Intro
i really like this game. i think this is the metroidvania with the most horizontal progression i've ever played, and i fucking love horizontal progression. there's a fuckton of equippable 'relics' and equipment that changes what your parry does, and a ton of different spells to swap out. additionally, there's a lot of abilities, with many routes you could possibly get through the game and tons of optional abilities. i got all 3 endings on normal difficulty, and i still don't have every single ability.
Bloat
now, while i think it is awesome to get new unique things your character can do for exploration as opposed to just a "damage up" or something else vertical/numerical, it can start to feel a little bit bloated at times. personally, i don't really have an issue with it, as i think it will make the game more replayable for me in the future, and if an item randomizer ever gets created for this, i'll be lining up at the door 8 hours in advance. yet, it's possible that some people might have a problem with the amount of things in this game.
Movement
the movement in this game is unique and fluid, and there's a large amount of emergent techniques gained from combining different movement mechanics. while there's often an 'intended' way to get through a platforming challenge, there's a lot of synergy with the abilities that let you free style your way through some of the obstacles after enough practice. there's even some mechanics that feel reminiscent of celeste speedrunning tech, which is quite fun, and i think would make speedrunning this game quite interesting from both a routing and movement perspective. some of the optional platforming sections are very difficult, and i have a lot of experience with difficult platformers, so i don't expect doing all of them is widely accomplishable by people that are not as versed in precise platforming as i am. an incredibly nice feature is the generous usage of 'red spikes' that will damage you back to your last stable ground location, but will not damage your HP, so you don't have to be stressed about finishing a movement based room in only a few tries. additionally, the game tutorializes a lot of these more complex movement mechanics in a way that is analogous to Celeste (2018) mod Community Collab gyms with in depth explanations, input sequences, and even in-game recordings in easily retriable obstacle courses that are organized by movement ability.
Combat
combat isn't the most insane, and the bosses are mostly just serviceable (no real standouts). however, as you progress, you get more and more movement options that also double as combat options and even expand the attacks that your spells can do, such as the difference between hitting a spore spell normally and spin-slashing it. as such, i was pretty satisfied with the combat and enjoyed stringing together random attacks and abilities against bosses, but it's nothing special. at least there's a parry which works fine enough.
Interface and Art
my biggest issue with the game is the interface and art. in the relic select screen, if you don't have enough points to spend on equipping a relic, its sprite will be greyed out, which is a pretty normal way to signify something isn't selectable. however, because the sprites for all of these SIXTY relics total aren't very distinct even with color, it is very difficult to look at them on the screen and know "oh that's [X] relic and that's [Y] relic." here is an imgur image showing this with color. it's not very distinct, and the similar variations even within the effects make it a little agonizing to use the interface and discern between your massive inventory. the map is large and expansive, but the map interface is lacking detail or landmarks. in Hollow Knight (2017), for example, if there's a significant statue in the world, or a small village or something, it's represented with a little drawing on the map. while Lone Fungus has shaped rooms on the map, there's none of this detail, so it's dreadful to match the map to your visual memory of the rooms. also, the achievements on steam visually look gross and muddied.
Conclusion
in short, i think this game is fantastic for movement and platforming, and i suspect has a large amount of variance in the order of completion with numerous sequence breaks possible. i am definitely going to go for all steam achievements eventually (which includes a permadeath 100% file completion), but i'll probably give it a little bit of a break before then. however, if you're looking for a good looking game with an interesting story and engaging combat, this probably isn't the one for you.
i really like this game. i think this is the metroidvania with the most horizontal progression i've ever played, and i fucking love horizontal progression. there's a fuckton of equippable 'relics' and equipment that changes what your parry does, and a ton of different spells to swap out. additionally, there's a lot of abilities, with many routes you could possibly get through the game and tons of optional abilities. i got all 3 endings on normal difficulty, and i still don't have every single ability.
Bloat
now, while i think it is awesome to get new unique things your character can do for exploration as opposed to just a "damage up" or something else vertical/numerical, it can start to feel a little bit bloated at times. personally, i don't really have an issue with it, as i think it will make the game more replayable for me in the future, and if an item randomizer ever gets created for this, i'll be lining up at the door 8 hours in advance. yet, it's possible that some people might have a problem with the amount of things in this game.
Movement
the movement in this game is unique and fluid, and there's a large amount of emergent techniques gained from combining different movement mechanics. while there's often an 'intended' way to get through a platforming challenge, there's a lot of synergy with the abilities that let you free style your way through some of the obstacles after enough practice. there's even some mechanics that feel reminiscent of celeste speedrunning tech, which is quite fun, and i think would make speedrunning this game quite interesting from both a routing and movement perspective. some of the optional platforming sections are very difficult, and i have a lot of experience with difficult platformers, so i don't expect doing all of them is widely accomplishable by people that are not as versed in precise platforming as i am. an incredibly nice feature is the generous usage of 'red spikes' that will damage you back to your last stable ground location, but will not damage your HP, so you don't have to be stressed about finishing a movement based room in only a few tries. additionally, the game tutorializes a lot of these more complex movement mechanics in a way that is analogous to Celeste (2018) mod Community Collab gyms with in depth explanations, input sequences, and even in-game recordings in easily retriable obstacle courses that are organized by movement ability.
Combat
combat isn't the most insane, and the bosses are mostly just serviceable (no real standouts). however, as you progress, you get more and more movement options that also double as combat options and even expand the attacks that your spells can do, such as the difference between hitting a spore spell normally and spin-slashing it. as such, i was pretty satisfied with the combat and enjoyed stringing together random attacks and abilities against bosses, but it's nothing special. at least there's a parry which works fine enough.
Interface and Art
my biggest issue with the game is the interface and art. in the relic select screen, if you don't have enough points to spend on equipping a relic, its sprite will be greyed out, which is a pretty normal way to signify something isn't selectable. however, because the sprites for all of these SIXTY relics total aren't very distinct even with color, it is very difficult to look at them on the screen and know "oh that's [X] relic and that's [Y] relic." here is an imgur image showing this with color. it's not very distinct, and the similar variations even within the effects make it a little agonizing to use the interface and discern between your massive inventory. the map is large and expansive, but the map interface is lacking detail or landmarks. in Hollow Knight (2017), for example, if there's a significant statue in the world, or a small village or something, it's represented with a little drawing on the map. while Lone Fungus has shaped rooms on the map, there's none of this detail, so it's dreadful to match the map to your visual memory of the rooms. also, the achievements on steam visually look gross and muddied.
Conclusion
in short, i think this game is fantastic for movement and platforming, and i suspect has a large amount of variance in the order of completion with numerous sequence breaks possible. i am definitely going to go for all steam achievements eventually (which includes a permadeath 100% file completion), but i'll probably give it a little bit of a break before then. however, if you're looking for a good looking game with an interesting story and engaging combat, this probably isn't the one for you.