When I went into this game, I knew practically nothing. I knew it had a lot of fighting, had anthropomorphic characters, and that one of them was what Stampy's Minecraft skin was based on. I knew nothing else. Usually when I pick up a game, I know a lot more about it from YouTube, following dev diaries, or just basic research before buying. I decided not to this time... and I don't regret it. Playing this game blind has been one of the best experiences in gaming that I have ever had. I enjoyed it from start to finish, all twenty hours of my first playthrough.
The ending in particular was amazing, though I won't go into any details as to why, since I don't know how to mark things as spoiler. Going in blind made my experience far better, and I don't want to take that away from anyone debating whether or not to buy the game while reading reviews. The game isn't perfect, but it's in my top ten favourites. There's a lot of charm to it, and I love most of the characters. A first playthrough will probably take you about 10-15 hours if you're not rushing or backtracking, though backtracking is rewarded well in some cases, which resulted in my 20 hours. Still worth it for the line which went really hard before the final boss.

I had a decent time with this game. There were a number of things I found flawed with the game, but I still enjoyed playing it.

The sense of discovery and progression were the best parts for me. There are multiple sectioned off areas with some branching paths and hidden things to find. You get to unlock abilities over time that allow you to both progress further and find previously hidden items and areas. Environmental dangers do not feel too punishing nor overly difficult to progress through.

In pursuing optional, hidden items, the backtracking felt tedious. A more robust fast travel system would have helped along with some kind of quicker movement ability unlock. There are teleport stones, but they have to be found, or more commonly bought, in order for you to use them to leave an area via save point. When entering an area, you can only go to the entrance or exit, barring the infrequent existence of shortcuts in certain areas.

The combat didn't click with me, and it just felt tedious. That's not great when that's the majority of the playtime. It's not necessarily badly designed combat. It just wasn't for me. Visual clarity in combat could get messy with a bunch of enemies to fight at once.

I played on normal difficulty. The beginning felt a little challenging, but that challenge quickly went away. There are difficulty options that can be changed in a menu at any time, but I didn't try them. I actually prefer having the option to become overpowered in a Metroidvania. And since I didn't enjoy this style of combat, I didn't mind the difficulty curve being so off. I was largely able to spam one singular attack button as I felt the combos just made things take longer.

The items dropped from enemies really should have just immediately gone to your inventory rather than having to be picked up. Even with the dust storm ability, it just felt unnecessary to have to pick them up. Though even that ability flung them around right out of your reach more often than not forcing you to walk over to them anyhow.

Similar to the difficulty curve, the gold acquisition wasn't an issue the further I played. I ended with a far excess of gold than needed, even for crafting and buying endgame gear.

The music didn't stand out. The voice acting and writing were fine. The art work is rough. Environment design can be pleasantly creative.

Gripes aside, it's a charming game that was worth playing for a Metroidvania fan like me.

ITS SO PEAK