In 11+ hours, I was able to "beat" the main game (around the first 5-6 hours), and after, during the "post-game" content, I kept exploring and although I made additional discoveries, at some point I just started feeling the tediousness of the exploration and post-game puzzles.

The game has a fantastic art direction, sound, and music. It boasts some nifty puzzles and does quite well at gently pushing the player throughout the "main game" content without holding their hand at any moment.

However:

1. The game costs $24.99, and although I know there is more content, the fact that a single-player game has puzzles that require "community effort" to solve because the puzzle "hint" that you receive is purposely incomplete, to me, is unappealing.

2. As a $24.99 game I expected the game to be more fleshed out and "exposed" to the player, but quite honestly after the initial post-game content, most other content continues to become more and more obscure, again, to the point that realistically a person alone wouldn't be able to beat the game without looking up this or that at some point. I stumbled upon content and new discoveries at times by mere accident, which in some instances became a frustrating revelation when I realized that no one would ever discover something like what I had just stumbled upon by actual logic/thinking because there was absolutely no clue/hint for the player to follow.

3. The game has a lot of evocative moments, yet it lacks any sense of true meaning or purpose, aside from serving perhaps as a meta-commentary on "going deeper" and the "sheer willingness" of any given player to keep going in order to discover and "beat" the game just for the sake of it.

4. For a game that relies so heavily on the use of its environment and map, the map feels very cluttered and doesn't provide enough visibility to help the player find missing paths or secret areas. The map actually works against you by showing pixelated lines that are not clear enough to the player to help them determine if the area is closed off or an actual unexplored area.

In the end, I think the game has some fantastic strengths, yet it's crippled by a number of glaring issues when taking a step back to consider them. I have seen people compare this game to games like Fez or Tunic, and I couldn't disagree more. The puzzles, exploration, and payoff in those games are entirely different experiences.

I don't really understand why this game's overall reception was so positive (currently holding at 90 in Metacritic). I enjoyed what I played, and I know I left more on the table, but I quickly ran tired of the experience so I didn't really see it worth pursuing. I don't think it's a bad game, but for the price, it really takes a certain type of person to take the game as is and enjoy it fully.