Recent reviews by Sarrg

The best precision platformer out there with a difficulty that can rival IWBTG and a really good soundtrack.
Be aware that if you want to 100% this game I would advise against a controller or at least use the D-PAD.
Using a controller does not allow for precise movement, it works in the same way as keyboard, with the added bonus of doing a wrong input when your angle is slightly off.
Best to invest the muscle memory that you will need towards a consistent input method.

A love letter to classic Silent Hill and Resident Evil games, albeit with a overly convoluted story that shots itself in the foot with it.
It will gatekeep you unless you can keep track of any minute information. Or watch a lore video like I had to, kind sours the experience though.
Still a recommendation for the vibe, ideas and throwback to the old survival horror games.

Meta Spoilers Ahead
The story is hidden behind making connections that span over the whole game while you have to deal with so much lore and details that it all just becomes information noise. While I assume this was done intentionally as it would fit the themes, it really should've been made a bit more clear and that you have to take notes of everything. At least repeat certain hints multiple times.
Games that do similar vague stories are often just empty husks that have nothing to say and you can never figure out, here your efforts are at least rewarded. So Please, stop gatekeeping people by at least giving us one explicit hint that will spark interest to piece the puzzle together.

Hi °u°
Bye >: D

mid game, clunky controls, awful camera, bare minimum story, not difficult unless you handicap yourself
for those that want to have sandbox game

A-less-broken magic the gathering

To describe it briefly: The Hollow Knight of Zelda-likes
There are many parallels to HK in terms of the gameplay as it borrows similar Soulslike mechanics.
Gameplay aspects aside, it alos borrows a lot from the game FEZ with its puzzles. These are mostly optional and can be tough to figure out and how you solve them remind me a bit of the Outer Wilds where one has to traverse the world to get clues.
It is a nice and rewarding game if you like puzzles but don't play it for an engaging and good story.
I am still recommending the game as it does many thing right, but I have to say my expectations were betrayed.

Story, Ending and Completionist Spoilers ahead (also for HK), also long rant post:
Sadly the story is too ambiguous and incomplete, which sad because it has a similar feel to the Outer Wilds although more linear.
The devs were like "Let's do the story of HK but we won't actually bother to tell it".
Like really: The Hero (The Knight) is meant to kill the Heir (The Hollow Knight) and take its place to seal the Miasma (Radiance) and repeat the loop. And now imagine HK only had that ending. Still a good game, but far worse.
The reason that it does not seem to care is because there is an In-Game Manual, that is actually in the game.
This makes this a meta game, where it seems that your character is also reading the game manual in the game to figure out what to do. However, the manual is incomplete and you need to collect the pages in the game that the manual is about. Now, the odd part is that this manual has written notes in it like it was previously owned.
So, it is like you would find a book that describes your life events as a game, with handwritten notes in them that give you the impression someone already played your life. Now, I don't think you would continue to play by the rules of a game if you become aware of it and instead try to break free, right?
However, the characters follow the plot and do nothing else.
THERE IS NOTHING ELSE. Except puzzles and they are part of the manual. How cool would it be if the loops and copycat non-explanatory story would hint at that there is something more going on. And all those notes eventually will lead to path to escape the game.
Talk about wasted potential.
Now for what they did with it: In the end it just meant as an vehicle to make you do things until you start to notice there is a meta layer to it, which is the puzzles. The entire game is solid but nothing ground breaking, except for some of the puzzles.
The duality of "Hollow Knight but Zelda, however it is actually FEZ" is really hurting it here.
These riddles are everywhere and you will not notice them until very late in the game, sometimes because you think they aren't a puzzle but a section in the game.
For the most part these riddles are pointless and do not contribute to anything, even when deciphering the whole manual it doesn't explain the story. It just emphasizes that the story is generic and irrelevant.
A lot of times there are reveals to what may be happening in the actual game (The Pillars, The Mountain Door) which are never addressed again or just serve as a puzzle. Especially the Mountain Door... Here I thought "Oh this game so far is like HK, and I can beat the final boss already and get a bad ending, just like HK. Maybe if we get through that door then the true ending will be revealed". And yes it indeed is needed for the true ending but it only changes the ending in which the Heir starts crying upon receiving the completed manual. It doesn't make sense and it is cheesy considering that the pages are only puzzle hints and not story relevant. I could easily believe that most of the effort went into the riddles, especially when the Game Manual and Game World are structured around it. Which would make sense as to why the game has such wasted potential and feels incomplete.
If the Devs meant to make an outstanding subversive meta game then they should've made the optional part to be included in the game's story or reveal the hidden true story.
This was a huge letdown that the puzzles contributed nothing and ruined the mechanic of the In-game Manual which was meant for both the player and the protagonist, however the puzzles did not matter to the characters or world at all.

Couldn't relate with the actual message, nor to I fully grasp it because I became to detached from halfway through.
Those who like artsy narrative walking simulators that really don't do anything clever like Gone Home, then this is for you.
Otherwise, not worth the money, this should've been a free product imo.
But the game is short enough that you can refund it once completed. So if it doesn't do it for you, you can treat it as a free game.
If you however liked it, support the dev I guess, but I still don't agree with the price since you can spend it on way better games and even find a lot of free games or mods that do a whole lot more.

