I loved the story modes in the Touhou fighting games with how the Spell Cards turned each fighter into a full-on boss fight, when I heard about what this game was going to be I was super excited and playing it was a joy

It really is those story mode modes converted into a actual boss rush, it doesn't try to be like a per-establish genre of game beyond the elements they already were borrowing, it just, takes the essence of a fighting game, and makes it work as a single player action game

You still get multiple characters, each with a moveset that's easy to memorize, something like to a copy ability in Kirby, except that the extent of how their moves and stats change to one another makes them all feel so different that it demands you to change your playstyle and how you fight bosses. It's the fighting game essence, but with more approachable learning curve

This was the first time in a long while that I felt wowed by game design rather than something like "good job, you got a A" or "oh I see what you did there"