Watching my best friend playthrough hempuli's cursed block-pushing saga (cove-mount likes) continues to be a treat.
I'm specifically glad I wasn't the one playing for this one, because navigating the puzzle state is quite complex here. It seems like i would have gotten frustrated pretty fast.

Anyway, I'm blown away by the mechanic here, it's genius.
The most fascinating part is that you must move numbered blocks as a group. This simultaneously opens up the fascinating possibility space of multi-pushes while introducing a powerful constraint that makes you have to work even to do simple things.

My favorite level is the one that's entirely made out of 2 boxes- except for that one degree of freedom box. I love how deranged this is, it's amusing to imagine how confusing it would be out of context.

It also feels like a satisfying trial that divides the game, since the next level teaches you the secret of moving empty boxes. Using boxes as level walls was suspicious from the beginning, but i was still not prepared for how incredible this epiphany is. Stuff like this might be my favorite aspect of puzzle games.

Watching my best friend playthrough hempuli's cursed block-pushing saga (cove-mount likes) continues to be a treat.
I'm specifically glad I wasn't the one playing for this one, because navigating the puzzle state is quite complex here. It seems like i would have gotten frustrated pretty fast.

Anyway, I'm blown away by the mechanic here, it's genius.
The most fascinating part is that you must move numbered blocks as a group. This simultaneously opens up the fascinating possibility space of multi-pushes while introducing a powerful constraint that makes you have to work even to do simple things.

My favorite level is the one that's entirely made out of 2 boxes- except for that one degree of freedom box. I love how deranged this is, it's amusing to imagine how confusing it would be out of context.

It also feels like a satisfying trial that divides the game, since the next level teaches you the secret of moving empty boxes. Using boxes as level walls was suspicious from the beginning, but i was still not prepared for how incredible this epiphany is. Stuff like this might be my favorite aspect of puzzle games.

This game is quite pretty! The highlight is the gorgeous environments, shoutout especially to the clocktower, void, labyrinth, and of course the final vista.

and that's the only nice thing I have to say about this game! Wait, i like how you have to do a cute little dance animation to gather collectibles. Ok, that really is all I'm positive on.

The gameplay is mindless, the characters are uninteresting, there's no meaning for me to find in story... there's so little personality in everything except the visuals. I found myself wondering what the team member composition of this studio was right until i rolled the credits. Did the artists outnumber all the other roles 7:1???? Were any game designers thrown in a dungeon for speaking of the forbidden concept of fun?

I always hate seeing games make things like healing and bombs limited consumables (and worse you use freely from a menu that pauses gameplay). It's not like that matters here though, my rant about these mechanics is a waste of time in a world where enemies are this easy.
Combat is almost entirely spamming attack and skills as they go off cooldown, with the occasional need for the legendary "move out of the way" maneuver. Why did they even add the shield and stamina bar lol?

The game is short (which is something i always enjoy), but it's still padded through it's quest design. Don't worry, it doesn't get to the point where you are ever like "let me play the game agaain"... especially since the combat itself feels like padding anyway.

This game makes me appreciate the way levels in other games feel like places. Seeing the hedge maze in the background at the beginning made me quite excited to explore there. Jokes on me, it's actually just 3 rooms.
The other locations are pretty much like this too. This game has no sense of navigation or traversal. I'd be happy to see some games get away with that, here it just feels like a shame.

The more i think about it, the more i realize the non-visual components of the game are bad not because they are flawed or annoying, but because they are so utterly uninteresting. Bleh that's enough of writing this review, i'm not built to be negative on games