This was one of my favorite games in recent memory, and also one of the few I enjoyed enough to replay! 3 times as of review.

Soundtrack was great, loved Empty Bailey and the Final Boss theme.

The movement is the shining star of the game, the sound and animation make it feel great. As you'd probably expect for the genre, I got lost and went around in circles, but it was so fun to zip around that I actually didn't mind too much.

Every new toy I got to play with made me see the world in a new light, every little spot I could squeeze the most out of one ability. There were points where I'd find potential sequence breaks, a route to skip using keys or get by with a different item, and they would stick in my mind to try on my next run. It also got me to start building a mental map, so that I could one day know the walls of Castle Sansa by heart, giving nicknames to different rooms like "The Egg Path," "Little Library," "The Weird Room," and so on.

The enemy designs are fun, I love the sound of the little tuba fellows. However I do wish the combat meshed with the movement a bit more. You can stylishly initiate a fight with a slide jump, which is fun, but not that much more effective than walking up to them.

I tried out the charge attack for a bit, but I just went back to the three hit combo, since it was enough for smaller enemies while on the run, and having to stand still with the charge attack made it harder to use against the statue knights.

This was one of my favorite games in recent memory, and also one of the few I enjoyed enough to replay! 3 times as of review. Soundtrack was great, loved Empty Bailey and the Final Boss theme. The movement is the shining star of the game, the sound and animation make it feel great. As you'd probably expect for the genre, I got lost and went around in circles, but it was so fun to zip around that I actually didn't mind too much. Every new toy I got to play with made me see the world in a new light, every little spot I could squeeze the most out of one ability. There were points where I'd find potential sequence breaks, a route to skip using keys or get by with a different item, and they would stick in my mind to try on my next run. It also got me to start building a mental map, so that I could one day know the walls of Castle Sansa by heart, giving nicknames to different rooms like "The Egg Path," "Little Library," "The Weird Room," and so on. The enemy designs are fun, I love the sound of the little tuba fellows. However I do wish the combat meshed with the movement a bit more. You can stylishly initiate a fight with a slide jump, which is fun, but not that much more effective than walking up to them. I tried out the charge attack for a bit, but I just went back to the three hit combo, since it was enough for smaller enemies while on the run, and having to stand still with the charge attack made it harder to use against the statue knights.