Excellent visuals and music, but the mediocre story and poorly paced gameplay leave something to be desired. The opening few hours are very slow to get rolling, with a lot of very simple platforming. Once additional skills/magic are unlocked the combat opens up quite a bit and becomes a lot more engaging. Many of the levels are just a bit too long, and although the enemy design is very appropriate they are reused enough that combat can feel like a bit of a grind later in the game. Exploring is fun and the rewards are appropriately satisfying, but I wish obtaining the "secret" items was a bit more challenging, if not harder to find. Although SNES-era platformers are successfully evoked, the design is overall nowhere near as tight as something like Shovel Knight. It's a beautiful homage, but arbitrary design choices hold it back from being a great game.

I really wanted to like this, but the game feel is just off.

Flynn is so slow in comparison to every enemy you encounter. You move slow. You charge magic slow. You swing your sword slow. The result is that combat never feels fun. It's never outright bad, but it only seems to range from tedious to frustrating.

It's a shame because it's otherwise a well made game. It looks great, sounds great, and runs great. I just wish it played great too.