DO NOT LOOK UP GUIDES.

I just have to preface my review with that. This is an absolutely amazing example of a game that knows how to obfuscate itself, and every step of progression is taught by way of the manual's paced uncovering and two very important questions: "Can I do that?" and "Is that important?" Every single part of the game I learned from outside was either already in the manual pages I'd collected, or not required for progression to that point. Everything is taught to you, but in a wonderfully obfuscated format that rewards you for taking the time to analyze it. The Zelda elements are a beautiful meeting point of the original LoZ's completely obscured progression and LttP's combat/progression sandboxing (the same sandboxing that makes LttP so good for randomizers), and the combat is only obscenely difficult until you pass the knowledge threshold.

But, again, that knowledge threshold is MAJOR. Almost everything in the game can be accessed or completed from the start; the top speedruns are under 20 minutes and skip over half the world, because there's just that much access. However, the content is gated primarily (almost exclusively) by your knowledge thereof, and the structure of the game intends you to figure it out as you go and keep an eye open for any little detail that could possibly be important. If you give in and look up info online, you risk what is effectively sequence breaking by exposing information you were supposed to be rewarded for figuring out yourself. The single detail I could possibly say is worth spoiling early is the character customization, because it's not required for any part of the content and could easily be missed if you're not running into every conceivable corner looking for it.

No, I'm not saying where it is; go run into corners for it.

DO NOT LOOK UP GUIDES. I just have to preface my review with that. This is an absolutely amazing example of a game that knows how to obfuscate itself, and every step of progression is taught by way of the manual's paced uncovering and two very important questions: "Can I do that?" and "Is that important?" Every single part of the game I learned from outside was either already in the manual pages I'd collected, or not required for progression to that point. Everything is taught to you, but in a wonderfully obfuscated format that rewards you for taking the time to analyze it. The Zelda elements are a beautiful meeting point of the original LoZ's completely obscured progression and LttP's combat/progression sandboxing (the same sandboxing that makes LttP so good for randomizers), and the combat is only obscenely difficult until you pass the knowledge threshold. But, again, that knowledge threshold is MAJOR. Almost everything in the game can be accessed or completed from the start; the top speedruns are under 20 minutes and skip over half the world, because there's just that much access. However, the content is gated primarily (almost exclusively) by your knowledge thereof, and the structure of the game intends you to figure it out as you go and keep an eye open for any little detail that could possibly be important. If you give in and look up info online, you risk what is effectively sequence breaking by exposing information you were supposed to be rewarded for figuring out yourself. The single detail I could possibly say is worth spoiling early is the character customization, because it's not required for any part of the content and could easily be missed if you're not running into every conceivable corner looking for it. No, I'm not saying where it is; go run into corners for it.