This game really impressed me, especially for a game made in less than a year, it's really impressive that they managed to make the bones of this game feel so fantastic. I loved unlocking each power up and watching all my movement open up one by one. The movement captured my imagination, and when I was able to use it in fun and interesting ways, I had such a good time. The music, the atmosphere, the graphical style, it all clicked into a package that only got better and better as I got power ups.

Although that is the case, I found this game hitting all my weak spots when it comes to playing games. I get lost, a lot. Even in linear games, I seem to miss details that have me searching for 30 minutes looking for the one button I have to hit, or one box I'm supposed to attack. It's really frustrating and something that I experience a lot. I feel Pseuregalia really exacerbated this for me.

There were many times I was exploring, and I would get lost due to the pace of movement and the actual way the maps were designed. I would find a spot that I needed a power up for, and would keep it in mind. Once I found that power up, I went ahead and tried to retrace my steps back to the place I remembered, only to be left almost never being able to find it. It was a really tiring experience after a while, not ever being able to find out where I needed to go, and I spent a long portion of my time wandering around, hoping I would find the thing I needed. I would say I spent about 65% of my time playing wandering, and I think I took a lot longer on this game than many other people did because of it.

I think one way this could be alleviated is if there was more focused visual design and level design. In many ways, I think the maps are really excellently designed. I found myself pushing my moveset to the max and finding ways to get up ledges earlier than felt intended, which was really fun. It felt cool to 'break' the game in this way and be rewarded with early power ups and stuff. It made me really happy.

On the other hand, I feel as though the level design kinda melded together, many of the areas aside from the music kinda blended together, as there are 3 castle areas and the underground area is so expansive and samey looking you can get lost waaaay too easily, which led to me running in circles over and over again. I wish each level had more unique visual design and landmarks to help me orient myself more, it would be very very helpful and would make it so a map feature wouldn't even be needed.

I think a map would be an easier fix for it, but I appreciate it doesn't have a map atm. I'm pretty sure it's getting an update to add one, which I guess will fix my main hangup with the game, but I feel it's a bandaid on a bigger problem.

I think this game is an excellent start, and I hope it can be expanded on in a sequel, because the bones here are mindblowingly cool.

Imported from my Backloggery:

This game is definitely my favorite of 2017. Though it may not be for everyone, the gameplay is simple and tight, yet surprisingly deep and challenging. On the story end, all of the characters are lovable and well designed. Though there is conflict in the plot, it never gets so caught up in the negative to ever stop being pleasant and lighthearted. My only issues are the poor combat animations and the sometimes generic art style. This game never stops being pleasant and happy.