The tl;dr is that if you like methodical exploration and Etrian Odyssey, you'll love it.

Without the tl;dr, this game could be seen as niche... and it absolutely is. Because it's based off of an incredibly niche sort of manga. It's difficult at times, does not stop you from making mistakes, and you are completely capable of soft-locking yourself. So git gud.

The core gameplay loop is similar to the Etrian Odyssey; you have your destination and purpose in mind, you load up on supplies you think you need, you add more because last time you forgot something, and you anticipate the perils you may encounter. Then you dive down, deeper than I went on your mom right after prom but before graduation.

The scenery and music fits completely as your death child slowly devolves into a rage child. Faced with untold horrors that normies will never comprehend and the creepy madness that comes from knowing not even a strategy guide will help you, your rage child devolves into some form of pit beast. A little bug-eating shin kicker that says they can take three adults on at once and come out with barely a scratch. Since this is Made in Abyss, I'll let you interpret that as to what seems more canon.

The story is pretty bare bones but that's because your Norman Fetus is playing the role of Norman Reedus, which is to say that your journey is your story. You largely lack narration because you whispering to yourself "how do I get out of here alive?" is all the narration you need. Your journey is the plot, with your failures and growth being the rising arc. Your victories from each dive-each one deeper than the last-are the climaxes to that particular chapter.

At the time of writing this, I've put in 32 hours and have obtained all achievements. And my verdict? It's too easy. If you're used to the EO series, you're a veteran before you realize it. Taking breaks when it comes to moving up and carefully planning out whether or not you should fight mirrors the plunges up and down the various Yggdrasil labryinths. Break dancing on the razor's edge becomes your bread and butter and it dawns on you that most adults probably were neutered because they simply lacked the testicular fortitude to risk life and limb for the sake of exploration. Then it dawns on you that your lovecraftian potato hasn't entered puberty yet so the notion of testiculars is a far gone dream. It wasn't about fortitude. It was about grit. It was about that need to know what lies beneath. It was about how a child is a smaller target to hit and can crawl into tiny spaces that adults can't so you're technically playing on Easy Mode until you turn into some gangly, spindly-armed monster that has to worry about some myth called "taxes".

Also it has wider lore on the setting you don't see from the manga so if you like the series you'll like this even if you suck at the modern hobby known as "video playing". It used to be called something else but multiple websites once told me on the same day that gamers were dead.