I have sunk uncounted hours into SS and "finished" by retiring a captain, and I adore it. It makes my top ten list, flaws or not. The tone is unique. SS is classed as horror, but it's not about gore, jump scares, or unremitting despair. It's about ominous beauty, unsettling otherworldly forces, and subtle spiritual menaces. Danger is constant, but so is wonder. SS will soothe you with its peaceful interludes, fascinate you with strangeness, and trouble you with melancholia. Perhaps best of all, I found it nailed the obscure emotion of sehnsucht. SS can both induce and satisfy it. (At least on behalf of your character. You, it might cling to.) I love the minimal overt information about what's safe. You'll make decisions on instinct, and some might end tragically. I'd call this excellent design for a game trying to model interaction with the unknown. If the idea of being a real explorer and finding your feet in an unfamiliar environment enchants you, then this is just what you want. If you dislike permadeath, turn it off, for pity's sake. I recommend leaving it on. Some might say permadeath has no place in what is essentially a narrative RPG, not a roguelike, but I disagree. In most RPGs, self-sacrificial or daring actions taken by your character are cheap; just load an old save if anything goes wrong. In SS? They count. Depending on what destiny you wish, SS can involve lots of grinding. This is both what I like least and part of what I love most. Again, it makes decisions carry more weight than a game can usually muster. As you approach the endgame with a character in whom you've invested several tens of hours, a cozy retirement in London starts to sound alluring; moral dilemmas grow teeth; and you'll be forced to ask yourself difficult questions. It wasn't just my character who was scared while attempting the preludes to Salt's Song/the exaltation. I WAS SCARED and did it anyway. And that, I think, is one of the better opportunities a game has ever given me.
