izigame.me

This is quite a gorgeous game, that oozes out atmosphere that I really like when it goes well, but there are some issues, some minor and some I imagine will either never come or come months from now in a big patch that focuses on QOL and feature additions.
First, there is just far too much backtracking. The game has a noble task of gating off sections which really amplify your progression once you get to them. This is a tried and true metroidvania mechanic. But there are times where this joy is ruined when you want to leave that area now that you've completed and find out that leaving has no quick means, and you have to quick literally go back out the way you came in. And in a game where you rarely want to attack much less alert guards, plus some puzzle-like platforming, it can get tedious fast.
This isn't the worst necessarily in theory, just "get gud" sure I get but it's compounded by the fact the game kind of barely directs you where to go. There's "quest markers" on the map as you progress, but on numerous occasions those were entirely unreachable by the means available to you or the way to break through an area you can't get to is far too obfuscated. So in the mid-game you often are just poking around at places you've already been, backtracking and trying to find out what you missed to get to the place that seemingly should have something hidden nearby to get in, but it's just not there.
Additionally, I love the mechanics you find in treasure chests and unlock, but it feels like a misstep to not include SOME additional combat mechanics, and support this with enemies that challenge that increased player agency. The unlocks are 90% platforming related, which is great cuz the platforming is good, but it all kind of compounds the issues when you have to backtrack by enemies you have already "beaten" by sneaking by.
The tab menu is kind of a disaster. Markers aren't really clear at all on what they mean (there's multiple lines that are colored differently that seem to denote a door or block? but they don't correlate?). There's a larger "overall" view of each section as well but this doesnt show any markers on it so its kind of pointless. Additionally there is no menu for your quests that explain what you're doing again or let you reread dialogue or quest notes. When you pick a fast travel location, the quest markers and custom markers don't show on the map, so you have to more or less memorize or remember the section's name to know where you wanted to go.
I'm not gonna give this a negative, I will beat it and I do like it. I want to support this developer, but if you're looking for areas to touch up, there are some obvious QOL fixes and more unlikely ones to make this more satisfying. It's close and I hope we get more of these but fixing some of these things would go a long way in establishing "stealth metroidvanias"