Certainly not among Cyan’s best works, but it’s the most visionary of them all and it “links” perfectly into the kind of creative imagination they are known for. The puzzles have a real mechanical grandiosity to them, it feels like you're moving mountains around and redesigning the world about you. Having THAT MUCH power at the tip of your fingers feels fantastic throughout the game and is a clever new play on their old “circumstantial demiurge” favourite theme. Your ethereal companion lamenting that she can't be in your shoes doing all that is more reward than achieving Elden Ring's best ending and a feeling that'll stay with you for a long time, but, then again, Cyan always knew how to make you feel good for solving a puzzle. The story's a bit slow-release, granted, it can take a while to properly set its hooks in, but that delicious voice acting can easily get you through anything!

A proper Cyan game through and through, even though it feels more like a cerebral old age opus than a passionate youthful endeavour.

LATER EDIT: On second playthrough, the game really shines and it actually IS among Cyan's best works: your ethereal mentor’s rather cryptic monologues start making proper sense this time around and reveal subtle, nuanced writing (Cyan were never praised for the quality of their writing, but here they do an especially remarkable job). Her exceptional, sensitive, voice acting stands out even more this time. How she manages to convey all the passion and resentment in that detached and abstracted manner is simply breathtaking! She is marvellous! For all her envy of me for doing all those incredible things she only could dream of (and oh, boy, how she dreamed about them!), for all the good that envy of hers made me feel about myself being the one who plays the game, by the time I was approaching the ending a second time, it was clear to me that I had no chance against her, she was the real star of the show, it was her actions, her sacrifice that ultimately secured the mission, shaped a truer purpose for it and gave the game meaning, not mine. Definitely not mine.

And while at first Firmament establishes itself as a good puzzle game with awe-inspiring gigantic clockwork structures and astonishing scenery, on second playthrough it becomes a character study and an exercise in adoration for its subject. Cyan’s love sonnet for its own donna angelicata. A game that’s worth playing again and again if only for the exquisite pleasure of spending some more time in the company of such a finely crafted character.

Certainly not among Cyan’s best works, but it’s the most visionary of them all and it “links” perfectly into the kind of creative imagination they are known for. The puzzles have a real mechanical grandiosity to them, it feels like you're moving mountains around and redesigning the world about you. Having THAT MUCH power at the tip of your fingers feels fantastic throughout the game and is a clever new play on their old “circumstantial demiurge” favourite theme. Your ethereal companion lamenting that she can't be in your shoes doing all that is more reward than achieving [i]Elden Ring[/i]'s best ending and a feeling that'll stay with you for a long time, but, then again, Cyan always knew how to make you feel good for solving a puzzle. The story's a bit slow-release, granted, it can take a while to properly set its hooks in, but that delicious voice acting can easily get you through anything! A proper Cyan game through and through, even though it feels more like a cerebral old age opus than a passionate youthful endeavour. LATER EDIT: On second playthrough, the game really shines and it actually IS among Cyan's best works: your ethereal mentor’s rather cryptic monologues start making proper sense this time around and reveal subtle, nuanced writing (Cyan were never praised for the quality of their writing, but here they do an especially remarkable job). Her exceptional, sensitive, voice acting stands out even more this time. How she manages to convey all the passion and resentment in that detached and abstracted manner is simply breathtaking! She is marvellous! For all her envy of me for doing all those incredible things she only could dream of (and oh, boy, how she dreamed about them!), for all the good that envy of hers made me feel about myself being the one who [i]plays[/i] the game, by the time I was approaching the ending a second time, it was clear to me that I had no chance against her, she was the real star of the show, it was her actions, her sacrifice that ultimately secured the mission, shaped a truer purpose for it and gave the game meaning, not mine. Definitely not mine. And while at first [i]Firmament[/i] establishes itself as a good puzzle game with awe-inspiring gigantic clockwork structures and astonishing scenery, on second playthrough it becomes a character study and an exercise in adoration for its subject. Cyan’s love sonnet for its own [i]donna angelicata.[/i] A game that’s worth playing again and again if only for the exquisite pleasure of spending some more time in the company of such a finely crafted character.