izigame.me

Absolutely incredible game
It's SO frustratingly close for me to easily consider it a masterpiece, but I still love it all the same.
The Good
While the gameplay, visuals, and music are all mostly top notch, I ultimately found the characters and dialogue to be what truly sets this game apart. Considering the wacky premise of the game I wasn't expecting that much and figured there might be a good moment or two, but it kept on surprising me. It tackles quite the number of topics with genuine care and understanding.
It's hard to describe as it never really goes that deep and is mostly kept lighthearted, but the impact can be felt. It's just as funny as it is bittersweet. I nearly teared up at many points (maybe SOME water eye) as you really feel for the characters, especially if it's something you've experienced before or even still working through. They're probably the best written kid characters I've seen in quite some time and the game really comes together because of that. It's not perfectly executed with some things either happening too fast or too slow, but it makes up for that.

With that being said though, there is of course the rest of the game. I don't think much needs to be said on visuals/music as they speak for themselves, but for gameplay I have a few things to touch on. This is what I originally thought would be the game's strongest aspect (and a large reason why I played the game in the first place). I'm glad I held off until a few patches as I likely would've been far less satisfied on this front. The difficulty especially I care a lot about as being pushed to interact with the game's systems makes it far more engaging and satisfying as long as the systems facilitate it.
Thankfully, the game is about as mechanically solid (and responsive) as it gets. Boost, buffs/debuffs, positioning, character switching, team attacks nearly with all unique effects, it has it all and you get access to a lot of it very quickly. Not much customization, but it's satisfying enough regardless and the game is short enough to not be a problem.
I heard how easy the game was before so I cranked up the enemy scale slider thinking the max on it (x2) would be the intended 'actually presented a challenge' point, but I was pleasantly surprised when I got my ass handed to me even as I slowly adjusted it down to what felt right. I liked having the assist circle for my attacks, but not for the enemies as it feels better to naturally adapt to their attacks. Even as someone with a lot of experience with these kinds of games, putting it on anything above 1.3x made things quickly go out of control. I would've liked traditional difficulty options, but I had no problem experimenting with the slider. For a first playthrough, definitely DO NOT touch the hard mode button though.
The meh
Now for the only flaw of the game that actively got in the way for me: the map design. There's nothing outright terrible and a lot of it is quite good. However, there is something you will notice very quickly when exploring about and that's space. Nearly every screen in the game feels 20%-50% bigger than it should. This by itself wouldn't be that bad, but the game often demands that you find specific things within them and you're likely to just waste a bunch of time. There's one or two times where it feels like absolute filler, and others where it's a mild annoyance. Heavily depends how you feel about it. The capability of the map (that you look at) is also quite limited
I also expected a little more out of a certain character and the ending but it doesn't hinder the overall experience too much

Anyways that about does it for me. Fantastic game that deserves far more recognition.