Recent reviews by Cartography Dee

This game is presented as a 'puzzle-precision-platformer' which is a little misleading. The 'puzzle' is figuring out how to use the game's bizzare movement system to try and flail through the obstacles with any level of consistency. The first and foremost focus is on precision and execution. The movement system has a lot more depth than it first appears to, and is expanded further by special techniques that you discover later.

Do not be fooled by the cute graphics. This game is very unforgiving and features many unforgiving sections. If you consider yourself a more casual type of player, I would not recommend this. It's pretty satisfying if you are able to persevere through it though.

The only major negative right is that there is no rebinding. You're stuck with WASD + Arrow Keys/IJKL (you have to use them both at once). Hopefully that option gets added in.

2.0 update after 8 years is real

This is just a very solid Metroidvania in every aspect. Exploration is great, the game is rather non-linear and allows for multiple different routes. Aesthetic is pleasant, Music is nice and ambient, and control is fluid. Combat is fairly basic but still involved enough to not be mindless.

Overall, I'd primarily recommend this for metroidvania fans that value having a large open world to freely wander around in. The developers were also quite active post-launch polishing and improving the game, so it's a shame this game didn't get much attention.

Top-tier metroidvania. Movement, exploration, sequence breaking, it's all here. Grapplehook mechanics are fluid and you can do some advanced tricks with it. Easy recommend to anyone that doesn't mind playing on mouse/keyboard (game supports controller, but you will probably suffer a bit with that).

The free DLC update added an optional precision platformer area onto that is basically the size of the rest of the game. There is not a lack of content here for sure.

Very solid spaceship Roguelike. Features ship building, Math and Laserbeams. Player agency is high enough to the point where most losses are the player's fault, the game usually gives you enough tools to deal with it.

+ Large amount of build variety. Many interactions between various units.
+ Simple core mechanics without lacking in complexity.
+ Almost no power-based meta progression. No required grinding.
+ Low Price tag for the content

- Very small soundtrack

While most of the reviews are just memes, the game is actually a unique and innovative mashup between roguelike/bullet-hell/MMO-raid mechanics. There's a fairly sizeable demo so simply check that if you have any interest. The only significant problem I've had is that a few attack telegraphs are a little too messy, but overall it's fine.

Also, credits to having very non-obtrusive meta progression that doesn't handicap you without grinding upgrades, unlike some other recent roguelite...

A nice and streamlined tactics/deckbuilder hybrid. Play is similar to a normal grid tactics game but your available skills each turn come from character specific decks (that you can redraw from to an extent). The story is light-hearted and unobtrusive, much of the focus is on a large variety of character customization through the equipment and cards you acquire.

Positives:
-Non-linear progression, you can do the 4 major areas in the game in any order.
-90% of loot is unique equipment or skill cards, with many that significantly change the way you build a character or party.
-Shop Buyback system lets you experiment without bricking your save file.
-Good amount of content
-Solid Soundtrack

Negatives:
-Fairly amateur artwork
-Some battles can drag on a little too long

Overall an easy recommendation for anyone interested in the tactics genre.

A very comfy dungeon crawler. There's no world-ending catastrophe or major antagonist, you're just exploring some ruins looking for potato seeds. It's a welcome change of pace.

Unlike many other dungeon crawlers, this game makes a significant effort to modernize the genre. Gameplay is extremely streamlined: there's almost no downtime in exploration or combat, travel is very quick. and grinding is minimal and mostly optional,

The game still manages to have a solid amount of party customization. You have 8 classes to choose 3 from. Each class has their own skill sets and there are strong cross class synergies available. Some enemies disincentive certain strategies, so you are rewarded for changing up your party or equipment at times. The game is not super difficult, but it's not easy to the point you can just mindlessly plow through everything; you do need to put some thought into things.

It takes about 15-25h to finish the game, depending on how much drop farming you decide to do in the end game and how often you change up your team.

If you have any interest in a turn-based dungeon crawler, this is one I can widely recommend.

Most of the game is good, though there is one rather glaring problem. The story. Not because of the writing (though the writing is comically bad at times), but because this game is story driven. As a result, all important movement/progression abilities are gated behind story progression.

What this means is that there despite the world being very large and interconnected, there is no real reason to go and explore it instead of just following the quest markers. If you try. you'll never find a special item, or stumble onto a boss. The most you'll ever find is a potion or sigil before running into dead ends you can't clear without critical items gated behind story progress. It is quite unfortunate considering that Rabi-Ribi had pretty much avoided this problem, I guess this is due to the difference in head designers.

Other than that, combat is fluid, music is good, story... exists. Just a shame the exploration is rather weak. It's what's stopping the game from being 'great' rather than just 'good'.

It's pretty ambitious to make a full length dungeon crawler as a solo developer, unfortunately in this case it's too ambitious. The core inspiration for the game (kingsfield) has more than its fair share of design issues as well, but that doesn't give this game a free pass.

-Combat is both basic and janky. Hitboxes are basically a suggestion, projectiles will fly directly through enemies more often than not, and the range on melee attacks doesn't line up with the visuals. If you're trying to jump and you're anywhere near an enemy or other obstacle the game will frequently eat your input. This jank extends to the physica and rare times you have to do platforming, though fortunately you don't have to do much platforming. Combat is definitely not the main selling point, so how about the exploration?

-Exploration is hit-or-miss. Some areas are visually interesting and have a good amount of inter-connectivity. Other areas are bland mazes with a bunch of identical looking corridors. It's pretty much a toss-up. The worst is the sewer area; It looks visually identical everywhere but it also doesn't lead to any other areas, making it a huge waste of time as you wander in circles to make sure you didn't miss anything. I also made the mistake(?) of playing a Ranged weapon focused build, and as a result most of the loot I found was pretty useless to me. The best ranged weapon you get for a long time is in the literal first shop, and the only better one I've found since has been behind an incredibly easy to miss secret wall. Speaking of secrets:

-Secrets are mostly unsatisfying. There are 3 main categories of them:
1. Fake Walls. The most frequent type of secret. The most annoying type since it just involves you rubbing your face against walls. There are no visual tells other than the surface being flat. At first it seems like most of them are somewhat predictable locations, except for the ones that aren't. Better check all the walls just in case!
2. Hinted at by in-game text. These are mostly fine, though they are pretty linear and isolated from each other (ex. there's one diary on the floor with the hint, and you might need a specific item or spell to complete it). The only issue is that a couple diaries sound like they have associated secrets when they actually don't. Other than that, there's the least to complain about this category.
3. Completely Random or Obtuse. There is no logical deduction that makes these make sense, For some like the 'uwu' easter egg it's fine (as an easter egg you're never expected to see in your first run), but at least one of these interactions is necessary for core game progression. (If you get stuck at the castle gate don't feel bad about searching it up). EDIT: This gets wayyy worse near the end of the game... You will never find this stuff out naturally, be prepared to wiki things.

Minor quibble:
-It's been said a lot, but the cutesy anime girl npcs are hilariously out of place. It's not so much an issue that they're in the game, just they don't look like literally anything else you see.

Overall I would say the game tries to do a lot, but doesn't do most of it very well. Despite that, this style of game is a rarity nowadays, so someone that wants to play this genre may be able to overlook most of the issues. It's just not something I can widely recommend to people.