This is one of the games that you should play if you decided you only want to play a specific amount of games in your life (like 10, 20, 50 or smth). Either way a must play.

You can only play it once, so don't let yourself be spoiled. And it does have a bit of a slow burn to get you into the experience.
So, for some it is advisable to just continue until you know at least a portion of what is going on, like a clearer goal.

[Content Spoilers, Mild Story Spoilers]

[tl;dr]
This is a very difficult review to write. It is a good game and I recommend it but it certainly has flaws especially compared to Rabi Ribi.
Tevi that does enough to be not the same game twice, with cohesive Story and new mechanics. However, way too easy and due to major difference introduced compared to Rabi Ribi makes it a less enjoyable experience.

[Review]
For those that have not played Rabi Ribi yet and are interested in it but are a bit turned of by it's fanservice or difficulty, then this is might be the game for you.

For those that like me that already have played Rabi Ribi, it is not Rabi Ribi and of course it doesn't want to be. Never make the same game twice. And yet it still kinda is?
It does feel a lot like a Rabi Ribi Redo but with a bigger budget which allows it to have a story with voice actors and a much bigger explorable world. And some problems stem from this.

[Story]
The story isn't bad nor good but you do have characters that are more fleshed out this time and grow attached to. Also the voice acting is phenomenal. However the story isn't like with Rabi Ribi where cute girls do be cute bullet hell things and it takes a darker turn. Not sure how I feel about the ending yet.
And while it does that, it also behaves a lot like Rabi Ribi that when the character served it's purpose it is pretty much forgotten. Some characters do reappear, but even some characters you'd think would impact the story may not and only serve as a boss battle or appear for a single cutscene.

[Gameplay]
Again kinda Rabi Ribi and kinda not. The exploration is pretty much 1:1 Rabi Ribi and that is a good thing, but there could've been some item that changed it.
Battles are much more different. Tevi mostly plays like Erina did but is given more defensive options and with the inclusion of our two companions can even clear enemy bullets. Most of the changes come from the difference between Ribbon and the combo of Celia and Sable.

[Enemies, Bosses]
As for Enemies, they introduced a Dominant State that makes them immune to hitlag, in Rabi Ribi this was more of the inverse as you had a window where they were susceptible to damage.
This even is true for Boss Battles and is were my biggest issues come into play.
Bosses now seem to just attack for a short period and then you can spam them with attacks to do massive damage.
Additionally you can "Break" them, which puts them in a state where you can give them extra damage and they will not attack you at all. And with the help of equipable Sigils you can do that often thus ignoring most of their attacks.
This mechanic needs to be fixed, Bosses need to have a period where you cannot damage them at all and the will spam you with attacks that you have to dodge. There is a single boss that does that with the most eerily calming boss music, which was the only Boss battle I truly enjoyed.
What could be done to the others bosses is to put them in a constant Dominant state with additional Buffs that can only be outdone by putting them in the Break state and then you can go ham with them. That would also make more sense, given these states where meant to visualize when Mobs are actively attacking. And that way the fights are more active compared to Rabi Ribi as you have to dodge their attacks and hit them in order to get the window where they are receiving damage.

[Difficulty]
Playing this on Hard, I was very underwhelmed since I expected it to be Rabi Ribi Hard.
As mentioned in the previous section, the battle mechanics make the game way too easy and for the most part I didn't even have to bother dodging enemies especially later on. I think for only 3 bosses I bothered to actually dodge their attacks. Furthermore you can always press Up to do a Backflip that will just Dodge attacks and you can also active something similar to the Amulet in Rabi Ribi, but I never bothered to use that.

[Exploration]
This world is much bigger than Rabi Ribi to the point where exploring for collectibles becomes a bit to tedious, and I do love Metroidvanias. Some of the levels have very weird paths that make no sense, such as blocking you off to be able to traverse back just for the next room to allow you to go back instead. Why?
And some rooms suggest to have a hidden item only for you coming back to it after every upgrade you get and it just being some useless addition to the map.
In general, lot of the times it was that some items or resources are too hidden and on such a big map this is a problem. However, you gain after finishing the game a way to make this easier, but then again there is no reason for it as there is no Post Game content.

[Replayablity]
This was one of the big reasons why Rabi Ribi is that good. You can replay it in many ways and it offers so much content. Tevi offers this too, but in Tevi's case I don't think it will translate well here due to the length and the story progressions. However, you will unlock Free Roam Mode which apparently will make playthroughs to be objective oriented and less linear.
However, it feels less like a game that I want to come back to and replay, if I want to do that I would just go back to Rabi Ribi where I have much more of a challenge. I might still give Inferno BBQ a chance in Free Roam Mode.

[Music]
The music is again great, but to me it also falls short to Rabi Ribi. Overall it is less catchy.
While some areas have massive bangers, but as for jams you just wanna vibe with you have none
and.
As for Boss Themes, since bosses are already underwhelming as is, quite some Boss Themes didn't made them more epic.

[Conclusion]
It is overall a good game that just sadly pales in comparison with it's predecessor that achieves more with less. I also have to say I did play Rabi Ribi when all additional content already was released so it might be an unfair comparison to playing the game Day 1. While there are certainly things that cannot be fixed, but given the Devs some credit, this game might shine much brighter with future updates.

Best VS Clone out there with cute Idol Vtubers and additional fishing and farming mini game - All for free.
A must-play game!