It's...fine?
Exploration is sometimes fun because there's a lot of secrets to discover, especially if you're willing to just pay attention and also in respect to powers you acquire later for when you start backtracking in the world.
Platforming is fine sometimes, and other times it's a chore because some terrain blends in with the background or some areas are just a pain to go back through. You get to the end of a path, acquire something, and assuming you don't want to come back and get it again, you've got to get back to a save point and that can mean a lot of precision platforming that might be harder on the way back than it was getting there. Not terrible, but not exactly fun times.
Bosses are extremely underwhelming, despite being these huge things that should be really fun. In most cases, they're 1, 2, or 3-trick ponies and as soon as you understand what those tricks are, you can sleepwalk your way through the fights.
As an example, there's a boss that will spit out these root-like things that will embed themselves in the ground and come up, hoping to contact you to do damage. They always show up at the same places and there's never more than three. The only other attack it has is to dash toward you and attempt to "eat you" (overlap and cause damage), and it will only do that if you're too close. You can quite literally stand next to one of the roots, charge up a spell, and leap up (so you don't hit a root) and shoot it over and over without ever having to break a sweat. And even if you hit a root, it'll simply spit another one back out to replace it!
A lot of bosses have that feel I mentioned above -- just take your time and be methodical and the fight will easily go your way.
Fast travel is limited and roughly evenly spread out throughout the game (once you've unlocked it), but if you're interested in checking out the optional areas of the game, there's going to be a substantial amount of extra footwork involved because there's only five warp points in total.
The soundtrack is fine -- my favorite track out of the whole game is the Sunken Temple, which is a completely optional area you can skip/miss out on, which is a shame...that track needed more love.
Equipment is a mixed bag that basically amounts to the same amount of functionality as your platforming abilities from the controls -- clunky, occasionally fun and useful, and largely uninspiring.
The game definitely wears its 8-bit homage on its sleeve, since there's obvious references to the NES era -- the SMB-like curtain drop for some story scenes, the House of Ruth and Summon Falcon spell that reference "8 Eyes" (the falcon's name is Citrus, even!), a relic that lets you jump on goomba-like things, some obvious LoZ references, and even a terrible TMNT-like swim section with electric seaweed.
From a nostalgia standpoint, it's a good time. Outside of nostalgia, though, it's just a game that's got so many features that have been handled better by other games that have come before and after it. Good effort, but it's not going to be getting any Christmas cards from me this year (or ever).
Exploration is sometimes fun because there's a lot of secrets to discover, especially if you're willing to just pay attention and also in respect to powers you acquire later for when you start backtracking in the world.
Platforming is fine sometimes, and other times it's a chore because some terrain blends in with the background or some areas are just a pain to go back through. You get to the end of a path, acquire something, and assuming you don't want to come back and get it again, you've got to get back to a save point and that can mean a lot of precision platforming that might be harder on the way back than it was getting there. Not terrible, but not exactly fun times.
Bosses are extremely underwhelming, despite being these huge things that should be really fun. In most cases, they're 1, 2, or 3-trick ponies and as soon as you understand what those tricks are, you can sleepwalk your way through the fights.
As an example, there's a boss that will spit out these root-like things that will embed themselves in the ground and come up, hoping to contact you to do damage. They always show up at the same places and there's never more than three. The only other attack it has is to dash toward you and attempt to "eat you" (overlap and cause damage), and it will only do that if you're too close. You can quite literally stand next to one of the roots, charge up a spell, and leap up (so you don't hit a root) and shoot it over and over without ever having to break a sweat. And even if you hit a root, it'll simply spit another one back out to replace it!
A lot of bosses have that feel I mentioned above -- just take your time and be methodical and the fight will easily go your way.
Fast travel is limited and roughly evenly spread out throughout the game (once you've unlocked it), but if you're interested in checking out the optional areas of the game, there's going to be a substantial amount of extra footwork involved because there's only five warp points in total.
The soundtrack is fine -- my favorite track out of the whole game is the Sunken Temple, which is a completely optional area you can skip/miss out on, which is a shame...that track needed more love.
Equipment is a mixed bag that basically amounts to the same amount of functionality as your platforming abilities from the controls -- clunky, occasionally fun and useful, and largely uninspiring.
The game definitely wears its 8-bit homage on its sleeve, since there's obvious references to the NES era -- the SMB-like curtain drop for some story scenes, the House of Ruth and Summon Falcon spell that reference "8 Eyes" (the falcon's name is Citrus, even!), a relic that lets you jump on goomba-like things, some obvious LoZ references, and even a terrible TMNT-like swim section with electric seaweed.
From a nostalgia standpoint, it's a good time. Outside of nostalgia, though, it's just a game that's got so many features that have been handled better by other games that have come before and after it. Good effort, but it's not going to be getting any Christmas cards from me this year (or ever).