You should get your expectations straight with this game. This isn't a traditional metroidvenia, there's is no combat and no story, just an impeccable atmosphere (the sound design is AMAZING). It's all vibes no substance unfortunately (I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, if you have nothing to tell in a story, then don't lol).
I thought this game is made for me, that this is what I have been waiting for. However, there's no feeling of exploring a big interconnected world, because there's no world it's just a sandbox puzzle world with funky animals, all the rooms give you the same feeling(the "areas" are just color swaps lol), except the late game ones before the ending (those were kinda spooky) So that feeling of being lost in a place where you don't belong is just not there, and I shouldn't have expected it.
The early game puzzle are neat, fun and solvable by most people. The hidden eggs are also mostly doable (I needed a guide for the last few because I just missed them, and I was literally backtracking the entire map multiple time, just for me to miss one nook) Whilst the absolute last endgame secrets that most people SHOULDN'T find, because they are kinda bullshit.
This game wanted to be Tunic and fez sooo bad, yet it failed miserably in that regard. Tunic's true ending is solved with such elegance, it's quite remarkable how it all makes sense with the lore too .It actually makes you think and look at every place with a fresh new pair of eyes, it teaches you to see those patterns, it gives you the tools you need and the rest is all on your own, unlike animal well. This game follows the textbook puzzle design concepts flawlessly making fair and smart puzzles where it teaches you its deep mechanics and it all builds up puzzle by puzzle. Until the endgame stuff, where the gamedev pretends to have never made a puzzle in his life just to make it hard for players and for them to "community solve it" ie not the best solo experience.
Those endgame puzzle don't build off of each other, you learn to do one thing for one of them and then never use it again for the next one, it's quite disconnected and most of the time doesn't make you think, it's just things you never noticed and never WILL on your own. And sometimes they just feel like gimmicks.
I might sound overly negative, but I genuinely LOVE this game it has so much hearth and soul put into it. It's just fun to play and a treat to the eyes. The post game stuff just left me salty lol.
I thought this game is made for me, that this is what I have been waiting for. However, there's no feeling of exploring a big interconnected world, because there's no world it's just a sandbox puzzle world with funky animals, all the rooms give you the same feeling(the "areas" are just color swaps lol), except the late game ones before the ending (those were kinda spooky) So that feeling of being lost in a place where you don't belong is just not there, and I shouldn't have expected it.
The early game puzzle are neat, fun and solvable by most people. The hidden eggs are also mostly doable (I needed a guide for the last few because I just missed them, and I was literally backtracking the entire map multiple time, just for me to miss one nook) Whilst the absolute last endgame secrets that most people SHOULDN'T find, because they are kinda bullshit.
This game wanted to be Tunic and fez sooo bad, yet it failed miserably in that regard. Tunic's true ending is solved with such elegance, it's quite remarkable how it all makes sense with the lore too .It actually makes you think and look at every place with a fresh new pair of eyes, it teaches you to see those patterns, it gives you the tools you need and the rest is all on your own, unlike animal well. This game follows the textbook puzzle design concepts flawlessly making fair and smart puzzles where it teaches you its deep mechanics and it all builds up puzzle by puzzle. Until the endgame stuff, where the gamedev pretends to have never made a puzzle in his life just to make it hard for players and for them to "community solve it" ie not the best solo experience.
Those endgame puzzle don't build off of each other, you learn to do one thing for one of them and then never use it again for the next one, it's quite disconnected and most of the time doesn't make you think, it's just things you never noticed and never WILL on your own. And sometimes they just feel like gimmicks.
I might sound overly negative, but I genuinely LOVE this game it has so much hearth and soul put into it. It's just fun to play and a treat to the eyes. The post game stuff just left me salty lol.