This game is a masterpiece, clearly a hidden gem considering how little spotlight it had and how poorly it sold. Really a shame!
Phoenotopia looks amazing, I couldn't help myself but take dozens of screenshots while I was playing. Last time I did that was when I played Gris.

The gameplay is simply fantastic, there are tons of smart interactions in the game design, the puzzles really test your spatial perception: whether it's activating a switch by angling your slingshot the right way, using projectiles to knock moonstones off their platform, piling up boxes and bombs to gain barely enough height to reach a platform, or completing parkour sections full of arrow traps with well synchronized jumps.
The puzzles where you need to play the correct song with your flute gave me Zelda Ocarina of Time vibes. I liked how musical notes were often hidden in the background, and I had to spot them to know what I would need to play with the bandit's flute.
The GEO dungeons especially had really different kinds of puzzles. One time you'll have to solve a jigsaw puzzle, the next time it'll be a sliding picture puzzle, then it will involve switching lights in the correct order. There's even a puzzle similar to sudoku.
The game always managed to hold my attention with all its brainteasers.

Cooking mechanic is based on reaction time, it's simple and engaging. I noticed there was a frying pan on display in the Antique Shop near Daea city, but I never managed to obtain it during my playthrough. I suppose it would have modified the cooking minigame in a certain way?
Btw, I like how we immediatly drop cooked meat when we kill a mob/animal with an explosion (bomb or spear). Pretty cool that they thought about that!

The Gear Ring allows you to quickly switch up between 8 different items, it's always a good thing to have a weapon wheel in any game I play. It's very ergonomic and it saved me a lot of time from navigating through the menus.
And I'm thankful that we can use all our weapons as much as we want, without having to worry about ammo.

It's very satisfying when you struggle while exploring an area for the 1st time, having to use your gear in a clever way, dealing with all the enemies and barely surviving. And then when you revisit the same area later in the game with a new ability, you can make it through in a much simpler way. The abilities that you get for traversal exploration are really game-changing. I was so excited to backtrack everytime I got a new one.

Phoenotopia Awakening is very charming, and has a lot of light-hearted moments. I never got tired of listening to "Merry Fellowship" everytime Gail came back to her hometown after a mission, checking in with her brothers & sisters to see if they're okay. The game even manages to be funny sometimes. For example, when Gail and Fran use the teleporter for the 1st time, and Gail thinks Fran died during the teleportation as she watches the pile of dust on the ground, only for Fran to reappear out of nowhere with a big smile on her face.
The game also managed to do the exact opposite on several occasions. I was very anxious during that moment in EDEN's Lab, when you're quietly exploring the rooms and reading notes about those harpys in their stasis chamber. As you progress, you suddently hear glass breaking, and when you turn around, you notice all the harpys broke out.

Those moments, whether tense or joyful, are always accompanied by excellent music. My personal favorites are "Merry/Mellow Fellowship", "Boss battle", "The White Towers", "Katash's theme", "Wheat Road" and "Caves of Mul".

You can't put markers on a map to remember points of interest. So I had to write down informations on a notepad regularly to not get lost and not forget things like treasure chests, entrances to dungeons, or song stones. There are tons of stuff to do and optional content, so having a quest log and a map available at all times would have been useful, but it was definitely manageable without it.

I loved the last part of the game that consists of 3 Boss fights back-to-back. The first one against Mother Computer was the most challenging fight in the entire game. Then you have this amazing showdown with your own shadows, and finally the duel vs Katash.
I have to say this last battle felt a bit anticlimactic. I had encountered Adam earlier in the lab, and I thought I would have to fight this thing, but instead it was a second duel with Katash.
I'm pretty sure (and I hope) that I will have to fight Adam when I'll come back to this game to get the true ending, and I can't wait for it.

I unlocked the first ending after 60 hours with a completion of 62%. I played enough and I don't want to push myself, so I won't go for 100%. However, I will surely come back to this game in a few months to do some more things. Notably exploring Aurantia, beating Katash' 2nd encounter, and accessing the locked room at the top of Pristine City to fight Phalanx.

I don't know how they did it, but the game was never boring, never frustrating, never too hard, never too easy, never repetitive, never bad. There was the right amount of everything: fights, exploration, puzzles and platforming.
Really, as I said earlier, the only thing that people could have a problem with is that it can be difficult to keep track of everything. But it's really not that big of a deal if you pay attention, and of course if you write things down on a notepad or a piece of paper.

This is why I give this game a perfect score. This is one of the best games I've played this year! I'm still a bit salty that this game is so unknown...

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Started on September 25th & finished on October 8th 2023]
Playtime: 60 hours
I stopped after getting the first ending, when Gail manages to free all the Phoenix so they can help Humans defend themselves against the alien invasion.
I got a 62% completion.