Rain World is a hard recommend. On the one side, you got a goregous and mysterious 2D platformer with a threating ecosystem to get amazed by, having to balance scavenging, exploration, and progress as you try to scramble for a way out. Rain World does an extremely good job at making you feel like you are not the center of the world, and it keeps me pulling back for this reason. Sluggie (what I name him) also controls smooth like butter. His control scheme felt right at home. Rarely do I ever feel like a death is not my fault.

On the other side, the game follows an open-ended structure and a "hands-off approach". The learning curve to Rain World is higher than you would expect. Multiple times in my (yet to be finished) playthrough have I thought "I wish the game could have gone about communicating this more clearly." I understand part of Rain World is supposed to make you feel aimless, but I just felt frustrated more times than I'd like to admit for not knowing about "x".
Within one instance, I even realised I took a way harder path than it was originally intended, and all that hard progress I have fought for was down the drain. It just feels really dumb and humiliating having to backtrack through an area you've spent quite a bit of time in.

The question if you end up liking Rain World or not really comes down to preference. I think there is lots to love about it, and if you push past the struggles of this game, you may end up feeling that it was all worth it. Certainly is for me!

Despite the shortcomings I've listed; I feel without them, Rain World would not be as memorable once I finish it.

Edit: Finished it. Turned out exactly as I was expecting, my unique struggles and fun things I saw made each part memorable.

Rain World is a hard recommend. On the one side, you got a goregous and mysterious 2D platformer with a threating ecosystem to get amazed by, having to balance scavenging, exploration, and progress as you try to scramble for a way out. Rain World does an extremely good job at making you feel like you are not the center of the world, and it keeps me pulling back for this reason. Sluggie (what I name him) also controls smooth like butter. His control scheme felt right at home. Rarely do I ever feel like a death is not my fault. On the other side, the game follows an open-ended structure and a "hands-off approach". The learning curve to Rain World is higher than you would expect. Multiple times in my (yet to be finished) playthrough have I thought "I wish the game could have gone about communicating this more clearly." I understand part of Rain World is supposed to make you feel aimless, but I just felt frustrated more times than I'd like to admit for not knowing about "x". Within one instance, I even realised I took a way harder path than it was originally intended, and all that hard progress I have fought for was down the drain. It just feels really dumb and humiliating having to backtrack through an area you've spent quite a bit of time in. The question if you end up liking Rain World or not really comes down to preference. I think there is lots to love about it, and if you push past the struggles of this game, you may end up feeling that it was all worth it. Certainly is for me! Despite the shortcomings I've listed; I feel without them, Rain World would not be as memorable once I finish it. Edit: Finished it. Turned out exactly as I was expecting, my unique struggles and fun things I saw made each part memorable.