Odallus is a fun and great looking and sounding melee based metroidvania but it's brought down by sloppy controls and boss fights that are overreliant on environmental modifiers that hamper your controls such as strong wind, water current and so on, which turn otherwise entertaining encounters into exercises in frustration. There is nothing fun in timing your jump correctly to get out of a boss' attack area and seeing your character fail to grab onto a ledge or get shifted out of the way at the last second by a random gust of wind. Similarly not fun is failing trial & error Donkey Kong Country-style minecart sections over and over again in what's easily the worst level in the game.

Having no map is also a considerable issue, especially when hunting for the game's well-hidden pickups or the exits to the (mandatory!) secret levels: you might think the tunnel you are overlooking is the same you've gone in several times already, instead it's a completely different one that looks identical and is nearby, causing confusion. However, the game does give you a Ghouls and Ghosts-style area progression screen which tells you how many secrets are left in each stage, so you're not entirely left stumbling around in the dark.

Worth playing for fans of the genre on account of the great sense of exploration and rewarding upgrades, but it could have been much better with a bit of polish.