This game is hard.

But not in a cheap kinda of way, unlike e.g. Souls-like games.

It was after this {colorful adjective}, the game’s second boss, that I started to understand: the game is a precision platformer on top of a metroidvania.

You have to learn the patterns of each boss, enemy, area, etc., to be able to get to the next heal / save point. Rushing will only grant you an early grave. And each time you learn a bit more of a given pattern, you get through it either more easily, faster, or both, the game rewarding you for repetition, patience and paying attention instead of speedrunning and playing with luck.

The second boss, I think it’s purposefully made to be a cutoff in the game’s difficulty, to teach the player to learn what the game expects the player to. It starts with a single attack, and the further you get its life down, the more attacks are added to its attack pool. In comparison, the third boss is much slower, but he starts with attacks already mixed, like the game is either checking your progress, or reminding you.

And with the amount of backtracking you have to do, how sparse saves are, and the game not having quick travel, you sure are learning to best progress through the map. But that amounts for a good thing, imo, as after a few times, you are going through your route near unharmed.

Even pogo mechanics, which I hate (Hollow Knight fans please don’t kill me) and that are in the game, after some tries I could do in mandatory sections with enough health to get to the next save point. And I feel like the dev tested the game back to back, because in some cheaper parts, there are checkpoints, like in a long vertical cave halfway through your path, you get a free heal (not save though).

Also the main character being able to shape-shift, the relevance of both forms feel very well balanced.

Glitches were few, far between and hard to trigger, the only major one noticed being when I got softlocked as I got killed by one of the 3rd boss’s attacks still going off as his defeat animation was playing (image).

Story-wise, it does its job. Not many dialogues so some answers are given by context, certain of such answers are rewarded through exploration, it’s somewhat of an horror game as usual for a metroidvania, and tone/development is consistent.

Sound-wise, musics aren’t too varied but aren’t tiring either, and field/combat/movement sounds are decent.

Graphics-wise, it’s a gorgeous 1-bit art, and that works great for both the cute, the scenery, and the excuse-me-what-the-🦆.

Also first time ever I see a Playdate game with save functions. Goes to the “games with unexpected save feature when I thought the engine didn’t allow for it” bucket list, along with Crimson Keep (smut game) and Phoenotopia, both for the Flash Player.

Gameplay-wise, just a last note: I played it through Playdate’s official simulator, not on real hardware, so experiences may vary.

All in all, I totally recommend it, and it pains me to have taken so long to start it.

(repost because I was having some issues editing it)