What a delightful little game, and a marked improvement over Luna Nights. There is, however, not a lot to say about this one. It's just a very solid, very enjoyable SOTN clone and that's about it. Plays and looks like SOTN, but very well-made with smooth combat that feels very familiar without feeling like a hollow ripoff, interesting and rewarding exploration with genuinely good equipment to be found in secret passages, as well as cool aesthetics and fantastic pixel animation. This one's not going to blow any minds as far as originality is concerned, but it's an easy must-play in the SOTN-style subcategory of metroidvanias. There's a flaw or two, of course, and some might argue that the game's length is one of them, but I find it refreshing that you can completely 100% this game in like a dozen hours and the short runtime allows me to not really care that maybe inventory management isn't ideal. Get in, enjoy some very solid metroidvania action, out before it gets old. Hope these guys make more, even bigger and better, metroidvanias!
Okay, actually, I will add one major complaint: this game is way too easy. I cheesed almost all of the bosses on my first attempt by just keeping one of my spirit skills at level 3 and using it exclusively to heal, which makes sense if you try the game, while using the boss attacks to refill my magic and constantly spamming magic attacks. It's kind of a joke how easily this game design can be completely broken with obvious tactics. I don't personally hate easy games, though, so it didn't take away much for me and I'm just noting it in case someone reads this. I actually really enjoyed that this game and dev team is focused on opportunities and not limitations. In a post-Dark Souls world, it feels like every game is obsessed with punishment and this game just lets you do cool shit without being too concerned about difficulty. I like it.
Seems like I can't even complain about this one without turning that paragraph into a positive, so I guess that means I very much enjoyed this game. I can muster one final complaint, though; if you care about story, but haven't seen the anime, you will have no clue what's going on. This game is a sidestory for fans of the anime and it does not concern itself one bit with explaining itself to people who haven't seen it. This is not one of those side stories you can enjoy without knowing the main story because it's nothing but what seem to be callbacks and references and the story does not stand on its own. I guess Deedlit was in love with some dude named Parn, he died and this game is basically her dealing with his death? Luckily for me, I couldn't care less about the plot in a game like this, so it didn't matter for me, but story hounds beware. I'll just end this paragraph, and the review, by repeating that this game is great and any metroidvania fan, especially SOTN fans, should play it immediately.
Okay, actually, I will add one major complaint: this game is way too easy. I cheesed almost all of the bosses on my first attempt by just keeping one of my spirit skills at level 3 and using it exclusively to heal, which makes sense if you try the game, while using the boss attacks to refill my magic and constantly spamming magic attacks. It's kind of a joke how easily this game design can be completely broken with obvious tactics. I don't personally hate easy games, though, so it didn't take away much for me and I'm just noting it in case someone reads this. I actually really enjoyed that this game and dev team is focused on opportunities and not limitations. In a post-Dark Souls world, it feels like every game is obsessed with punishment and this game just lets you do cool shit without being too concerned about difficulty. I like it.
Seems like I can't even complain about this one without turning that paragraph into a positive, so I guess that means I very much enjoyed this game. I can muster one final complaint, though; if you care about story, but haven't seen the anime, you will have no clue what's going on. This game is a sidestory for fans of the anime and it does not concern itself one bit with explaining itself to people who haven't seen it. This is not one of those side stories you can enjoy without knowing the main story because it's nothing but what seem to be callbacks and references and the story does not stand on its own. I guess Deedlit was in love with some dude named Parn, he died and this game is basically her dealing with his death? Luckily for me, I couldn't care less about the plot in a game like this, so it didn't matter for me, but story hounds beware. I'll just end this paragraph, and the review, by repeating that this game is great and any metroidvania fan, especially SOTN fans, should play it immediately.