izigame.me

I loved this game. The art style is fantastic. The animated cutscenes sprinkled throughout are such a treat. Absolutely beautiful soundtrack. NPCs are fun and entertaining. The writing is wonderful, funny, and heartbreaking. There's a good variety in weapons, though keeping the pistol and shotgun in rotation feels almost necessary. Boss fights were always unique and interesting in concept (though not always in execution).

Now, the things that I did not like.
-The dash comes FAR too late in the game. For this to be a metroidvania that requires you to constantly backtrack, it takes FOREVER to go from area to area, especially when you aren't 100% sure where you need to be looking for whatever quest item is necessary.
-The game desperately needs a better fast travel system. The fast travel points are oddly inconveniently placed. There are large parts of the map that are without them (especially central of the map) and you seem to have to go to those areas frequently. Not to mention the fast travel points ALSO cost a unique currency for much of the game. A currency that you have to gather in the world, and then make at the fast travel point, to use the fast travel point (stupid, STUPID).
-The turn around function is not perfect. I don't know if it needed to be a shorter duration held but MANY of my deaths were because of thinking I had turned around only to ride in the same direction to my death.
-The hook function is dicey at best and extremely difficult to use at its worst and made that whole boat area of the map feel like a pain to get through. It got so frustrating that I considered quitting the game. I'm glad I didn't, but that level of annoyance does not make for FUN. Having the dash there would have made it significantly easier to get through, but that was still 2/3 of the game away.
-Upgrades cost FAR too much. Max upgrade costing 3000 of the currency when you typically get 5 (FIVE) for killing enemies is insane. Especially considering there's like 6 weapons and multiple bag upgrades. I didn't have it in me to grind it out just for achievement sake.
-Nearly all the side quests were ridiculous fetch quests forcing you to go from corner to corner (again, the terrible fast travel does not help this) only to receive basic upgrade material you can easily get from respawnable chests. Make the side quests feel like they're worth doing. I don't care how interesting the NPCs are (and they are all quite varied) if I'm getting useless rewards in return for the quests.
-I initially started this game on a controller, because that's how I expect to play a platformer, but I VERY quickly switched to mouse and keyboard. Godspeed to anyone that persevered with a controller, because having to move, aim, reload with the flips, use the hook, etc all on a controller feels absolutely awful (lol at console players).

I really wish there had been another boss or area like the mines. That was one of the only times that the fact that you're on a motorbike felt fluid and fast. I understand that really isn't the crux of the game, but I still feel like it should have had a greater impact, rather than the start stop start stop precision gameplay.

I know this is a review mostly focused on negatives, but the entire 30-35 hours I spent on this game (a bit of afk) I loved. But there is truly a laundry list of caveats. The game itself was never too difficult, but as I said above, I nearly quit from frustration over a poorly implemented core mechanic. Buy it full price, buy it on sale, just play this game. It really is beautiful. Just mind the bird shit that you will step in while playing it.