I was real excited for this game and real disappointed in the result. It's a collection of undeniably compelling parts that entirely fail to come together into an engaging whole. The combat is impressively tactile and the different weapons each play totally differently, but the randomization of them each run means players can't really specialize in the one that feels best. The Dead-Cells-esque run structure is a proven winner, but it's hampered by gating meta-progress behind frustrating and unpleasant bosses. The art is incredible, but it frequently makes combat illegible.

This tries hard to be a hip update that reframes a classic game in modern terms, but it doesn't understand what makes those modern games successful well enough to replicate it successfully.