A fine addition to the Ittle Dew series, this game remains similar to a Zelda game in that it's about exploring and finding items for solving puzzles, but has only a few unique tools that are really exercised with some good puzzle variety, rather than simple puzzles that are trivial applications of your tools. Another benefit of the small number of tools is that you never have to go to the menu to select them: they fit right on all your face buttons if using a controller.

The game features more emphasis on combat and avoiding traps than its predecessor, but still brings some great puzzles, largely focused on either putting blocks on switches, hitting switches in sequence, or hitting multiple crystals within a certain amount of time of each other. This time they went with a more non-linear design, which limited the amount of puzzles that could combine tools for most of the game, but I still enjoyed the in-dungeon puzzles a good amount and found the wand they replaced the portal wand with to be interesting to work with. The variation on the ice item compared to the previous game was interesting enough as well.

On the unfortunate side, most of the combat in the game just isn't satisfying. It's often sufficient to just flail your melee weapon at the enemies until they die. It might cost some health, but with frequent shortcuts that can be opened up throughout dungeons, dying isn't much of a problem. The bonus dungeon bosses are somewhat of a challenge, though.

Also, as perhaps a matter of personal preference, I didn't really like the overworld's puzzles, which were largely based on noticing stuff or remembering clues from NPCs. I prefer having all the puzzle elements directly in front of me to work with.

A fine addition to the Ittle Dew series, this game remains similar to a Zelda game in that it's about exploring and finding items for solving puzzles, but has only a few unique tools that are really exercised with some good puzzle variety, rather than simple puzzles that are trivial applications of your tools. Another benefit of the small number of tools is that you never have to go to the menu to select them: they fit right on all your face buttons if using a controller. The game features more emphasis on combat and avoiding traps than its predecessor, but still brings some great puzzles, largely focused on either putting blocks on switches, hitting switches in sequence, or hitting multiple crystals within a certain amount of time of each other. This time they went with a more non-linear design, which limited the amount of puzzles that could combine tools for most of the game, but I still enjoyed the in-dungeon puzzles a good amount and found the wand they replaced the portal wand with to be interesting to work with. The variation on the ice item compared to the previous game was interesting enough as well. On the unfortunate side, most of the combat in the game just isn't satisfying. It's often sufficient to just flail your melee weapon at the enemies until they die. It might cost some health, but with frequent shortcuts that can be opened up throughout dungeons, dying isn't much of a problem. The bonus dungeon bosses are somewhat of a challenge, though. Also, as perhaps a matter of personal preference, I didn't really like the overworld's puzzles, which were largely based on noticing stuff or remembering clues from NPCs. I prefer having all the puzzle elements directly in front of me to work with.