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I was pretty torn on this game. I very much enjoyed the first 75% of the game. It was shaping up to probably be a good solid B tier game. The end game absolutely ruined it for me and probably brings it down to a C tier game. It's really not a terrible game. It has some good things but the end game really ruined the fun for me.

Positives:
The game is quite immersive and has great atmosphere and art direction. It uses a very unconventional setting that helps make if feel unique and actually pulls it off quite well. A Sci-Fi, ancient greek space station with some lovecraftian vibes. Sounds crazy but really it worked quite well.

Character progression is well paced and rewards you well for finding hidden areas and completing platforming challenges/puzzles. Upgrades feel meaningful and are pretty regularly paced. There was a stretch in the later part of the mid game where it felt a little long between upgrades though.

Neutral:
It’s a pretty linear experience. It’s more of an atmosphere/narrative driven experience. There are some branching paths, but there is still a pretty set path through the game that you have to follow. I didn’t mind it much, but some metroidvania fans might be put off by this aspect.

Traversal mechanics are not just your standard fare metroidvania mechanics. The main mechanic is the lantern ability. This is basically the bash ability from Ori with the ability to create your own bash points anywhere and doubles as your double jump and dash abilities.

Combat is decent. It encourages parries and aerial moves for evasion. I enjoyed it, but might not be for everyone. Combat has a few rough edges too. There is some questionable hit boxes. The spear actually demands quite a bit of precision that some aim assist or the ability to adjust the aim sensitivity would have helped with a lot. It is a pretty invaluable piece of your kit. Some parry widows feel poorly telegraphed and/or nonsensical. Difficulty tends towards groups of enemies with random attack timings that can make even a small group of mobs difficult to deal with. There is also a pretty significant stagger if you mess up which can really amplify that problem. Overall none of it felt terrible and was mostly just minor annoyances until late game.

Minor Negatives:
Map design and progression is kind nonsensical and confusing. The game is a pretty linear, but the path through the world map is not at all. It warps you around to completely separate sections of the map. It can be pretty disorienting and makes intuitively knowing where to head to next and/or backtracking needlessly difficult. There are several places where biomes are only connected up in one place. Biomes are visually distinct, but are sub-divided into smaller sub-sections and remembering exactly what was going on in a particular sub-section can be a lot to keep track of. Some biomes are interrupted by a few scenes from a different biome in the middle of it only to switch back again past those scenes.

The fast travel system in this game is nonsensical and overly complicated. There are 4 forms of fast travel. Teleporters, trams, and two different kinds of save points. All teleporters could be removed and changed to trams instead. Later biomes could have been gated off in the tram station to ensure players arent accessing them before they were intended to. There is already a couple examples of this in game. Save points also act as fast travel but only within the biome unless you are at the super save point for that biome, which doesnt exist for every biome. The super save points will allow you to travel to other super save points or to any save point in that biome. Its needless complication that actively makes the game worse and leaves fast traveling feeling annoying and time consuming. Here is one example of a fast travel route I had to take to backtrack for a pickup, a path that took me 2+ mins of looking at the map to work out: Tram to biome close to super save> walk to super save A and fast travel super save B> Fast travel from super save B to save point C> walk from save point C to save point D in next biome> fast travel from save point D to save point E> walk from save point E to teleporter> teleport to location.

Major negatives:
What really ruined it for me was the late game traversal and boss encounters. This is the only metroidvania I have played where traversal felt worse in the end game than it did in the early game. Partially due to the fast travel system and map design I mentioned but also the late game level design and platforming. Instead of being rewarded with ease of movement it feels like you are being punished. Once you have the final lantern jump everything becomes about overly complex platforming puzzles with precise execution requirements. Theres not much platforming challenge prior to this, and even this it not really testing your platforming in any traditional sense. It’s playing “the floor is lava” for longer than your movement abilities allow out of the box. It requires chaining all of the lantern jumps with a couple of earlier abilities that were barely used before and/or navigating tight corridors with more bends than the jump lanterns available to you and electric floors that reset your position when you touch them. Rather than feeling like late game difficulty/challenge progression it felt like tacked on padding to extend the end game.

The other issue was the late game bosses. To be fair, all of the bosses throughout the game suffered from these same problems some, but the last couple of bosses really turned the dial up to 11. It went from feeling kind of cheap and a little lazy to flat out unfair and infuriating. I wont describe them in depth due to spoilers and this already being a long review. Suffice to say the game uses some cheap arena traps and adds in boss fights too much. There is no pattern to learn on the arena traps or the attack timing from adds so a lot of it comes down to luck and patience more than skill.

