Gestalt: Steam & Cinder

Really well made Metroidvania. Great pixel art. Story-rich, lots of worldbuilding. Good atmosphere. Fluid combat, interesting platforming. The platforming segments are "Guacamelee difficulty" not "Celeste difficulty" - which is IMO just right. Two major caveats, both often remarked upon in other reviews, [olist] [*] many say the bosses are too easy. This may indeed be the case if you scan the map for every power-up in every nook and cranny, solving every side-quest currently solvable before you proceed. (often requiring solid platforming). [i]If[/i] you do so, and upgrade yourself sufficiently, bosses do get easy. But if you focus on the main quest, without powering yourself up too much, the bosses [i]will[i] be challenging. They're quite diverse in terms of attacks. [*] that the ending is abrupt, and somewhat jarring due to being blatantly scripted. That it looks like a trite cliffhanger setup for the next installment. [/olist] The "easy bosses" are not a complaint, overall. If you want to speedrun the main quest, you [i]will[/i] have a challenge with an unupgraded character. But no-one should end up in that gap where you suddenly cannot proceed past boss number N because it's ridiculously hard. I really hate when games into which you'd invested many hours suddenly become impassable because the devs decided for a huge difficulty spike. I appreciate it that it isn't so here: explore more, complete more sidequests, and everyone will be able to pass every boss. Plus, as every true metroidvania, if you want to 100% the map, you can do it just before the final bossfight. The game [i]actually is[/i] 100%-able, without placing any ludicrous requirements for that, which I appreciate a lot. (I 100%d it in 14h, while taking it easy; it would probably be 10h if I was more focused) The "abrupt ending" thing [b]is[/b] annoying. though. It looks like a massively hammy and gratuitous way of cliffhanger-hooking people into buying the part two. Whereas it was [i]not necessary[/i]; like many others I already was 100% decided on buying the next game 30 seconds before this one ended - simply because it was a really good game, great art, story, worldbuilding, gameplay, everything. That ending [i]halved[/i] my resolve to get the part 2 (should it ever come out), not increased it; it just leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Some who'd been following the game discord suggest that the ending was hacked up at the last minute, due to some frictions between the devs and the product owners, and that the devs are no longer hearing anything from the product owners, so whether there'll be a part 2 is in question. I mean, I've no regrets for having bought the game, it really is good overall, but a heads-up - it totally could have done without all that.