Probably not the best time to write down my thoughts since I'm still pretty frustrated with the game's seemingly endless final level which completely halted the pacing I'd experienced for the past 20 hours in favor of repeated exposition dumps and cinematics to finally wrap up and explain its confounding story. I know that many resonate with the tale deeply but I just didn't, though I can wholeheartedly respect the presentation of mental health themes and family issues throughout the game. The characters look incredible and the voice acting is outstanding. Their personalities are quirky and cute, always entertaining.

Level design is where the game shines the most just in terms of visual splendor and sheer creativity. The themes are not really explored through the gameplay mechanics usually so you're often just doing the same things over and over but the look of the level will serve as a metaphor. I was torn on these because some felt tedious while others had me completely enamored and I never wanted then to end. The platforming is simple and effective. The combat is... not great. Using powers is fun but and I enjoyed the arsenal of them but melee was terrible when it came to lack of character movement. It just isn't snappy and combined with a large amount of enemies and projectiles on screen it can get frustrating trying to maneuver. I didn't hate the battles but they certainly were less interesting to me than just exploring the worlds hunting down collectibles, of which there are thankfully many to find.

I'm glad that I spent the time to go through this game and I understand why many love it considerably more than I do. I just think back to the polish of something like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart from a gameplay perspective and I can't say this is in that league. Again, major points for creativity and uniquely exploring important themes, it's just not handled in a way that resonated super deeply with me and nothing else stood out as particularly special.