This game practically came out of nowhere, a game made by Ubisoft? Who really cares, ah wait, Ubisoft Montpellier, the Rayman team? That's neat, never played those but it's a classic of a platforming series. Not really my cup of tea however.
Word of mouth from small online circles was the only way this game grabbed my attention, and boy was it some strong word of mouth, the kind that raises your eyebrows and your expectations.
And well, it ended up blowing past any expectations I held. An absolute showstopper of a game.

The movement and platforming starts off simple, but smooth and free flowing yet tight and responsive. From then on, in usual metroidvania fashion, it proceeds to provide new abilities alongside your progression. The platforming constantly and very organically evolves through the game, making use of every one of these abilities to never get stale, and most of these abilities end up being exceptionally creative and well utilized, finding use not just through platforming, but also through puzzles and combat.
Puzzles are also frequent and all great, taking genuine thinking and use of the toolkit to accomplish.

The combat system is simple at its core, but very satisfying and allows for immense freedom, through the various traditional attacks, context based sequences and followups, the capacity of juggle combos, and the numerous abilities it provides. Several options for both offense and defense and a pretty good enemy variety keeps it fun and satisfying all the way through.

And for all this, despite mostly being a puzzle/platforming metroidvania, it's not just the combat but the bosses too that set a very high bar. Not a single major boss goes by that feels like its tacked on. It's one of the best lineups a 2d game could provide.
Every "major" boss makes sure to take into account the abilities and skills your character has gained and are designed around those to make you utilize everything you have obtained and learned. Figuring out the best way to dodge and punish attacks feels almost like a puzzle itself, and on the highest/Immortal difficulty, these can be unexpectedly demanding fights, requiring a learning process to be beat.
The bosses are also generally very memorable setpieces, displaying unique, bombastic, anime-esque sequences for bigger attacks and finishers, which goes a long way for impact and presentation.

Impact and presentation, while high energy for bigger moments, feels somewhat characterless for quite a bit of the rest of the game however. It has its standout moments and areas but in general, the artstyle, while polished and pleasing to look at, lacks a distinct atmosphere or feel/vibe to it. It does for sure try to establish an atmosphere through its visuals, music (which is very good) and worldbuilding, but a lot of the lore drops felt like dry exposition rather than worldbuilding. The story too, a few interesting beats here and there, really just ends up being something to move the game forwards, unsubstantial and unsatisfying.
I do have to give credit where it's due, figuring out one of the major lore beats through a specific collectible was quite satisfying.

Overall though, the general atmosphere and presentation, and thus memorability of the game ends up as just decent with some pretty good parts to it. None of this is a major drawback though, as it's a game really, really good at being a great game. Every second provides something creatively designed, or something satisfying to play and overcome. A massive hit for sure.