I loved the original Little Inferno. I played start to finish in my first sitting without getting up. Then I convinced my family to play through - in one sitting. I was thrilled to see a new holiday DLC after so long, and it looked like it would be a blast. The reality was that I ended up having to slog through the entire original game again to see all the new holiday content... and it wasn't worth it. The new catalog opens up bit by bit as you open standard catalogues. The items are cute, but nothing to write home about. There's a little change to the story where one character gets swapped out for another, and some subtle (?) references to Human Resource Machine. But ultimately, while I don't begrudge them the $5 (a bit much, honestly), I do begrudge them the time I had to burn to see what was basically a cheap gag.
First, it's important to note (if you're browsing the reviews) that this game seems to have gotten a lot of QoL updates since it was released, and many complaints from 2020/2021 aren't an issue any more. That said, I found this game pretty solid. Good art, good-enough music, acceptable enemy variety, mechanics that cut very close to Symphony of the Night... this has been the first game in quite a while that I've felt compelled to finish, though I fell off the "gotta get 100%" wagon near the end of the game, because... The game's biggest flaw, in my opinion, is the backtracking. Sure, we expect it from a Metroidvania, but there are some games that do it right, where it doesn't really _feel_ like backtracking, and others, where you sigh because you're going back, again. Unfortunately, Chasm is in the latter group. Two things make this worse: one, that certain important rooms aren't marked on the map, so if you don't have the foresight to use the custom marker, you'll have a good time trying to find them again; two, you could go through the whole game without realizing that there are hidden areas, only to have to go back through everything again to try and find them. Overall, no regrets. A good time, with some minor hangups.
