I am writing this review after completing all achievements.

I first completed Fountains back in January and was instantly impressed.

The world of Fountains instantly captivated me and left me thinking about it for weeks after completing it. Once the game had its achievements added. I knew I wanted to play it again with the added challenges.

John Pywell has managed to put a ton of passion into this project and it is evident from the get go. The world of Fountains is foreboding and quiet. It gives a vibe of you against the world on your journey through it with only a handful of characters you will interact with, most of which are shrouded in mystery and whose intents are anyone's guess.

Even discovering more hidden areas of the game typically leave the player with more questions than answers adding to the sense of discovery and the feeling that there are still more stones to be turned over.

The story is good. On my playthroughs where I wasn't rushing for time or focusing intently on not dying. I took time to absorb as much of the story as I could. As mentioned early the sense of mystery surrounding many of the characters and almost a lack of explanation actually adds to the core of the game. I do wish, to a degree that more of the story elements of the game and secrets had some more threads and gave the player at least some context to their existence.

The combat is fantastic. The flow of combat is very good. Having played many souls games and metroidvanias over the years I have, what I would consider a good grasp on what good and fair combat looks like in these types of games. First off, the game gives a decent amount of options when selecting between different types of armor and tools and weapons. Eventually you will come across what is considered the "best" armor and a couple of options for "best" weapon. But its the tools that really shine and give the player a bit more flexibility to match their play style.

The boss fights are very fun and after looking at some of players comments around fairness, I can say that they are very fair and while it can be a tough pill to swallow, is you lose, it is almost if not always a misstep by the player.

I really enjoyed the music in the game. The piano really hits home in multiple tracks and slaps during boss fights.

Overall I really loved Fountains. I will be looking forward to the next game that John Pywell creates!

The controls are tight, the combat and exploration are satisfying, but the late game bosses are just.... not it. The early game bosses were difficult. They took me multiple, but not too many, tries and I felt like I learned on each try. The later bosses though... they have ENORMOUS health bars, some poorly telegraphed attacks (IE: using the same windup animation for multiple attacks with different speeds and damage areas), do enormous damage with one attack, and sometimes have damage hitboxes on their attacks that last so long and are so locked onto you that roll i-frames don't save you from damage and the only way to not get hit is simply not being anywhere near the boss... which is a problem for getting in attacks. During the first half of the game bosses took me 1-10ish tries... the first boss I fought in the second half of the game took me almost 100 tries... and the boss I'm on currently I believe I have reached around 25 tries without even getting him past half health. The game is visually gorgeous, the sound design is wonderful, the world building is interesting, the exploration is fun, the navigation tools are neat, but these later bosses are just a complete road block to enjoying the rest of the game.

if you die try again. if you die try again. if you die try again. anyways, the game good.