Dewdrop Dynasty

This might be the only review I'll make on Steam, but I'll get to the point: Dewdrop Dynasty entered development around 5-6 years ago, and since then, it's developer(s) have been making a community of people interested in a neat, vibrant, charming 2d Metroidvania about a bee losing it's wings, which was surprising made before the team knew about another Metroidvania about bugs (you know the one I'm talking about). I've been a subscriber for a long time, and Firith has shown not only dedication in their work in not only game dev, but in handling so many other things, namely devlogs, a full-time job, and a family, all while making Dewdrop the best version of itself. When they revealed that it released (the day before this review was written), I immediately ran to my laptop to buy it, and played it for hours after it downloaded. I knew it would be a nice game, but that wasn't the only thing that sold it for me: it was the fact that I got to watch Firith grow and the game grow as Goodgis and the team added more ideas to the game. It looked like a neat, Atari-esque game at the start of developement, and now, it might be one of the most vibrant and interesting pixel art games to look at. It's gameplay used to only be(e) around it's 2-bullet gun jump, and now you can increase it's max ammo, get a charge attack that feels awesome to use, and customize it much further to the point that the gunplay is less like cave story and more like Resident (Be)Evil. The game itself is on the shorter side, but the amount of care put into each town, platforming section, and area was a blast to look through my first playthrough, and the game feels like it was made for speedrunning, so I can't wait for people to lose their minds on that. Overall, the game itself for me is a high B(ee)-Plus. But paired with the fact that we got to see it take shape over the years, the novelty behind a lil' game that doesn't try to be more at the risk of losing charm, and the fact that this game is the first of Firith's to be released on Steam for money, makes it a little gem of mine to come back to one day. Yeah, it might not get many people with reviews saying "it's alright" with 5,000+ hours in it, but the time you do spend in it is truly wonderful, and I look forward to seeing whatever other wonderful ideas Firith has in their big goofy heads of theirs. Thanks for not giving up, Goodgis. And for all of Firith, Cheers on whatever you feel like making next!