It very successfully pulls off the "survival horror game in the guise of an RPG" thing. Like other reviews have said, I'm sure if I read a walkthrough for long enough I'd get a better understanding of this game's mechanics, the ways you can actually start surviving, etc. I did some of that at the start, in terms of learning that apparently in order to have a fighting chance in this game there's a hidden requirement to pick the starting choices that give you the dash skill. There's more things that can just be learned from trial and error (and/or a walkthrough), like what parts of each map aren't randomly generated and what things you should pick up every playthrough, what parts of each enemy are the best to attack, when in combat you should guard, when talking to an enemy will actually give you something, etc. But figuring all those things out manually takes a lot of time, and learning them from a walkthrough wrecks the game's atmosphere. Eventually I would probably start having fun.
I'm going to make an unusual comparison to the weird, artistic PS2 game Chulip. In Chulip, you take damage from doing just about anything, save points are unrefined, and trying to figure out what to do requires a lot of intuition (aka a good internet connection), time, and patience, as Chulip's save points are only a little bit more forgiving than this game's. Chulip is trying to make the point that in order to see the world, you have to be willing to be hurt. Chulip overdoes it in this matter, because it's very likely that rather than be hurt now and then you'll just get oneshot by something you can't even predict happening. This has the effect of making the game feel like pulling teeth, making any action with an unpredictable result feel like a bad gamble, that it'd be safer to engage with as little of the game as possible.
Where I'm going with that little tangent is that F&H's unforgiving nature makes it similarly difficult to actually want to interact with the game. Sure, I could spend time poking around every corner, clicking every option for Talk, trying to see every result of every choice I make. But when the overwhelming likelihood is that I'm just gonna die, or lose my limbs, and lose my progress all over again, why should I? It feels like punching every brick in a wall until I find the one that opens up a secret door.
Still, it's good horror. I like the game's art a lot, and when you aren't hung up on the end and are more focused on the journey itself, it can be fun to play. Recommended to anyone who likes survival horror and doesn't mind a game that wants you to figure out a lot of things yourself.
I'm going to make an unusual comparison to the weird, artistic PS2 game Chulip. In Chulip, you take damage from doing just about anything, save points are unrefined, and trying to figure out what to do requires a lot of intuition (aka a good internet connection), time, and patience, as Chulip's save points are only a little bit more forgiving than this game's. Chulip is trying to make the point that in order to see the world, you have to be willing to be hurt. Chulip overdoes it in this matter, because it's very likely that rather than be hurt now and then you'll just get oneshot by something you can't even predict happening. This has the effect of making the game feel like pulling teeth, making any action with an unpredictable result feel like a bad gamble, that it'd be safer to engage with as little of the game as possible.
Where I'm going with that little tangent is that F&H's unforgiving nature makes it similarly difficult to actually want to interact with the game. Sure, I could spend time poking around every corner, clicking every option for Talk, trying to see every result of every choice I make. But when the overwhelming likelihood is that I'm just gonna die, or lose my limbs, and lose my progress all over again, why should I? It feels like punching every brick in a wall until I find the one that opens up a secret door.
Still, it's good horror. I like the game's art a lot, and when you aren't hung up on the end and are more focused on the journey itself, it can be fun to play. Recommended to anyone who likes survival horror and doesn't mind a game that wants you to figure out a lot of things yourself.