Psychedelic Hollow Knight garden simulator, mhm ja.

Unfortunately pretty art style alone doesn't make a game good. Movement and combat are just not really that interesting and the gameplay loop with the cycles did not work for me. Plus I got softlocked, so yeah, 5 hours wasted

Ok, so this game is weird, and this is a weird review for a weird game. It does a lot of things I would really dislike in other games, but it's so strange and experimental with the format of a metroidvania that I did end up being happy I played it. I would say this is a good game to play if you go into it knowing in a lot of ways it doesn't respect your time. I'm mostly doing this review on the off chance the Devs read any of these. My critiques would be as follows:

- respect the players time and don't make certain areas of the map so grating to move through. There are a couple areas, Pantheon of the Stars being the most egregious, where the map really wants you to navigate it a certain way, and that is fine, the first cycle you do it, but after that I think you should have left the shortcuts open for good.

- I feel like you are only truly figuring out what all the tools/plants do in their entirety near the "end" of the game. if a player doesn't care about 100% completion, that is a bummer, I do appreciate that a lot of the tools/plants have an obtuseness to them. I just think maybe you should have introduced the ability to see how they really work a bit earlier.

- what is happening in the game is extremely vague and confusing. I am a lover of esoteria and things of this nature. For example my favorite hip hop artist is Aesop Rock, who is often regarded as cryptic as hell, and I was infatuated with the way Soul's games told their story with item lore since Demon's Souls, WELL before there were deep dive lore videos all over the internet. All this to say: I like stories that expect you to pay attention and I am no stranger to weird storytelling, but I think his game would benefit from just a little more guidance. I don't mean gameplay wise, but in the story, I feel like it doesn't give you "enough" to really grab you and make you want to understand it fully, but what is there is very cool and obviously was worked on very hard.

- combat options were really cool, but it kinda sucked that very quickly the whole "kill enemies with variation for perfect quality meat" (which was a great idea) kind of died or didn't matter. Like the amount of moves and how well thought out they were immediately got me excited then kind of let me down with the fact that you don't really need them much.

- I wouldn't have put more brains (items that make skills carry over between cycles) in the game than you can use, that was a weird choice and I feel like once you had enough to lock every skill it felt kind of bad to find another "useless item" when you are combing the map.

Things I liked:

- very experimental and it didn't feel stale and rehashed like a lot of metroidvanias (which is a huge problem in the genre IMO). The "items" are original and interesting, and there is some nice stuff related to them hidden in the environment.

- obviously the Art style is a draw. It is a unique and pretty looking game.

- the whole plant system and the way it was used in conjunction with the cycles was very cool and original.

- because of how unique this game is I found the map to be laid out really well for the most part and it was kind of wild how much I bet the devs had to think about when designing these areas.

- the living network - I'm sure a ton of people hated it, I would probably hate it in most other games, but you really made it work thematically although I do think you should have rewarded players more who decided to connect it. It kind of adds a puzzle game layer to the whole thing that I found to be the most fun part of the game honestly, I just wish it would have "mattered" more.

Of note would be that most people who played this didn't interact with most of the coolest stuff in the game IMO, as evidenced by the super low % achievement/trophy numbers regarding those things. I say that as someone who cares nothing about Achievements.

I dunno, this review probably isn't good for someone on the fence as it is more just raw critique intended for the devs, but if you have an open mind and aren't impatient and you like somewhat obtuse games that require you to pay attention and learn the games systems this one is pretty cool. I could see it being a really big love it or hate it type of game, but I think the people who love it, will probably REALLY love it.