Conclusion:
I really enjoyed the first 3/4 of the game. The end game really ruined it for me though. Everything felt tacked on and padded out to drag out the end game. It has some other rough edges, but nothing too game breaking. C tier game. Probably a recommended B tier if not for the really maddening end game padding. Others might not be as bothered by those complaints or actually welcome them as the game does not offer too much combat/platforming challenge prior to this. It felt very out of place with the rest of the game though and left me feeling like it overstayed its welcome when I should have just been wrapping up the home stretch of an otherwise pleasant experience. There is some good stuff here and may be worth picking up on sale if you don’t mind those things and are looking for a new 2d action platformer with a lot of atmosphere.

Somber echoes was a lot better than i expected in many ways but especially visually and narratively. The game's cover art didn't really appeal to me, which made me think it would be a very generic game. Now said art is actually a nice painting but it doesn't translate well as a banner image imo. However somber echoes was far from a generic game with its unique blend of greek mythology and sci-fi futurism, which led to a world that was very engaging to explore. This is due to a multitude of reasons but mostly because the level design is just really good. Exploring every nook and cranny of the atromitos was a real joy thanks to a great mapping system that mostly allows you to easily go for 100%, which is always fun. Unfortunately this will require you to use the fast travel a lot which is for a lack of better words, obnoxious as hell.
To go from biome A to B you'll have to go to a checkpoint in biome A, tp to biome A's circe chamber, then from that circe chamber go to the circe chamber of biome B and then possibly to another checkpoint in biome B. There's also biomes that don't have a circe chamber which requires you to use the train hub that also requires a few TP's to get to. Basically all of this to say that going anywhere takes a load of time but given that the map is of a respectable size you'll pretty much have to. I would really like to see this fixed, especially adding circe chambers to all biomes but idk if this would sequence break some things. Regardless this is the only real downside to exploraton because the rest is pretty great. Even the hidden secret rooms are well telegraphed thanks to the great usage of 2.5 graphics for the environments.
Speaking of environments somber echoes is a very good looking game. Sure some models are pretty ugly but the amount of detail in every environment is honestly mind boggling. There's so much going on in every screen of this game which is impressive given the aforementioned large map. There's so many unique vistas to see here as well thanks to the blend of ancient greek architecture and sci-fi tech. The great sound design also really helps you immerse yourself into the world, paired with some very good pieces of music as well to add some drama to this greek tragedy. Speaking of said tragedy somber echoes tells a suprisingly intricate story that boasts some excellent voice acting. Yes it's only one person who acts as a narrator but that works very well given the setting and it all leads to several satisfying conclusions!
What's less satisfying is the combat in this game, it's not atrocious by any means but it's also quite annoying at times. You can get brutally staggered, especially by the flying ranged enemies in this game which are just incredibly aggrevating. Regular fodder isn't much better and neither are the bosses which have very annoying movesets and no visible health bars. Not that they are particulary challenging because with the exception of the true ending boss none took me longer than 10 minutes. However there's none that i would say i found particularly enjoyable. Which is weird because on paper the combat system has it all, a fun melee, a parry that feels a bit irresponsive but especially a throwable spear that's very satisfying to use. However weird hit registration and a lack of a proper healing system makes combat a slog.
Luckily most regular enemies are pushovers that can be eliminated in one spear throw. There's a real shortage in enemy variety though with maybe a total of 20 types spread across the whole game. Some of these are biome exclusive but others are copy pasted pretty much all over. This makes killing them not as exciting but they do drop some currency which helps with upgrading. But you also need to find crafting materials for that, which makes combat a bit less rewarding but helps to make exploration more exciting. The character progression in somber echoes is mostly very basic with just a few damage numbers although there's some cool unique effects like extra iframes, lifesteal or a damage multiplier on enemies hit by your spear, something that adds strategy to bosses in particular.
Some of these bosses incorporate your movement skills to dodge their attacks which is another area where somber echoes is a mixed bag. On the one hand the 'lantern' system allows you to pause in midair and launch yourself in a chosen direction, similar to will of the wisps's launch ability which is incredibly fun and gives somber echoes something else that's enjoyable other than the unique setting. But this often has to be combined with the world's clunkiest hover/glide mechanic especially in the platforming gauntlets. If this glide would just be tied to another button than holding your jump and would be more responsive this wouldn't be a problem. But the fact that it isn't makes what would be the most exciting parts of this game into the most frustrating ones. Luckily there's no true precision platforming segments but some of the more complex rooms rely on it a lot.
You do have a very unique wall climb ability though which is also tons of fun and pairs well with the lantern to make some exhilirating sections as long as they don't rely on the hover. There's some puzzles with these too which is another area where somber echoes brings a lot of variety to the gameplay. All in all the excellent level design pairs well with mostly fun platforming mechanics but the sore spots such as fast travel and hovering weaken this a bit. It's a net positive overal though and as a whole the exploration is still very enjoyable especially thanks to unique visuals and an excellent mapping system. Combat is servicable and at times fun but on other occasions an exercise in frustration, although the overal difficulty is on the easier side which was appreciated.
Finally there's the technicalities such as performance and polish and while the game ran excellent the loading times were long. There were no major bugs or crashes though so the game works well enough. Most issues that could've existed have been patched by now so all in all it's a game worth picking up for the unique setting, narrative and exploration. I do find it a tad expensive at base price which is why i waited untill it was down to 20 bucks before picking it up. This is still relatively steep in the indie market but i think with how the industry is going currently and how expensive life is becoming that 20 is becoming the new 15 indie standard. And honestly if you look at it that way this game is worth it. The devs are kind and helpfull and they deserve some praise for this accomplishment.

