The game is absolutely fantastic, I plan to do a writeup here once I've progressed through a bit more of the game. I'm 14 hours in and partway through the 3rd of 7(?) main dungeons, largely because I've been picking every last scrap of meat off the bones. If I had to use one word to describe the game it would be dense. I didn't play the demo, so I was a bit surprised to find it has less in common with Link's Awakening and Castlevania than you might think, though it's certainly wearing their skin. I'd call it Saturday morning cartoon Bloodborne with a heaping helping of adorable, furry characters and I mean that all 💯 positively.

Unlike Link's Awakening, progression isn't tied to finding items in dungeons. A lot of traversal is tied to subweapons you find unceremoniously strewn about the world that opens things up for you and you can really go most anywhere you want if you can figure it out. Instead of simply navigating each screen there are secrets and bones tucked in almost every corner encouraging you to observe, explore, and platform every inch. Dense.

There's already discourse about the difficulty and if I give one concession, it's that the early game is perhaps a bit "overtuned" like Silksong was, partially because the early game power curve is just rough when you don't have a lot of stats or options to work with and part of it is maybe spending ~6 years in the oven. Stick with it, it's worth it. Go slow, be deliberate, and I promise you losing your bones is not that big of a deal. Grinding is actually fairly easy and painless once you figure things out and if you decide to go that route (grinding is not necessary but you can absolutely do it if you want to accrue an early edge with a lot of items). Other than that, use the build in modifiers. They disable achievements, but also some of those achievements are just ass anyways and there's no way I'm 100%ing this game (beat the game without ever entering the underlab, are you for serious?!)

Starter tips:

1. The game moves fast in the beginning and doesn't run you through a tutorial but it WILL lead you into most things if you give it a chance, just pay attention and try everything on everything.
2. There's a manual in the start menu! It's cute and informative, read it, it actually contains helpful info
3. The game does a great job of pointing you down the optimal, beginner's path if you read the newspapers, listen to the NPCs, and just pay attention to clues. Knowing where to go is half the battle, but you can always explore and push into other places early and get some nice treats for it. Be creative, you'll be surprised the places you can go

Ultimately, this is a game for sickos. If you are a sicko, especially a Fromsoft sicko, then this is a no-brainer.

I'm very happy whenever a smaller studio (this game was developed by the Shovel Knight team) not just sees success, but becomes a stable small team able to put out multiple games.

This structure of small, but relatively stable and established teams seems like a much healthier gaming ecosystem than the bloated quadruple-A studio with hundreds of developers and a focus on mind numbing photorealism over actual gameplay.

This game is very good, but boy is it stressful. I can't play for long sessions before I end up needing a break.

This game slaps!