Great metroidvania with action rpg elements for upgrading and inventory. Enjoyed all of the characters, story, and content!

the fact that you dont respawn at the last save makes some parts easy to traverse and some others an absolute nightmare. not worth it. its also full of unnecessary flashing and probing lights

Excellent metroidvania with fun exploration and great 8-bit music, and some really great retro NES-style pixel art. tons of unique background sculptures and statues and stuff that give the game a lot of personality and flavor. I wish more games cared about that kind of stuff.

because you have multiple characters with their own moves and upgrades, I was worried you'd be switching back and forth all the time at save points, but it's hardly an issue, as you find an item that allows switching at any time not too far into the game. this game doesn't insult you by wasting your time backtracking endlessly through poorly designed areas or having to collect 700 collectibles that take 20 hours even with a guide and map (COUGH Afterimage COUGH.... like so many bad and middling metroidvanias that have been released, many of which are very positively reviewed, depressingly enough). it definitely rewards exploration and finding upgrades and shortcuts as early as you can, as it will make the journey quicker and more fun. there's also great QoL stuff to unlock as you go, like locked doors or items marked on map, an item that glows when a secret is in the room, and, eventually, the full map reveal can be bought, including secret areas. great for 100%ing

the system of how death works, which restarts you at the start of the map, and the lack of healing options at the start of the game seems like it will be a huge chore, but you unlock elevator shortcuts fairly quickly, and you also fairly quickly get enough upgrades to be really strong partway through the game, so it's not the issue it feels like it is at first.

my biggest complaint is that although it seems at first like it might get really difficult later on, the game actually becomes easier and easier as you get more upgrades, in particular the bosses get absolutely *melted* once your character has even two thirds of their upgrades. on top of that, most of the best stuff you get, the extra characters, and many of the higher tier upgrades, are essentially useless or very little use because you're going to get them kind of late in the game, when there's not much left to do. but for less skilled players, they may need every upgrade they can get, I'm not sure (I've played upwards of 100, 150 metroidvanias or something, or more, so, I've got some experience in the genre). also, switching between 5 characters is super annoying to do on the fly with one button. I would've rather it have been maybe 2 characters, with one secret character to find.

also, the boss rush mode is kinda trash, but I'm not a fan of boss rush modes in general