First things first, some simple questions that will quickly answer if this game is for you:

Have you seen Made in Abyss?
If you haven't, then this is not for you. Go watch the show, it's really good!

Do you want more of the world, lore and characters of the Abyss?
If you do then this game might just be for you! With a few caveats...

What Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness does well is present the Abyss itself as the true antagonist. It's going to get you killed, a number of times, and often in quite unfair ways, but since you've seen the show (unless you were lying when you answered my questions), you already know that!

The game somewhat requires that you take a trip through an extended tutorial and recap of the start of the first season of the show, seeing Riko and Reg trek it all the way down to the edge of the second layer, just past Seeker Camp. This part of the game is quite slow, and it removes some of the more interesting mechanics that the proper game provides.

Honestly, I was almost giving up on the game at first. The roughly 4 hours I spent going through the tutorial was somewhat painful. When I realised that there was no point to painstakingly collecting a lot of the things the game tells you that you CAN collect, I ended up running through a lot of the environments, opting to save them for when the real game got started. This was a wise choice! Because, oh wow, there's a lot to explore, find and collect in the game proper.

Jumping over to Deep in Abyss, the actual part of the game, things immediately become a lot more interesting. You start things off as a young cave raider with a grand goal in mind: Become a White Whistle and reach the bottom of the Netherworld! Sound familiar? Of course it does, you are essentially a stand-in for Riko, and your journey through the Abyss very closely matches the journey in the first season[myanimelist.net] and movie[myanimelist.net] of the show, ultimately ending at taking the elevator down to the sixth layer.

On your way, the game presents an original story that the author of the manga was deeply involved with, making it by and large canon (with a bit of creative freedom in some regards). It kept me motivated to keep going, as I absolutely adore this world and its strange inhabitants, but the real meat of the package is of course the world itself.

The Abyss is a huge, sprawling network of caverns and vistas, streams and waterfalls, settlements and wastelands, all spread out across a number of layers. Descending down is captivating. Ascending is always treacherous and sometimes literally lethal due to the curse. The deeper you go, the worse it gets. This draw, the mystery of the depths and the perils of returning from them, is truly captivating.

Gameplay wise the loop consists of venturing out from Orth, the surface town built around the edge of the Abyss, and collecting artefacts to bring back. You complete quests along the way, and combined with the artefacts that you return (or make equipment out of), you slowly level up. At certain story points, you will be able to upgrade the level of your whistle, the badge of designation carried by every cave raider. The higher the level, the deeper you can go. It also comes with the benefit of making the strains caused by the curse of the abyss easier to bear, as well as unlocking the ability to fast travel in deeper and deeper parts of the Abyss. A daunting trek back from a deep layer suddenly becomes a piece of cake once you are experienced enough.

Visually, the game sports a very stylized design, very closely matching the look of the anime. Characters are rendered very close to their 2D counterparts and all feature the original voice actors from the show, at least in Japanese. The beasts you encounter and the many different foods you consume over your travels are both also rendered with extreme attention to detail to the canon of the show. There are even some new environments spread through the layers you can explore, adding even more depth (pun intended) to the Abyss.

Ultimately, this game is a true love letter to the show and its universe, and while the task can be somewhat daunting with a slow start and a pretty harsh difficulty spike when going deeper the first few times, I can only recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who is a fan of the series. It’s not perfect, but the good parts by far outweigh the bad.