This was such a fun puzzle adventure game. The enemies and battles were difficult and interesting enough to not just be a side thought, but another fun part of the game. The manual made the cryptic story and game play mechanics fun to figure out and learn. I went deep with the puzzles but stopped short of the language translation. Overall felt like a mix of Link's Awakening and Dark Souls, with all the puzzles, item locked areas, and cute character art of Link and the boss difficulty and save point mechanics of Dark Souls (though probably not as hard).
This game does a very good job in giving you the information you need, when you need it. It's still cryptic but new pages you find sometimes emphasizes or clarifies the cryptic notes and messages of other pages. The only time I looked up any game guides or things was to 100% the game with the treasures.
My only issue is that the end wasn't as satisfying as I had wanted it to be. While it appears you get to choose your ending, some kind of revelation or big lore explanation would have been nice. I realize you can go further in deciphering the language and such to reveal even more, but for the average player I don't think this is something worth the time. Making some kind of ending that reveals the manual text or something of the lore and story would have made completing this game so satisfying and quite frankly perfect.