The puzzles really pulled the experience down for me; They were never particularly difficult, nor imaginative, mostly just tedious with how much pushing those blocks needed to get them into the correct positions, and just how many times the same pattern had to be repeated. Some puzzles were also plain obtuse, making me resort to a walkthrough to finish the game, something I don't often do (then again, I don't often play games with such an abundance of puzzles).
The combat was fine, with a snappy dodge and a nice, simple string to be used by mashing square, though I found it strange how the main mechanic of stunning enemies and then needing to find a way to kill them was mostly made obsolete less than halfway through (not going to elaborate further for fear of spoilers).
The atmosphere was quite good, with sound design showcasing the upper limits of the Playstation. Playing it on an emulator on my phone due to not having access to any other gaming hardware, I was about as immersed as can be. Had it not been for the puzzles breaking up the pace of the game, it would have been a pretty enjoyable 5-or-so-hour experience. As is, I found a lot of the game to be a chore, to the point where I didn't even bother finding all the glyphs (surprising considering my affinity for exploration games like King's Field). Something about my reward for exploration being another tedious puzzle and an ability I would never use didn't quite tickle my fancy.
Overall, if you like puzzles and/or games with a thick atmosphere (as I do) I would recommend to at least check this game out. This game has at least made me curious about the rest of the series, so it's not exactly bad. However, the tedium of doing pushblock puzzles whilst enemies continuously spawn to beat you up and slow the process of pushing blocks down really wore down on me, pushing the game's rating down to just average.
The combat was fine, with a snappy dodge and a nice, simple string to be used by mashing square, though I found it strange how the main mechanic of stunning enemies and then needing to find a way to kill them was mostly made obsolete less than halfway through (not going to elaborate further for fear of spoilers).
The atmosphere was quite good, with sound design showcasing the upper limits of the Playstation. Playing it on an emulator on my phone due to not having access to any other gaming hardware, I was about as immersed as can be. Had it not been for the puzzles breaking up the pace of the game, it would have been a pretty enjoyable 5-or-so-hour experience. As is, I found a lot of the game to be a chore, to the point where I didn't even bother finding all the glyphs (surprising considering my affinity for exploration games like King's Field). Something about my reward for exploration being another tedious puzzle and an ability I would never use didn't quite tickle my fancy.
Overall, if you like puzzles and/or games with a thick atmosphere (as I do) I would recommend to at least check this game out. This game has at least made me curious about the rest of the series, so it's not exactly bad. However, the tedium of doing pushblock puzzles whilst enemies continuously spawn to beat you up and slow the process of pushing blocks down really wore down on me, pushing the game's rating down to just average.