One of the greatest games I have ever played.

Incredibly creative game design and puzzles. Has an amazing sense of discovery, including some of the biggest A-ha moments in gaming.

Visually beautiful, and the soundtrack is great.

I've seen many people complain about the combat. I did not think it was much of an issue. I am used to playing souls games, so maybe I am just more used to managing a stamina bar than most people. I did find that some bosses I had to adopt a very specific strategy to beat . E.g. get very close and hold shield most of the time, or always be o the boss's backside. Others I was only able to beat with the use of certain mana consuming items the player may not find. But I think the level of difficulty adds the games atmosphere and makes the puzzles more interesting. If there were no combat, I suspect many puzzle solutions would be more obvious, since all areas would exist only for the sake of puzzles. With combat, an area may have a puzzle, or it may just be a combat challenge. This allows many things to be hidden in plain sight. There was one late game boss that I was only able to beat using nearly all of my consumable items. I would have been stuck for a very long time if I had used those items and did not beat the boss in that run.

There were only 3 puzzles I remember that had unsatisfying solutions.