This is a bit of a conditional recommendation really. Basically, if the cute art is a major factor in your interest in this game, then yes, I recommend it. If you can take it or leave it... well...
Ailuri is a 2D platformer that is largely saved from mediocrity by its adorable art and animations. As a kickstarter backer with a mid-level pledge, I had hopes for this game that... were somewhat met. The gameplay is alright in of itself, if a little frustrating at times (I'll get to that later), but it is somewhat let down by bugs, some of which I'm wondering how they got through, given how overdue this game's release actually was. Perhaps it could have benefitted from an early access period...?
So in this game, you play as an adorable red panda with access to fairly standard metroidvania abilities (though this game is not a metroidvania), but with the focus on a grappling mechanic which... is alright. The inertia and momentum of the grappling aren't as satisfying as one might hope, but it gets the job done without significant issue. The game revolves around killing enemies, saving critters, planting seeds that you have to fling across the map with your grapple (which can be tiresome at times, I'm not going to lie) and collecting flowers. At the end of a level, depending on how much essence you've gathered, you may unlock additional abilities.
Now... the gameplay for Ailuri is fine. It's fun. There's better out there, and without the cute art I might even say to prioritise other games before thinking about this one. It's not a bad game by any stretch. But then I don't see the gameplay elements winning any awards in a vacuum either. There are of course issues. Some environmental elements have odd hitboxes, such as crumbling platforms breaking just from a slight brush on the side or spiky things having a hit box a little bigger than expected. And I'd recommend turning off auto climb despite it being on by default, because it can become an issue as much as it can save you in a pinch.
The biggest aspects of the gameplay that I feel could have been done better involve two things: momentum and hit boxes. Much of the game's platforming involves the use of the dash ability, and owing to general feel of character movement, that can get quite finicky. Trying to land on tiny platforms over spike pits using dash can at times be surprisingly frustrating, creating unusual difficulty spikes even fairly early on. Meanwhile, enemy attack ranges, contact damage ranges and hit boxes can be difficult to gauge at times, particularly as there's little wiggle room when it comes to melee attack range of the player. Add in some enemies that deal high damage, and the result is some pretty frustrating moments. One example is that it's entirely possible to get close to an enemy to attempt a melee strike, take unexpected contact damage because the enemy does not appear to be in contact damage range, and then get hit by said enemy's attack and die from two attacks despite being on full health prior. I don't mind difficulty in games, but do I like games to be more clear on hit box boundaries, as deceptive hit boxes are very frustrating.
Ailuri could also have done with some music variation in my opinion. Playing through four levels in a row (possibly more, I'd have to progress further) all with the same fairly short looping bgm can get a bit annoying, even when the music itself isn't really that bad.
Though this game in many ways resembles a metroidvania, it is in fact split into distinct levels. It also doesn't have the control scheme one might expect after having played the likes of Ori and Hollow Knight, which is still an issue for me personally, because even after almost 2 hours of gameplay, I'm still hitting the wrong buttons. To make matters worse, there doesn't seem to be an option to change bindings (unless I'm missing something). So if having the dash button as a face button is a deal breaker for you, here's a heads up.
The biggest issue as of the time of this review however is the bugs. Whilst I haven't played prior to the update that fixed the sound bug so I'm unsure whether I would have experienced it when it had occurred, I have come across other issues. On the starting screen in the sanctuary level one of the wall transition things hadn't spawned in at one point, leading to a gap at the edge of the screen that when interacted with using the Y button took me to a completely broken area. There was a pool of water on the 2nd level next to a checkpoint where entering it made the camera sink into the ground into a black screen. At one point, an enemy didn't have a death animation and just stood there for a moment before disappearing. The skill page UI at the end of the level doesn't distinguish between skills you've unlocked and skills you haven't. And even when the mouse cursor has disappeared, its last location on the screen still affects the UI, so if it's hovering over a button whilst you're using a controller, the thing it's hovering over is highlighted. I'm sure there are more bugs later on in the game (and some earlier that I've not witnessed). Some of these bugs seem to be obvious enough that it's odd they're still in the game after a release that is a good few years late, which does raise questions regarding the degree of playtesting.
So all in all, if the graphics of this game have caught your attention, and you want to know if it's worth getting, I'd say yes, absolutely. If you're not fussed about the graphics and are just looking for any old 2D platformer, then you can do better. In either case, I might recommend waiting to see if any bug fixes are in the works before playing, just in case, unless you're willing to push through the bugs (I haven't actually come across anything gamebreaking so far, so the game is still very much fully playable). I'd give this game a tentative 7/10... maybe closer to a 6.8/10 if I was to include decimals. And that's taking the delightful art into account. It's not a bad game, I'm enjoying it - especially for the cuteness. But from a pure gameplay perspective, it's mediocre.
