TL;DR - A true knockout hit of an action roguelite. Worth it at full price for any fan of the genre or anyone looking to get in to it. Technically should count as an anime game for beating the final boss with the power of friendship.

Just an incredible action roguelite that hits all the right notes. Unique art style, gorgeous soundtrack, excellent gameplay, and a "present but not overbearing" story that doesn't feel tacked on.

Combat has a great flow to it, and you'll find yourself mixing things up between rooms depending on the enemies present. Every melee and ranged weapon has a "Perfect Attack" window that rewards timing over button mashing, and there's a surprising amount of variety in the movesets. Everything from your standard baseball bat, to a long-range spear, to a large anime sword are all present (plus some more wacky weapons like a fishing rod and yo-yos), and as far as I can tell not a single moveset is shared across the dozens of melee weapons. Ranged weapons mostly differ on timing and what their "implicit modifier", i.e. the mod that's always present on the item, is, but they still play quite differently from one another too.

Even your dodges are different, allowing you to decide between one of seven choices, including: a short-ranged roll so you can dance around attacks without losing DPS uptime, a long-range dash to get out of range of AOEs, and even some that serve as "openers" for some offense. Shields again are more similar to ranged weapons in that their variety lies in the implicit modifiers, such as "the shield that's good for parrying" and "can't parry but blocks all around you".

On top of all this equipment variety, there are Diablo-like modifiers and rarity levels which improve the number of modifiers a weapon can have. These can range from just ok (+20% duration to a 2s slow) to quite powerful (e.g. max health). That being said, rerolling these can be quite expensive and isn't something you're going to be spamming in a run without some serious loss of currency.

It wouldn't be a roguelite without passive items, and there are plenty here. I never felt like they contributed a significant amount to a "god run", aside from one that gives all attacks leech, but they do nonetheless contribute to your power and make for some fun builds utilizing various elemental synergies.

Arguably the main factor that sets this apart as a -lite and not a -like is the meta progression, which comes in three major forms and one minor form. First come character upgrades, then "room" upgrades, and lastly are unique passives that you get from befriending characters between runs. The character and room upgrades are quite powerful, but personally I felt the progression was a bit slow for how important some of the upgrades can be. Befriending characters grants you a nice bonus to specific playstyles (e.g. one grants bonuses to ranged attacks, one to spells, etc) and can be changed between floors, so if you find yourself getting a lot of items geared towards one playstyle you don't have to feel like you're entirely wasting the passive.

The rest of the game falls on presentation, and the game delivers on this front. The art style is beautiful, and as you progress in the dream world, devolves in to a more twisted and nightmarish depiction of reality. The calm, ambient piano music is a treat to listen to between runs or while deciding if you really want to swap those items out between rooms (vinyl pressing when?).

There's something here for everyone who even remotely enjoys the genre, with adjustable difficulty ranging from "normal, take less damage each time you die" to "nightmare, everything does 2x damage, has 2x health, new enemies, new attack patterns, new boss moves". Overall, a truly wonderful game and an excellent showing by the developers for what has clearly been a passion project. Hope to see more from them in the future, and I feel this game is well worth it at full price. (seriously though, vinyl pressing of the OST when?)

E: It took a little over 2 years, but we -did- eventually get that vinyl pressing. Thank you, devs and Dale North!