The first 5 hours of game up until "the end" achievement are really pleasant, so buying for sale and stopping there the game is pretty great. The problem is the package as whole.

With gameplay, I cannot understand who the heck thought that double tapping direction to run was great idea? There's also many areas where you are supposed to run but then also change directions and running stops when you switch direction. You already only use arrows and one button on overworld, having second button as run would still make the game playable with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NES controller and I guess they aimed that kind of vibe for the game, but then also have high resolution effects and sub-pixel movement...

Most enviroments also are just black enviroments with some dots on them to show the way vaguely and rest feel like RPG maker example levels.

The main gameplay is fine, but it's definitely more like bullet hell on lanes, rather than rhythm game.

Minor spoilers here onwards.

After you "finish" the game, you basically need to replay the game again and revisit every single place and character, this feels cheap and annoying regardless of story context. After you have done this and be reminded constantly how "end is near", that's only halfway through and you are constantly just wishing that the current level is actually the last level finally. I actually ran into bug where start menu opened in front of the gameplay as the story sequence required pressing that button and couldn't do anything and last save was couple levels ago, so I was already quitting at that point because "oh well, I was almost done with the game anyway", but no, there was still hours left. The game keeps constantly shoving onto your face how the end is coming and reminding you of the characters of the game by showing them but I have no interest or investement on almost any of said characters so it started to feel like rotating the assets and saying how "hey, remember this thing from half an hour ago?"
And of course at the very end you have to have still reminder that of course there's secret stuff in the game left and how there's now NG+ as well if you want to indulge even longer!

It tries too hard on world building, character development, fourth wall breaking and everything else, but it doesn't success on any and just end up feeling like cheaper copy of other similar games which there has been many even recently.

The first 5 hours of game up until "the end" achievement are really pleasant, so buying for sale and stopping there the game is pretty great. The problem is the package as whole. With gameplay, I cannot understand who the heck thought that double tapping direction to run was great idea? There's also many areas where you are supposed to run but then also change directions and running stops when you switch direction. You already only use arrows and one button on overworld, having second button as run would still make the game playable with goddamn NES controller and I guess they aimed that kind of vibe for the game, but then also have high resolution effects and sub-pixel movement... Most enviroments also are just black enviroments with some dots on them to show the way vaguely and rest feel like RPG maker example levels. The main gameplay is fine, but it's definitely more like bullet hell on lanes, rather than rhythm game. Minor spoilers here onwards. After you "finish" the game, you basically need to replay the game again and revisit every single place and character, this feels cheap and annoying regardless of story context. After you have done this and be reminded constantly how "end is near", that's only halfway through and you are constantly just wishing that the current level is actually the last level finally. I actually ran into bug where start menu opened in front of the gameplay as the story sequence required pressing that button and couldn't do anything and last save was couple levels ago, so I was already quitting at that point because "oh well, I was almost done with the game anyway", but no, there was still hours left. The game keeps constantly shoving onto your face how the end is coming and reminding you of the characters of the game by showing them but I have no interest or investement on almost any of said characters so it started to feel like rotating the assets and saying how "hey, remember this thing from half an hour ago?" And of course at the very end you have to have still reminder that of course there's secret stuff in the game left and how there's now NG+ as well if you want to indulge even longer! It tries too hard on world building, character development, fourth wall breaking and everything else, but it doesn't success on any and just end up feeling like cheaper copy of other similar games which there has been many even recently.