It tells a little visual story without any presented message other than melodramatic escape. There are other little hat things that don't get explained, but you can pick them up and set them back down again. I played on steam deck so the controls were really good, and it usually didn't take too long to understand where to go and how to get there. The escape attempts were nonsensical at times, but you never had to go too far back to try again.
I really struggled with New Lands until I learned not to attack portals until I was established enough to leave, to avoid the ramp. I still loved the gameplay, and so when I got this, the mechanics were really understood, and I could enjoy all of it. It's better in every way, but once I played the main Land type, I didn't care to do the other land types because they felt like more of the same.
Early on in this game I was annoyed about needing keys that I didn't have but I began to understand that it's a stealth metroidvania with a cute persona, with the music and characters and outfits and general meaningful objective of the main character. I didn't encounter any bugs or issues playing this on a steam deck.
I really liked the game despite it being a rogue game, but it was buggy when i first started playing it and had to come back to it after they patched it. I was finally able to finish it, coming back to it because the roguelike runs were very short, and a "successful" failure allowed you to carry over rewards into the next run, which never felt like a complete waste. The annoying, recurring monologuing was tiring, but I don't think it would have ever stopped me from wanting to see the final cutscene.
You either need to play this game multiple times or spend a lot of time studying the gameplay before you start to understand what is going to happen to bypass pitfalls. I am not playing a game over and over again to get the intended ending because the game hides it from you during the gameplay. The world is nicely built out and the presentation of that world were nice, but you can only do good things to help the people within this game once you already understand the world, and then you're just going through the motions.
The first game lacked polish but there was a clear beginning to end progression that made it interesting to see what the outcome of the party would be. This game is so much of a grind with traveling around that I can't keep interested in it. There are so many repetitive fights and traveling long ways to compete dumb tasks. I doubt that I'll give this game another chance.
Played on steam deck and it was awesome. Awesome, once I got into it a little bit. I quit for months and came back to it, because it just doesn't click early on. It starts off very confusing, seeming linear, when it is very much not that. Be aware that there are progression sequences that alter the ending and while I didn't play it again to get a different ending, it's clear that the devs intended for people to highly consider doing that. I despise religion, and with this game making use of catholicism it had me annoyed with the focus early, but I kind of enjoyed the way the game seemed to mock the haughty seriousness of the terms through the violent nature of the gameplay.
I think I heard of this game back when it came out but I didn't put effort into acquiring it. Playing it now, it has a unique style that is quite dated graphically but the gameplay mechanics still hold up. The story is nice and only has a moderate amount of grinding and exploring. There were a few times that I went searching for assistance, but the game flowed well otherwise.
I installed a bunch of games, trying to clear my back log. I purchased this years ago and didn't try to play it before now. I suppose that if someone is exclusively looking for a puzzle game, they might come looking for this, but as for a game compared to many others, this had no point in starting other than to do several puzzles. The character has no purpose and the ability to continue beyond all puzzles suggested that you don't even need to do them. I did complete them all, but I did so believing there was a point, which wasn't true.
Played on Steam Deck. Performance was great. I loved the story and how it didn't stick to absolute canon from other media. I only played it once but the choices seemed to matter. QTE combat, timed choices, and simple investigative sessions kept the story moving. The recap and upcoming cutscenes were unnecessary, but the developer is defunct so they won't make better from any criticism.
