I know there's a lot going on in this game beyond my experience with it because I had to look at some guides and see just how much I missed.
The most important thing to state about this game is that it's hard. Very hard. You could mitigate this by messing with the Accessibility options to give yourself invincibility and/or infinite jumps to pad the difficulty, but I'd recommend at least trying to get through areas until you're feeling absolutely stuck by some of the platforming/Castlevania-ish feel before considering messing with these things, because I feel like the devs really went out of their way to try and ease you into each ability learned or hazard presented as naturally as possible.
There's a morality system that's mostly interesting, albeit minorly frustrating because it's sometimes less than obvious as to which choice you should make if you're trying to play good or evil with your character. This can be a problem if you're like me because you thought that sparing a particular character might have been a good thing, but it ended up being a negative action further down the line that locked me out of further quests in order to get the best Good-Aligned ending. Whoops!
Bosses were mostly a great time (including some of the optionals I got to fight), though I could do without Alastor, The Hopeless -- and the infinite platforming while VERY SLOWLY whittling my way through that fight.
Money gains feel more grindy than experience gains, but maybe that's just me. All items feel like they're worth the grind in the end, though -- every bit of power or magic or healing slots or whatnot feels like it counts.
MINOR SPOILER NOTE START
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Music's solid, the obvious nods to the games that inspired it are wonderful, the secret endings are a fun time to get (consider sleeping five times in a row in the first inn when you unlock the ability to do so), and there's even alternate / secret characters to play as (try the Konami code on the title screen when you're done playing the regular game).
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MINOR SPOILER NOTE END
20 bucks on Steam feels like a reasonable price for the content I haven't even gotten to touch in the game yet, though I feel like a guide is mandatory if you're intending to unlock some of the endings, because it really is that easy to get locked into a mistake, especially once you unlock this game's equivalent of Fast Travel and discover some particular quests that you must decide on the spot to undertake or not.
On sale, the game would be a steal for anyone looking for a challenging platformer throwback with creative boss fights and that massive nostalgia creep. If you don't mind slamming your head against some brick wall difficulty moments, this is a gem that should not be overlooked. I might have to revise my nominees for 2022 games on here.
The most important thing to state about this game is that it's hard. Very hard. You could mitigate this by messing with the Accessibility options to give yourself invincibility and/or infinite jumps to pad the difficulty, but I'd recommend at least trying to get through areas until you're feeling absolutely stuck by some of the platforming/Castlevania-ish feel before considering messing with these things, because I feel like the devs really went out of their way to try and ease you into each ability learned or hazard presented as naturally as possible.
There's a morality system that's mostly interesting, albeit minorly frustrating because it's sometimes less than obvious as to which choice you should make if you're trying to play good or evil with your character. This can be a problem if you're like me because you thought that sparing a particular character might have been a good thing, but it ended up being a negative action further down the line that locked me out of further quests in order to get the best Good-Aligned ending. Whoops!
Bosses were mostly a great time (including some of the optionals I got to fight), though I could do without Alastor, The Hopeless -- and the infinite platforming while VERY SLOWLY whittling my way through that fight.
Money gains feel more grindy than experience gains, but maybe that's just me. All items feel like they're worth the grind in the end, though -- every bit of power or magic or healing slots or whatnot feels like it counts.
MINOR SPOILER NOTE START
------------------------------------------------
Music's solid, the obvious nods to the games that inspired it are wonderful, the secret endings are a fun time to get (consider sleeping five times in a row in the first inn when you unlock the ability to do so), and there's even alternate / secret characters to play as (try the Konami code on the title screen when you're done playing the regular game).
-------------------------------------
MINOR SPOILER NOTE END
20 bucks on Steam feels like a reasonable price for the content I haven't even gotten to touch in the game yet, though I feel like a guide is mandatory if you're intending to unlock some of the endings, because it really is that easy to get locked into a mistake, especially once you unlock this game's equivalent of Fast Travel and discover some particular quests that you must decide on the spot to undertake or not.
On sale, the game would be a steal for anyone looking for a challenging platformer throwback with creative boss fights and that massive nostalgia creep. If you don't mind slamming your head against some brick wall difficulty moments, this is a gem that should not be overlooked. I might have to revise my nominees for 2022 games on here.