izigame.me

This game was a huge surprise to me, for many many reasons. I'll start off by saying it's got its flaws, but is absolutely one of the best Metroidvanias out there...only it's about 80% precision platformer and 20% Metroidvania. If you made a Kaizo Hollow Knight (or turned the Path of Pain in to a whole game) this would be it.
The world is gigantic. HowLongToBeat has this at an average playthrough time of 30-40 hours. My playthrough took 16.4 hours according to Steam, and I missed 1/3 of the game's collectibles, quests, etc. Each zone feels very fleshed out, with its own unique gimmick, art style, set of enemies, and music. The sheer amount of work that was put in to making this game's world is incredible, and the hand-drawn art is so well done. No zone really assets from another (except that the hub extends both left and right, which is essentially just one big zone), and there is so much character in the world and all of its NPCs. They did a phenomenal job of making you feel like you're going on an adventure to reclaim your power, from the depths of the Earth to, well, saying more would be a spoiler.
Because this game is, in my opinion, first and foremost a precision platformer, mobility is an incredibly important part of it. Mobility tools are handed out fairly regularly, with some really satisfying movement tech throughout. You have your standard double jump and dash, with the ability to "reset" your jump / dash in mid-air using a downwards attack. You also get the ability to shoot an arrow that you can teleport to, and you will be expected to mix all of these together very frequently. Resets from running in to a voidout / spikes are snappy, and the actual punishment for dying is incredibly minor. In that respect, this is less like the typical Souls-like death punishment and more of a minor setback, and is not nearly the frustrating endeavor it can typically be in that genre. There will be times you will see a jumping puzzle and think "wait, they don't really expect me to do X, right?" But getting to that next checkpoint is as satisfying as beating any boss in a Souls game.
The combat is a mixed bag of mostly very good. The bosses are all great, truly some of the best in the genre at times. Very flashy, patterns which make sense, not so fast you can't get a hit in, but not so slow you're dancing around waiting for the opening, and telegraphed attacks. Again, shoutout to the music team for some tremendous themes. You have your standard button-mashy sword that gets outclassed by basically all of your secondary weapons, but it makes for a nice balancing act of being incentivized to use both regularly. Your heal and secondary weapons also both use the same "blood" resource, so you have to think about the trade-off of which to prioritize: damage or healing. It makes the boss fights really entertaining, and a lot more cerebral. All that being said, the regular screen-to-screen combat could probably do with some balancing. Each zone has a "slime" enemy of some kind that has an on-death effect which basically means you have to stand still and wait for them to pop after killing them before you can do anything, which definitely messes with the flow of exploration. Similarly, there are a few enemies which strike me as just "annoying" such as very fast flying enemies or enemies with large invulnerability windows. Fortunately, enemies don't respawn unless you die or rest at a checkpoint, so you can "clear out" a zone if you're secret hunting or what have you.
I've mentioned it throughout, but the music and sound design are great. Truly no notes here, and the final zone / boss in particular are huge standout tracks. The voice acting wasn't my cup of tea and personally I muted it pretty early on, but since this is an easy option to access, it's not worth complaining about.
For the last point: the difficulty cannot be overstated. I have 100%'d all FromSoft Souls games multiple times, I have done every world deathless in Super Meat Boy, I used to speed run Ninja Gaiden Black and 2 for fun, and I still found Normal difficulty challenging. I did not dare try Hard, but for those who do, you can freely switch between the two at any time. Just be warned that this game does not pull any punches, and for what the Souls games did to revive the "hard but fair" genre of action RPGs, this game does for Metroidvanias.
Overall, highly recommend as long as you also enjoy precision platformers. The Metroidvania elements are all done very well, and this studio is 100% one to watch, with a really fun roguelite (in the same universe) and a sequel to this game both in the pipeline. The precision platforming is great, and they do some truly unique things with the gameplay mechanics that are explored thoroughly without overstaying their welcome. If you're not the type to be put off by difficult games, there's something really special here, and an absolutely phenomenal first showing from the developers.