Absolutely fantastic game with one of the best OSTs I have ever heard.

Firstly, my favorite thing about the game: the OST. Its super varied, with the music ranging from ominous tones that barely resemble a song, to Hotline Miami-esc tracks. Each level comes equipped with bizarre yet fitting background music, and the battle music is different for each floor as well. Where it really shines, however, is the boss music. Each boss track feels tailor made not only to that boss, but the aesthetic that boss represents and how dire the circumstances seem. The deeper you get, the harder the music slaps.

In my opinion, the art of this game is extraordinary, especially among indie games. The colors pop, the enemy designs are all incredibly different, and the environments feel completely unique and separate. Each floor feels like an entirely new experience.

The fights are fun as well. Once you get used to the controls and timing, fighting becomes incredibly satisfying and almost addicting, especially when it comes to boss fights. There are some bosses I would absolutely love to play again and again.

The story starts out so simple, but suddenly takes a bit of a turn near the end. Without spoiling anything, I went into this game expecting a simple magical journey with boss fights and such, and instead found myself experiencing a tale of hope and despair. I absolutely love the story, and its incredibly easy to follow. For those that want extra nuggets of lore, its easily obtainable yet entirely optional.

In fact, my only complaints about this game boil down to two things: Certain combat encounters, and the puzzles of the overworld.

For a game that makes fighting so fun, its weird to feel myself sighing when I see myself up against certain groups of enemies. Typically, you'll fight 2-4 enemies, but sometimes you'll be against 5 or 6, or enemies that spawn other enemies. Its these fights that make me get frustrated. It can become very difficult to keep track of whats really going on when you've got so many enemies on screen, and sometimes it can be almost impossible to avoid getting hit. For me, to get through these fights, I either have to tank a ton of damage or waste a lot of time trying to dodge every attack from everyone. Also, with how finicky some of the timing can be on certain enemies' attacks, it almost starts to feel like you're being punished for fighting.

The other issue is the puzzles, and man these puzzles almost prevented me from completing this game. Some of the puzzles, especially in the 3rd and 4th levels, feel like such an incredible slog to get though. While trying to push boxes into specific spots or slide through a maze, you're encountering combat constantly unless you chug defense potions which dont always seem to work. I really feel like some of these puzzles should have been dumbed down or simplified, because this game really shines when you're punching the hell out of some huge boss as opposed to trying to figure out which element gets you to the other side of a lake. I also feel like the puzzles wouldnt have been so bad if it wasnt so easy to get turned around and lost in some of the levels.

All in all though, I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes to punch things or listening the donkey kong country OST.