izigame.me

Revita is a great example of why exactly is the game industry messed up. It's a very good game with lots of content, deep care put into its design and QoL... and this is probably the first time you're hearing of it.
If I had to describe it in one sentence, it'd be something like "Reconstruction of Binding of Isaac, with some mechanics from Hades on the side". It's a twin-stick shooter with unorthodox controls and sacrifice-based gameplay - and an ungodly amount of unlockable content and surprises.

Isaac: Reconstruction

Let's talk about the theme first. I'm comparing it to Isaac because both of those games have a child protagonist who's cast into some kind of metaphysical allegory of death. But while Isaac is very... South-Park-watching-teenage-libertarian-American with its sensibilities ("HA HA! CHILD ABUSE! FAMILY TRAUMA! DEAD PETS! UNCHECKED POWER OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM! FUNNY! ALSO POOP LOL"), Revita instead takes a more serious, more human approach to such matters.
So while the game clearly depicts some kind of grieving process - even the bosses are named after the stages of grief - here it's a more spiritual matter. Not in a religious sense - there are no religious symbols whatsoever in the game - but... look, you can be spiritual without being religious, okay? And that's what this game does. Not even in an existentialist sense, it's... I don't know, I can't explain it. All I know is it resonates with me.

Weird controls and the sacrifice mechanic

The game's default control scheme is grating at first, but once you get used to it, you'll understand why it is the way it is. This is assuming you're playing on a controller, that is. You jump with a shoulder button, you shoot with another shoulder button. It sounds weird, it feels weird, but the payoff is that it allows you to shoot, move, aim well, and jump all at the same time. And you'll need to do that.
That's because your health is your currency. You open chests with it, you buy items with it, and what does not cost health costs max health instead. So it's in your best interest to not waste your valuable health on stupid things like getting hit by enemies.
In that way, the game greatly rewards skillful play. The main way to regain health is by collecting soul - you get it by killing enemies. The faster you kill them, the more soul you get - up until a limit (possible to raise it via an item). Then, you use the soul to heal yourself. Think Hollow Knight. If you heal when at max HP, you get a quarter of a new heart container. Do it four times, you got yourself +1 max HP.
This creates a very interesting drive whenever there's an opportunity to spend HP. Do I buy this thing? Do I need this thing? I must grow stronger to keep up with the difficulty, but won't this jeopardize my chances at defeating the boss? This conundrum is what keeps the game interesting throughout the entire run.

So much content

Note that I've been playing the 2.0 beta, and I suggest you do the same when you're playing. It works perfectly fine and makes everything so much better. Anyway.
There are so many items for you to get. Most of them have an attribute, and if you collect enough items with the same attribute, you'll get rewarded with a synergy - a little extra bonus. And again, just like in Isaac, there are also ways the items interact with each other, creating crazy combos that you're probably going to need to defeat the true final boss (I know I needed them).
You unlock items by collecting special keys, which you usually get for either doing achievements or killing specific enemies - and then you need to pay to unlock them with the currency you gain automatically after a run, based on the amount of soul you collected. It sounds grindy, but I found the pace just right: earlier, the unlocks were very plentiful, but later on I was able to unlock one item per run, and that was fine by me.
But items aren't all that there is to unlock, no. There's more. That's all I'm going to say, the way the game manages to keep surprising you is part of its charm.

Criticism

I feel like the game could use more dialogue. Sometimes less is more, but here I found myself wanting. The main character doesn't speak, so that complicates things a bit, but overall I'd like to know more about the world. I still have questions, even after beating the true final boss.
Another thing is that sometimes you just can't get a build going. There are a lot of items, and your choices are often limited - so even if you're going out of your way to get as much stuff as possible, it can end up being not enough anyway. That will ruin your run.
And finally, I found the true final boss a bit too difficult. I only was able to beat it by having a ridiculously broken build, and even then it wasn't a walk in the park. What I'm saying is, expect having to redo stuff.

Conclusion

I've tried my best to show you what sort of game it is, without necessarily saying what I think of it. I'll just say that I enjoyed it greatly, but I was glad when I finally managed to get those credits rolling. I know that there's more for me to unlock, to discover - although only because I've seen people talk about things on forums; the game's not very good at giving you such information, I'm afraid. I didn't like that.
Still - it's an excellent game overall. Everything just feels right. And at the time of writing, the sole developer is still updating and tweaking stuff, also adding new content; it's clear this is a passion project, and it shows in the game.
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