izigame.me

This game is AMAZING. I am seeing negative reviews focused on one of two things that have both been resolved by these dedicated devs
Difficulty complaints - There is an optional aeterna mode which tunes down the difficulty. This is hand designed to still curate a great metroidvania experience
EasyAntiCheat complaints - The devs listened to the feedback and COMPLETELY REMOVED THE ANTICHEAT. This is amazing, it shows the devs listen and that they care enough to take back a change to ensure the community is happy.
Despite all the negative reviews, there is truly only one issue that I have and it is a common issue among many games... The default controls SUCK. Luckily, this game allows you the ability to fully rebind your controls and once I found the perfect control scheme for it, it felt amazing.
I played with controller and before I go further let me just explain my control scheme with dualshock controller button references. I took advantage of the fact that you could bind multiple actions to the same button so some buttons could share actions without an overlapping issue.
The main actions:
Sword attack - R1
Jump - X
Dash - Circle
Interact - Triangle
Healing (both potion AND spell) - dpad down
Scythe/Spear attack - R2
Katana attack - square
Dark shield - L1
HERE IS THE BIG ONE
arrow AND arrow-freeze - L2
arrow action (teleport) - square
The arrow is notoriously the MOST difficult part of the game to get used to. The default controls don't help as they make things way too complicated. By doing this, you are able to prime and shoot the arrow with just your left hand, and then teleport by pressing square. This feels very natural with you already using x to jump and circle to dash in platforming segments.
I covered most of it, I have other binding for the remaining controls that feel good but really those are less important.
Now, the actual game is incredible. I found the story to be pretty generic anime plot at the start, but as you continue the game and get more story beats it starts unfolding and you get a very cool understanding of the narrative. The motivations of the main character become more clear and this goes from being a generic any-cycle to being the most important cycle of all time.
The biomes are diverse and each one feels unique. The early biomes don't stand out too much as they are things we have seen in other games. (graveyard, tower, goblin caves) What is really cool is the biomes in the second half of the map. What is cool to me may be hair tearing frustration for others but in the second half we see really amazing and unique environments that make full use of the move abilities that are unlocked in the first half.
Robot biome (good music and very different theme wise to the rest of the game)
The Oracle's home is a crazy maze biome where the areas do not even properly connect. It is a massive labyrinth that feels quite rewards once you figure out how to navigate. There are some tricky puzzles here
End of the world (dragon biome) features cool looking dragon enemies but is really a crossroads between the others
Abyss biome is the most generic of the late game areas but offers good insight to the story
And my favorite... THE SPACE BIOME which features planet hopping and orbital gravity. This for real felt like I was playing super mario galaxy in a metroidvania and the platforming segments get diabolical here. I loved this area for how unique it felt in the 2d-sidescroller space and the idea of your character literally planet hopping with his super abilities is badass
This does not even cover all of them and there are some other cool secrets to explore including the end game area and multiple secret boss areas.
I really liked the quest system in this game as it keeps track of all your ongoing missions with some brief information to remind you of what to do. I think there could be more information here in the form of hints as some of these were very confusing. What's cool to me is how interconnected the quests feel as you will get a quest in one part of the world that requires you to do things in later areas that you might not have even unlocked yet.
The combat isn't bad, but it felt too simple for me. Mobs are whatever and you can just face-tank them and then kill them with your invulnerability frames. The bosses are different though as you must learn their patterns and look for openings. The boss fights are all cool and exciting and I enjoyed battling them. What I like about the boss design is that you can't just dps race them as they will always win out. You really need to learn how to fight them without getting hit. There is one weapon that really trivializes everything: The Katana has incredible range and very high damage. Using this weapon feels like a cheat code over the rest. I will say that running around in lategame, teleporting around and one-shotting mobs with this does feel pretty great though.
The platforming in this game is AMAZING. You will see many haters in the reviews but in my opinion the platforming in this game is what sets it apart from the rest. There is an optional mode which removes the platforming challenges in the world. If you do not enjoy precision platforming, then I recommend playing in the aeterna mode so that you do not tear your hair out in frustration and then quit and leave a negative review. If you do enjoy precision platforming and suffering, then you are in for a treat. Some of the challenges make the Hollow Knight's path of pain look like just another walk through the park and some will really test your resolve and patience. I see complaints saying that there are not enough rewards for traversing difficult paths, but honestly it feels that the reward is in triumphing through the challenge itself. Sometimes you will "softlock" yourself in the middle of a platforming bit, but I recommend always carrying a return potion for these cases. Also though there is no reality in which you truly lock yourself out as any place you can platform into, you can platform out of.
The map and exploration are interesting and I have some opinions here. I am not a fan of loading screens, and am a much bigger fan of a fully interconnected world (Grime is a good example) but that is not possible with what the devs were trying to achieve with this map. The map itself is very large though and I had a blast exploring all of aeterna. You can buy a treasure map from the map maker which marks all secrets for an area for you so that on a second pass of the area you can make sure you don't miss anything.
All in all, this has become one of my all-time favorite metroidvanias after playing and I CAN'T wait until the sequel comes out.
Thank you to the devs for curating an incredible and unique experience that is targeted towards players like me and not folding to a barrage of negative reviews focusing on difficulty.