Feels a bit amateurish in a lot of ways, like a lot of ideas were only halfway implemented. Map design is all over the place, repetitive, and feels illogical. Doesn't feel bad to play when you're in the action sections, but far too much of the game is spent wandering corridors wondering where you're supposed to go next, only to find out there's a wall you can walk through (not signposted, telegraphed, or otherwise hinted at anywhere). There is only one of those in the game, but given that it had me lost for 10 minutes in a game with a total runtime of probably around an hour, that's significant.
Worth playing on the NSO SNES emulator, or some other emulator with rewinds or save states. I wouldn't bother slogging through this without those.
Maybe not a "hidden gem", but at the very least a "hidden cool rock".