier but the non-linearity in this game really is one of its strongsuits. I'd say I don't like exploring the world quite as much as I do something like Hollow Knight or Super Metroid, as admittedly there aren't many interesting setpieces across the world like there are in those games. That being said though, Lone Fungus does have many power ups scattered around both mandatory for completion and optional, which makes it worth your time. I can understand how someone could find the lack of direction frustrating, but like, you chose to play a Metroidvania. Isn't getting lost the point?
I'm bad at writing conclusions but basically Lone Fungus is just a good Metroidvania with more focus on platforming than you'd typically expect that I'd recommend to anyone who's into or wants to get into the genre.