I'm kinda blown away I hadn't played this before.
I loved Demon's Crest when I played it a few years ago, but this game may actually be a tighter expierence.
The platforming is so deliberate and satisfying. Whenever you have to make a precise jump with your flying ability, it feels amazing. The way they utilize the vertical space in their levels is genius.
The abilities you get all feel really useful actually. Even the last blob orb thing you get, despite it only being used on the final stage, is one of the most memorable abilities you get.
The boss fights are a little easy, but pretty satisfying to calculate that vertical angle, and just wail on.
I think the dicest part of the expierence was the overworld RPG stuff. I kinda winced when I started the game and saw this, but I wasn't too annoyed with it. It really doesn't add much to expierence besides some padding and really uneeded world-building, if I'm being honest. But pretty inoffensive. I ended up using a Youtube playthrough a few times just to alleviate some wondering around, since it's "hints" on how to proceed aren't exactly spelling it out for you somtimes.
But I didn't feel too bad about it, since the platforming was what I was mainly here for.
The music and ESPECIALLY its visuals are so good.
Seriously this is probably the slickest looking NES game I've ever seen. Firebrands sprite looks incredible. Would have throught this was a Genesis game if you showed me a screenshot.
Overall; i love this game. Easily up there with some of my favorite NES games like Blaster Master and Mega Man 6.
I guess I'm playing this backwards, so I'll be sure to try the original when I get a chance.

Blown away by this game. Clever, confident and insanely unique. The mechanics demand a lot from the player, but feel so good to learn because of it. The game suffers from some "jank" because of these loosey-goosey physics and mechanics, but I think it's a trade-off I'm ok with. For every weird angle I wasn't expecting, or collision the game didn't know how to handle, there were at least 100 moments where I was smiling like an idiot after pulling off some kind of crazy maneuver. All while feeling as if the game was inviting me to figure out how to pull them off. The level design has enough leeway to let it feel as if you're sequence breaking; while at the same time feeling as if that was their plan all along.

My playthrough was pretty casual, really only ever hitting one or two "point pars" by the end of the stage. And not worrying too much about collecting all of the collectables and missions. So my opinion on how much the "jank" is holding it back may change if I choose to 100% this game.
I really enjoyed this way of experiencing the game. And never felt too pressured to put more time or effect than I was. Which I was appreciating. A game with the ability to balance it's "casual" and "hardcore" experience without resorting to an easy/hard mode is always admirable.

I can't stress this enough; visually this game is a masterpiece. It has to be one of my new all-time favorite LOOKING games. The style is so confident and fun. The very "early 90s abstract prerendered looking" artstyle is so well done. Colors are so well chosen. The gradients on all of the textures are so meticulously tweaked to be so pleasing to the eyes. And the animation and effects on everything is so snappy and satisfying to compliment the mechanics. Just so damn appealing to look at, constantly. Music was really great too, but that is a given considering the composer.
I think my major issues were performance issues on PC and the cutscenes and bosses feeling very "unfinished".
Audio was out of sync. They were missing sfx. And I swear they all had these weird pixel artifacts. Truthfully, I started skipping them near the end. I wasn't really invested in whatever story they had going on. It was cute, but the cutscenes weren't exactly entertaining... and I just wanted to keep playing the game lol

The bosses felt extremely safe and boring. Only one really had me excited while fighting them. But even then, it wasn't anything super special. Just really basic, wait for the opening boss design. If it was up to me, I would have just omitted them all-together.

There was so much shared passion I felt with this experience. I was having a blast, and it felt like a piece of art that was a blast to make. Which is something I'm growing to put a lot of value in with video games these days.

