I do recommend this game, but barely.

Really cool worldbuilding, had me theorizing the whole time, which is sorely missed from games now and days. The aesthetic is pretty interesting in most cases, a little basic in some other areas.

I really enjoyed the platforming parts, usually in 2D games i suck at these parts but the Mantling I think really helped. (I just wish the mantling wasn't bugging out half the time)

I haven't played Nine sols or w.e yet, but this game felt like 2D Sekiro to me with the Repeling & Absorbing & Pulling, and when it all worked and on some bosses it felt great, You had these moments a lot more then you did in Sekiro (or at least in my playthrough... ugh trauma)

Also one really big point of positive feedback this game does right and a lot of other games fail at. It does a great job forcing/teaching players to learn the skills of the game. Be it platforming or enemies that lead up to bosses to help reinforce usage of said skills, to semi prepare you for the boss. This is imo one of the fundamentals of gamedesign especially in RPGs/ Action Games, but always dismissed or ignored, it was really nice seeing this.
- (Tangent of a game that doesn't do this. I didn't master the Parry in Sekiro till 10 hours into the game. That is way too late, and a part of it is, a lot of early games just make you lightly need to use it, you aren't required to use it) While in this game, if an enemy has a shield, you have to parry to remove it, or to heal... etc

But.

This game is buried under a lot of issues, that really stick out and make the game frustrating in a bad way and pretty often.

- The game is buggy. Just from almost an hour into the game to 19hrs I just kept having bugs. These bugs got me killed a lot.
- Almost every shortcut in the game are either pointless or sometimes more obnoxious then the main routes. I felt this from the first 2 or 3 hours to late game.
- My god the Parry. The timing window is awkward and weird and inconsistent (You will see this word often, and it's one of the biggest issues of the game) Sometimes you have to actually wait till you are hit before you can parry. Sometimes you have to parry wayyyyy before you are hit. I put 3 or 4 points in the trait that upgrades this and only then did it START to stop feeling awkward and janky (still was tho)
- Inconsistent Enemy Patterns & attacks or Similar attacks (Example: Giant with Eyes boss, I found this boss the most in the game probably over 40 times(Mainly because I tried beating him too early) 40 times. On the roughly 38th time he used a lean forward punch that he never used. Like wtf. Over half of my attempts got him to the second phase, so they were pretty long) A lot of enemies have attacks that look the same but have different results, making it hard to learn patterns and react
- Inconsistent Hitboxes (Example: Theres an enemy that that jumps and does a flip. You can just stand under him and not move and he will prob jump over you. On a couple occasions his toes hit me resulting in my death. There are dozens of enemies that won't have hitboxes that hurt you sometimes then suddenly do)
- Reaction Times are incredibly small, it felt like someone played Sekiro and was like what if i making the timing windows and reaction chances smaller.
- Camera gets stuck in certain preferred positions sometimes. Lead to my death a couple of times.
- You can get a Breatheart in a normal playthrough (Non-NG+) and you can't use it because it's meant for NG + :upsidedown-smiley:
- Inconsistent Art Direction/Design Led me to a lot of deaths, where you would see a glimpse of red or yellow and be like is that blockable or pullable? Oh well reaction times are too small, so that thought.. you are now dead.
- I love Souls-like games, but this game forces you to die multiple times to learn enemy patterns/movesets. Some legit feel like they were meant to kill you until you experienced it 3 to 5 times.
- Inputs, something about input queueing feels off or just non-existent (Dodging in wrong direction, you can't dodge and pull... etc)
- Worldbuilding is really good but they don't delve deep enough into it in each area imo.
- Edit: One last kinda vague but big one: There were a lot of weird design decisions/tuning, i've highlighted some already but here's a couple examples other in other reviews have called out. Beacons: Are pointless because by the time you find one in most cases they are at the end of levels that probably took you 10-15 + attempts to get to, so you have already mentally mapped it out. and theres only 20% left to explore. Nervepasses: were in weird unuseful spots and barely used, then you get the surrogate upgrade at the 95% part of the game, making them just pointless, so teleporting in general is a missed opportunity. Shortcuts & Zone Connectors: There are a couple of extra zones that aren't really cool or have story, or really serve much purpose, besides hunting points. I discovered there were connections to other zones, but finding this at the 80% part and when they connect to the first zone and you never pass through the first zone, this is pointless? Items & Rewards: A lot of rewards/items are overused and don't warrant the hassle it took to get it. In a lot of cases.


Overall about halfway through i felt like i had a grasp of the game and was really enjoying the worldbuilding and platforming, if either one of these had just been a little bit weaker, i would have quit the game at the 4 or 5 hr mark and gave it a thumbs down. Because throughout my playthrough i was just being attacked by bugs. Bugs killed me probably around 40% of the time. Which is incredibly high in a game like this.

I do look forward to the second one, to see more of this story, and hopefully the bugs have been fixed :)

1. The map looks cheap.
2. Climbing motion looks funny.
Great game overall.

Worldbuilding and aesthetics are the ONLY two things this game did right.

Combat is stale at best, weapons are extremely similar and boring, the parry system is nice but it is not worth using for anything other than healing, it does not stun the enemy and only deals some damage if you put a lot of resources into a specific trinket/perk. A lot of enemies are specifically designed to be ANNOYING, not challenging, but strictly ANNOYING.

Map design is HORRIBLE. All locations are basically corridors with 15 branching paths that lead to dead ends and useless loot. Maps are not "Intertwined" or connected, like in HK or Dark Souls, most of the shortcuts you unlock are literally useless and do not serve any purpose. The placement of beacons that allow you to view the map is absolutely DERANGED. I had to wander through the first four locations without any sense of direction because you literally have to walk through an entire location to find a beacon that becomes essentially useless since you already walked the same path 10 times and memorized everything on your own. Fast travel is locked to specific locations that you have to unlock. Why can't we just teleport between previously unlocked checkpoints?

Probably because the developers wanted this game to be as tedious and annoying as possible. And believe me, they succeeded in it. The name of this game perfectly encapsulates all its features - this game is gross, dirty and filthy.