I like a lot of the puzzles in this, but the world is just a bit too hard to navigate and there are a few parts where I was stuck not knowing what to do for a while. Also I had to cheese the tower defense because it seemed impossible to do legit. Don't really feel like scouring the world for the 60 odd chests I missed, which is kind of a shame since the puzzles are mostly well designed and fun. I just don't think the exploration aspect was as well done and that's what completing the game would mostly be.

Huge downgrade from the first game unfortunately. Instead of a puzzle marathon with an interesting story running throughout it, this game is broken up into chunks, with mandatory story segments between the actual puzzles (of which there aren't nearly as many). And I hate to say it but the story is boring and doesn't make any sense. Having a story driven by characters when the characters are completely flat (literal) robots just doesn't work. It ends up being a slog that you mash through to get more puzzle.

The puzzles are a bit of a disappointment too, coming off of the first game. They're easier on the whole - only a handful gave me any real trouble, whereas I got stuck for some time on a solid half of the original game - and while the new mechanics are interesting, there are too many of them and not enough puzzles to explore them to the extent they deserve.

The new way of handling secrets, exploring open worlds, is not my preferred gameplay but it was done pretty well - I didn't find all the stars in the end, but I had fun looking for them. I still had a good time, and the last bit of the game really made me come away with a better impression than I was expecting.

I compared it to La-Mulana 2 while playing and realized later that Portal 2 is an apt comparison as well. A sequel that tries to do too much, adding a bunch of wacky characters, and fails to see what made the first game great - clever puzzles, focused design and a sense of mystery. I appreciate what they were trying to do, but for me, it didn't land.

This might be my favorite puzzle game of all time. The puzzles get super hard (especially if you go for the optional ones) and you just get so many of them. The mechanics are all novel but it doesn't overwhelm you with too many of them, and the interactions between them keep you surprised until the end.

I'm also a big fan of the plot and atmosphere. The mystery slowly unravels at a pleasant pace and it never gets in the way of the gameplay. When I first played it years ago it gave me my second major existential crisis that lasted like a month so it must have been doing something right

Hear me out: this is the best puzzle game of all time

Ok not really. But it is way better than I was expecting. I'm not really exaggerating though - there were times where I felt like it was the best puzzle game of all time. Some of these individual puzzles are blindingly creative and the way all the mechanics work together is incredibly well thought out and fun to decipher.

Heavily inspired by The Witness and Antichamber, but I really wish it was more of the former and less of the latter. I don't think the non-Euclidean layout adds anything to the game and serves only to frustrate the player. It doesn't work with the word puzzles in most cases and just makes it difficult to navigate.

My other big complaint is that your objective is kind of unclear the whole time. You basically spend your entire playthrough running around aimlessly in search of new areas and puzzles, which isn't the worst thing ever, but it's a little worse than if I knew what I was working towards. Compare the lasers/mountain from The Witness; there's nothing like that here, not that clear anyway.

But I seriously can't stress enough how good the puzzles in this are. The extremely simple clue/answer word puzzle format is pushed to its absolute limits and I'm genuinely in awe of the creativity on display. I haven't even really dug into level 2 (a post-release expansion that stands alone from the original game, but is included in it), but what I've seen of it has been very clever as well. I want to try out the community maps too.

If you like puzzles, I really strongly recommend this game. If you liked The Witness, I recommend it even more (but don't expect something quite that good).

I already love Banjo-Kazooie. It's not really nostalgia, maybe a bit, but I do think it's pretty fun the whole way through, with some clear flaws. Tooie fixes every problem the first has, and expands on it in so many ways it's kind of hard to believe.

Tooie is a very ambitious game. Everything about it feels bigger, which is impressive considering it's smaller if anything: only 8 main worlds as opposed to 9, the sizes of which are comparable to the worlds from Kazooie. The overworld looks bigger because it's out in the open - in reality I think the actual traversable parts are smaller, and there's less to do with the removal of the witch switches from the worlds. But through pure world design they've managed to make a world that feels more grandiose, and at every point until the end it really felt like anything could come next.

The fast travel systems are great and are a welcome addition. I think this is part of why it feels so much bigger - it takes under a minute to walk across most levels, but when you can warp there instantly you feel like you're skipping a lot. And to be fair, in a game where exploration is a focal point, the saved time adds up.

I don't think this game is flawless but every complaint I have is a nitpick. It's hard to find your way around in the FPS areas, but there aren't that many of them and there isn't much to do in them. The Hailfire Peaks transformation is annoying to control (especially if you have health regen), but its usage is pretty limited so you don't have to deal with it for long. Ultimately these nitpicks don't matter because this game is packed entirely full of creative ideas that all work well to some extent. Fantastic sequel, fantastic in its own right. I can't wait until the next time I get to replay it.

yup, just as awesome as i remember. rusty bucket bay stands out as a sore spot but mostly because you lose notes on death and its easy to die in the engine room, its fine other than that. click clock wood was a bit too ambitious too i think but it was a lot better than it could have been. other than that i think i have no complaints other than small stuff like jiggy animations being too long. it's a bit rough around the edges in those respects but overall a fantastic title.

edited to add that the music completely slaps but i feel like that goes without saying at this point

I think I liked it? Idk, something about it just feels off. I think it's because it's SO similar to Super Metroid that you can't help but compare them, and this is nowhere near as good as Super Metroid. But if I force myself to judge it on its own merits, it's fine.

Combat kind of sucks. All the different weapons are fun but ultimately pointless since there's like 2 that are so much better than the others that you won't ever use anything else. Most enemies either pose no threat or deal you unavoidable damage. At least save/heal rooms are plentiful, but that just takes it from frustrating to too easy, and I don't think it could have pulled off a good in-between.

Exploring also kind of sucks, which is ostensibly the point of a game like this. The world design was lacking and I found it impossible to get your bearings in the world. You have to run through areas you've been already several times with barely anything new to do in them, and (probably because the combat is bad) it just isn't fun.

But there's a lot of good about this. The story and aesthetic were great. Very reminiscent of old school FMV games like Darkseed or Harvester and it's pulled off super well. I do think the story was a little opaque but it's clearly written with a sequel in mind so I'll see how it all gets untangled in the second one. It's interesting enough to keep me on the hook.

I think the movement gets fun pretty late, but it at least does that. The upgrades you get are creative and unique, which surprised me for a game so clearly inspired by Super Metroid. Early on I kept expecting to find a morph ball analog, but no, you just get a remote drone instead. There are lots of good ideas in the upgrades and I think for the most part they're implemented in a fun way.

And for how much the combat is kind of frustrating and annoying, I think most of the boss fights were fun.

I think I expected to like this a lot more due to its being one of the more popular indie Metroidvanias, and a long-standing one at at that. Maybe a little overrated? But I still liked it overall and I hear the sequel fixes all the problems of the first so I'm definitely looking forward to that.