So, I went through this series backwards, starting with Demon's Crest.
And while this game is great; I do think the games iterate on eachother really well.
I'm still pretty blown away how many ideas started in this one though. Everything is so solid and feels really good to play. Going in, I thought it'd feel like the series didn't hit its stride until the NES game. But nope, this game's in full stride, baby!
It's honestly kinda amazing how similar the NES game is to this one. If I didn't know any better, I would have assumed this was like the GB version of that NES game. Something akin to the Mega Man GB games.
The biggest difference is the pacing. This game is much more linear. But to pad out the length they have random encounters on the overworld... which sucked. The vials you get from them are not that useful and they end up feeling more work than their work, really fast. Especially considering the annoying fanfare everytime you defeat, sometimes, a single enemy in these encounters. Even so, it's a pretty comfortable length and difficultly, which I appreciated. Never got stuck on how to proceed like the NES game, and never got frustratingly sick of it like other games of this era. It's just so impressively well done considering it came out 35 years ago. It's probably one of the best Gameboy games out there.

I could probably write a novel about this game and how much its connected with me.
The excellence in every aspect of its storytelling.
How it's the only MMORPG I can remotely stomach.
Or how the community and developers have one of the healthiest relationships I've ever seen in an online game, let alone one THIS big.
But I'm sure you already know all that if you're reading this.
The only reason this isn't getting 5 stars is because this amazing experience is still trapped in an MMO. A genre that demands time, money and patience. And a lot of all three of those things.

Pretty dang good like, god damn. Especially for a gameboy game. This might be the most impressive GB game I've played.
It could be kinda cryptic sometimes, but overall, really well paced!
The dungeon design was so crazy satisfying. I mised tight, focused 2D zelda dungeons.
The Eagle dungeon was like a brain massage, it was awesome.
The story and how it wraps up is so cool too.
I knew elements of the story going in, but had no idea how it played out. Really introspective and bittersweet feelings to evoke through a
Gameboy game.
I really wish this was a game I had as a kid.

Wowie wowie, this was so good.
I don't know where this game came from, but I'm glad I stumbled upon it because it may be one of my new favorite indie 3D platformers.
First off; this game is RIDICULOUSLY fluid to move around in. Your moveset is deliberately limited in super clever ways. You never wish you had more movement options, because there are so many things you can do with the few moves you have. Not a single platforming death felt cheap. It encouraged me to understand the physics and master them. Just masterfully done.
The game's structure is strange, but I really dig it. The game is basically one big Banjo-Kazooie-esq world with a TON to do. You only have a few things to collect, but they all feel like such an accomplishment when you find one. The EXP as a collectable is a cute mix-up. It functions fundamentally the same as Music Notes in Banjo. But them NOT being an object to see that single number go up, delivers a waaay different kind of satisfaction. It's pretty smart. Besides the big open world Owl level, you have a few little platforming challenges throughout, and a decent gauntlet towards the end. I can't stress enough how AMAZING that final gauntlet felt. It's been a while since I've played 3D platforming level-design THIS good.
The only grips I have with the game are one; before the final platforming challenge, there's a pretty lame boss fight. But it isn't very hard, just quite a bit of waiting around.
And the game only having one level, while a cool idea, ends up feeling a little small in scope. This may not be a bad thing to some. But I find myself loving the surprises that come from exploring new worlds in these kinds of games. I would have preferred something like three smaller worlds. Even so, the way this game chooses to pace itself is very unique and provides a very comfortably small experience.
The visuals are also worth mentioning, they are so stupidly well done. It is, at first glace an N64 game. But once you see it in motion, it's obvious they didn't limit themselves 100% with this illusion. The animation is insanely smooth, the worlds are huge and the game runs at a really smooth... 30fps lol. I know this is a point of contention for some, but I didn't mind at all. The game didn't make me WISH it was in 60fps. It was fine. It defenitly helped I played this on my CRT. Highly recommend if you're able to. It felt perfect for it. Thank god it wasn't emulating the slow down a game of this size would have had on that fuckin' system.
Anyways, this game is excellent. Super excellent. It's less than $10 and worth every penny. We need more games like this. Oozing with passion and skill. It's confident and doesn't over-stay it's welcome.