This is one of those games where you have to spend a good amount of time learning it. I only gave it a few hours but it was rough:
- no control diagram (at least on ps4). Would have been helpful to know which button activates item 1 or item 2 or the bomb.
- items don’t have any explanations when you collect them or even after a run. If you exit your run, you can only see a picture of the item in the menu (no name either). Makes it hard to know what each item does for a game with 500 of them. You can figure out some by their name but some are obscure.
- For example, I was fighting a boss and I was teleporting out of the boss room sometimes when I got hit (and resetting the boss health every time). I thought it was the boss effect but after a google search it turns out I picked up some “cursed” item that has random teleport effect on me IF I’m charging my attack. Never would have figured that out on my own.

I can safely say this game is not for me. I would have to give up a lot of hours to even scratch the surface of the game by myself without an online guide. I understand the original game is quite old but this is the “Rebirth”-ed version. I get the game design of not explaining an item during a run but I should be able to see what an item does in the menu AFTER I have died with it or completed the run. Thanks for reading my rant lol.