Found this via IronPineapples videos.
Really wanted to like this one.

Played through on Hard up until the final boss, where I put the difficulty onto Normal just to finish the game.
There is no reason to play on Hard, and if you're going to play this game, I suggest you play on Normal.
All Hard does is nuke your resistances so by midgame you're getting one-shot by trash mobs.

Game starts off decent enough but cracks quickly show.

The six weapons you find at the beginning of the game are what you're stuck with for the rest of it. This might be fine if the weapons were at all interesting, but they're really not.

I imagine the design intent here is to emphasize the weapon skill tree, which is of a reasonable size and contains both active and passive abilities to unlock. But it has cascading effects on exploration. You'll only ever be finding upgrade materials that you need six of to get anywhere; so opening a chest doesn't ever feel important. There's a bizarre battlepass-esque system where every chest opened puts you 1/6 of the way closer to an extremely minor upgrade (we're talking +3% Slash Resistance minor).

The game doesn't feel confident in letting the player become powerful.
There is no armor system; instead we have a mix of the Hollow Knight badges with traditional RPG resistance values, called Trinkets. You cannot upgrade the number of slots for trinkets. This means if you want to use any of the trinkets with useful passives (i.e. Additonal Damage when Full Health) you sacrifice an armor slot. This might be interesting if the balance felt meaningful, but it doesn't, because the game makes you choose between 10% Lightning Resist and 10% damage when full health; there is no power fantasy here. The whole thing feels middling.

Really, that's what this game is, middling.
It runs for about 14 hours too long to tell a story you're bored of by the end of Act I, in the most verbose manner possible. Seriously, whoever was writing for this game was getting paid by the word; I have never in my life seen so much text in what is ostensibly an Action RPG.

If you're intrigued by this, buy it on sale at a steep discount and play until you feel bored. Once that feeling starts, it never stops; just put the game down at that point and call it a day.

Found this via IronPineapples videos. Really wanted to like this one. Played through on Hard up until the final boss, where I put the difficulty onto Normal just to finish the game. There is no reason to play on Hard, and if you're going to play this game, I suggest you play on Normal. All Hard does is nuke your resistances so by midgame you're getting one-shot by trash mobs. Game starts off decent enough but cracks quickly show. The six weapons you find at the beginning of the game are what you're stuck with for the rest of it. This might be fine if the weapons were at all interesting, but they're really not. I imagine the design intent here is to emphasize the weapon skill tree, which is of a reasonable size and contains both active and passive abilities to unlock. But it has cascading effects on exploration. You'll only ever be finding upgrade materials that you need six of to get anywhere; so opening a chest doesn't ever feel important. There's a bizarre battlepass-esque system where every chest opened puts you 1/6 of the way closer to an extremely minor upgrade (we're talking +3% Slash Resistance minor). The game doesn't feel confident in letting the player become powerful. There is no armor system; instead we have a mix of the Hollow Knight badges with traditional RPG resistance values, called Trinkets. You cannot upgrade the number of slots for trinkets. This means if you want to use any of the trinkets with useful passives (i.e. Additonal Damage when Full Health) you sacrifice an armor slot. This might be interesting if the balance felt meaningful, but it doesn't, because the game makes you choose between 10% Lightning Resist and 10% damage when full health; there is no power fantasy here. The whole thing feels middling. Really, that's what this game is, middling. It runs for about 14 hours too long to tell a story you're bored of by the end of Act I, in the most verbose manner possible. Seriously, whoever was writing for this game was getting paid by the word; I have never in my life seen so much text in what is ostensibly an Action RPG. If you're intrigued by this, buy it on sale at a steep discount and play until you feel bored. Once that feeling starts, it never stops; just put the game down at that point and call it a day.