"I had to kill him... so why do I feel like I made a terrible mistake?"

After nearly 100 hours of playtime and even more to come, this has easily become one of my favorite roguelikes of all time. Each survivor feels completely distinct and unique from one another, and they all have something fun to offer you, which is definitely something I find that some other roguelikes do poorly in comparison. I especially enjoy the way Pilot's kit focuses on movement and verticality, as well as how much Miner's Heat meter emphasizes that sort of "rush-in-go-beast" playstyle that I love so much.

This game provides a few different very welcome challenges. Dodging and weaving through and around hordes of enemies is not a particularly easy feat in a 2D environment, so the game rewards smart on-the-fly changing of tactics and positioning while (sometimes very brutally) punishing your mistakes, whether they're greedy or otherwise. That emphasis on clearing stages and collecting items in a timely manner to combat the encroaching difficulty also ensures you never feel too safe or comfortable. This makes items feel much more impactful to get, as they can sometimes be few and far between, which makes sure you don't immediately start snowballing passive effects and blowing everything in your path away. However, the game absolutely does let you mow through things as your run progresses, especially if you decide to start looping through old levels instead of going to the last one. And even outside of snowballing, this game has some really fun and fluid synergies between items and different characters.

Speaking of levels, this game is nothing short of beautiful, with some of the best pixel art and art direction I've seen yet. I really love how the credits scroll through side-by-side comparisons of each enemy's original and newly made sprites, showing that nearly every single one of them has had their design entirely revisited and expanded upon rather than simply being redrawn. This game doesn't only look beautiful, though; it sounds beautiful, too. I know everyone is always singing the praises to Chris Christodoulou and his music, but none of it is unwarranted in any way. 'Double Fucking Rainbow Returns' and 'Coalescence Returns' are my two absolute standout favorites of the entire soundtrack, but the rest of the level and boss themes are great, too.

There's not a whole lot to work with here narratively, as even though there are a substantial amount of log entries for items and survivors alike, they're mostly there just for flavor text and/or minor worldbuilding. However, even despite this, Providence manages to be quite a memorable and compelling character (at least in my opinion). The game's narrative is primarily told through the unlockable enemy and environment logs, written by the player as they document their experiences of making it through a hostile and unfamiliar planet. These are very well-written, and the accompanying art of each enemy really gives them a lot more personality and context in-universe that would otherwise be impossible to express using the resolution the game is played at. Taking a step back and looking past the surface after beating the game and reading through the enemy logs can really make you think, especially Providence's.

All of my criticisms of this game are pretty minor all things considered, but I think they're still worth noting. Providence Trials are a very fun and interesting way of teaching players about abilities and game mechanics as they unlock them. However, while most of these are fun and neat, I did find some of them overtly tedious and just not very fun to accomplish. The same can be said about a few non-trial achievements; many of them will be unlocked naturally just by playing through runs as different survivors, but there are a standout few that are just tedious or too luck-dependent. On top of this, some of the hardest or most annoying challenges in the game have particularly unimpressive unlock rewards in comparison. This isn't always the case, however, as I think the unlocks behind plenty of other hard achievements are absolutely worth it, such as the unlocks for Shattering Justice and Ancient Scepter. One last very minor criticism: the only enemy redesign I dislike is the Imp Overlord. The main design goal of the Imp Overlord is to be frightening; its log entry even starts off with a frightened "Oh, why me?" However, I think its central eye is way too overly detailed in its redesign, to a point that I don't find its gaze particularly piercing anymore the same way the original design did. However, this is quite literally the only single problem I have with this game visually, and it's about the redesign of one single minor boss.

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Providence
FAVORITE BOSS: Providence
FAVORITE SONG: 'Coalescence Returns..'

tl;dr risk of rain returns is awesome and i think you should play it

i think this is the first in-depth game review ive made before it was fun i will try to make my next one more condensed and concise

I never played the original, but I am a massive Risk of Rain 2 fan, so I gave the remake a try, and although I do not have many hours yet and have only beaten the final boss once, I still wanted to write this review. 

To start with, the visuals are a massive upgrade with the details that were added, making the pixel art lovely to look at. And Chris Christodoulou, the composer, came back to remake the soundtrack, and my god, he is underrated. The OST slaps so hard. Anyway, the actual game itself is where I may be a bit more critical. Unlike its sequel, this game is 2D, and it can be hard to see in a way. In RoR2, you can see farther because it's 3D compared to this game, where I have to scour the land more, which takes longer and makes the game harder as the difficulty increases over time. The game also feels slower and more restrained compared to its sequel, where one of the main reasons why I and almost everyone else love it is because it lets you become an agent of chaos, demolishing everything in your path. I am assuming Hopoo wanted you to be an actual survivor, so you have to fight and scratch more. I am also comparing the two games instead of judging the game on its own, but what I am trying to say is basically that Risk of Rain Returns did not give me an addiction like RoR2 did.

Bottom line: Perchance of Drizzle Comes Back is a great game with stunning visuals and a baller soundtrack, and though the gameplay does not do it for me as RoR2 did, it is still a competent game.