Updated after beating the game and getting all of the achievements.
Final Impression
Somber Echoes is a solid experience throughout its runtime.
There is a lot to like about it, but the flaws are present, too. How much you'll like it will depend on what type of player you are.
Are you a fan of exploration and getting lost (the good feel of getting lost? Are you a fan of verticality? Are you a fan of platforming/puzzle challenges? Well, if you are, Somber Echoes seems to be the game for you.
I liked how big the ship is, I loved its interconnections. and I am a big, big fan of verticality. Powers that you acquire are not that groundbreaking, but they do compliment traversal nicely.
What caught me by surprise is how many environmental puzzles are there. The majority of them are option, but I really loved figuring patterns to break walls, where to use lanterns and how to connect it to supercharged areas. I am a puzzle fan so this works for me and since they are optional, most of these lead to collectibles and/or upgrades.
Lantern ability (the power where you freeze yourself in place and turn into a glowing orb which you direct where to charge) is very satisfying to use. It helps in traversal, in puzzles, in combat.
Speaking of combat, it's simple. That may turn some people off, but I appreciate simplicity as I am not much of a fighting expert. That being said, parry is easy, some weapons are very satisfying to use (spear), some are not (bow), and fighting bosses was really fun. Enemies don't have much weight to them, but after some time, due to your traversal abilities you will find better ways to avoid them. I'd love that other weapons had more opportunities to be used with some of puzzles/traversal challenges, but it is what it is.
Regarding visuals, the game is pretty. The environment is beautiful and diverse, the animations are smooth and music fits the atmosphere. Overall, visual identity of the game is top notch for an indie title. Nor everything is ideal as UI doesn't fit with the rest of the game, and as mentioned before, NPCs are not as great when compared to enemies / environment.
Finally, the story - the good news is that it is not a simple revenge story. The bad news is that I am not a fan of presentation. Like, I get the sense of what it is trying to do, but using Narrator to convey information and describe events is not a path I'd go with. It's hard to describe - one of those things you'll have to encounter and read to see what I mean.
But even if you put story aside, you will still get a solid experience. If you are a fan of the things I mentioned above (verticality, traversal, puzzles, platforming set in a unique setting), you will probably like Somber Echoes.
If you are a fan of tight, polished combat with diverse weapons, you might want to skip it. SE has a few interesting weapons and fun bosses, but none will scratch your challenge itch. None of that is bad - just okay.
There are some minor bugs in the games but nothing gamebreaking, checkpoints can be pretty far one from another, and some traversal areas are not as clear as they should be.
But I liked Somber Echoes for what it is - a very solid experience.
First Impression
I'll update my review as I play more of the game.
Right now, first impressions are solid.
While Somber Echoes doesn't seem to break new ground, what it does with its tools is really interesting.
I love how it uses and emphasizes verticalilty. I really like how the first power, "the lantern", feels to use. There is something really satisfying with launching yourself with it and using it to avoid enemies and/or reach distant places. Also, credit where credit is due - it's refreshing when the first power/ability that you get in metroidvania is not a double jump.
It seems that you'll be getting a lot of tools in this game, as I've only played it for 2 hours, and I've already received 4 abilities and one new weapon which feels super satisfying to use.
And that's the thing with Somber Echoes - once you get "in the zone", exploring spaceship becomes a delight, it becomes fluid, like you "own" the place.
But it will take you around hour or so get there. SE takes its time to set up the surrounding, the conflict and the goal, and some of it works and some doesn't.
Can't say that the narrative connects with me, as it is not too tight to be cinematic, but it also seems to lack ambiguity and interpretation (a la Hollow Knight). Right now it seems like a simple revenge story told in a "ye old way". Will see how it develops. There is potential there because setting is very exciting - putting Greek mythology in a SF setting is a bold choice and certainly creates an interesting atmosphere. Beautiful environments additionally support that vibe, while creature design has that classical SF energy (I mean that in a positive way).
Unfortunately, the design of humanoid NPCs is not as rich, but given how they are not heavily present in the game, I can see why they chose to not focus on them.
Overall, while the story is not that compelling for now, I gotta say that exploration and using some of the tools is very very fun. There is that feeling of "where the heck am I, now" present where you encounter a portal in a medic room and it takes you to a botanic biom with different enemies, and you get a big smile once you find an alternative path from that biom to the original location.
It's the little things like that that I appreciate in my metroidvanias. And that's why I recommend the game, for now.