While I avoid doing reviews of games I haven't beaten yet (edit: I beat it, check the edit below), I feel like I want to do for this one. The game has been... kinda of a slog to play, and it's being a bit painful. I'll explain as to why I'm already writing this review, but I'll try to update it once (if, that is) I beat it.
The game is... very glitchy. It's rather sad that even after leaving Early Access, the game is still at this state. In the first 1 hour of the game, I already managed to get stuck three times, having to go back to my last save point, clip on the ground, and all sorts of shenanigans.
I even found an exploit that if you use a dash ability and jump before it ends, you can do three jumps, instead of just two. I will be honest, these glitches can make the experience more interesting, even if it wasn't intentional by the Devs. The clipping, the exploiting, and stuff.
Outside the glitches, the game feels polish too. Sound effects are too loud and has a poor audio balance. Certain enemies has explosives that all destroy at once, causing a loud sound. Collecting coins from chests at the same time causes a really loud "pick up" sound effect. It's not very nice when you are a Headphones user.
The combat is also a little bit to be desired. Sure, I just started, but it feels... empty. I like the Duck Tales-like mechanic where you can pogo, but it's still a little stiff to use. There is also several abilities that you... just unlock? There's no explanation when you get them, how you get them, etc. I got some secret items on the first hour but I don't even know what they do, if they do anything.
Only later I found out you can do a hammer slide. Uuh, hello? Since when?
Games don't necessarily need a boring tutorial to explain how to use things. You can achieve that with clever level design, platform placement, enemy placement, and so on. Quick drawing on the background are also great to explain how things work, they don't stop the game just to explain you stuff, you can quickly see and know what to do, provided that it's clear. In fact, this game does this, having some stuff on the background, but only at the very start. Later on, you just unlock things without knowing.
You can pause the game, and see a section of things you can do with the controls, but some of them aren't even available from the start. I wasn't aware I could double jump on the start of the game. Do I really can or did I just unlock without knowing? Same thing for a projectile based attack that just... happened to unlock itself.
Oh, and I almost forgot. When you are about to load a file, the default option is to "delete" the file, having you to press Left before actually loading the file. Rather evil, though I don't know if it just deletes the file entirely on the first shot. The vast majority of games have the default cursor to be at "Load File", not "Delete". That's just straight up bad design.
The "Music Volume" and "Audio Volume" are mixed up on the Pause screen, and, it's not really a volume controller, it's just ON or OFF. I suggest turning off the "Music Volume" (that means, the game's sound effects), because the loud noises are very painful. Disabling it still causes "audio artifacts" to play, probably because of the audio files being loaded but being muted on the fly. Dialogue "scroll" audio still plays even while disable.
It's a shame, because I really dig the pixel-art style, and the adorable dialogue artwork. It's a game that does have cuteness attached to it, and you can pet a cat too, but... the travel hasn't been smooth sailing so far. I still plan in beating it, but I prolly won't be changing my rating, we'll see.
[hr][/hr]
Edit: Welp, I already finished it. Man, what a shame. This game had a lot of potential but... it just feels like it was glued with duct tape. There is so much wrong with this game, and it just... ended. I'm usually pretty neutral and positive even for glitchy or games that the majority believe it's bad, but this ain't it, chief.
The story made basically no sense, I probably followed an unintended path, because things started to happen without any concise order. There's also a couple more things. There was supposed to be a hidden boss fight that it just straight up does not work (went there twice, no dice). There is a minigame that straight up does not work. Many things in this game just doesn't work at all.
Why is there several slots of different characters if I only had Nyan available, your companion? What is the use of the different Nyan's abilities if they provide nothing at all? It doesn't seem that it affects anything on the field.
There is a Boss Rush mode that I didn't bother trying it out. By the looks of the achievements I haven't obtained, there was supposed to be more in the game that it seems I just didn't do. After the final boss, the game instructed me to "press any button", so I did, and got stuck in one of the places I previously visited. Restarted the game, and I was back on my last save before the final boss. Have no idea if I beat it again, it would work this time.
Only 4.3% of players (at the time of writing this review), got the achievement for finishing the game. That is a shocking number, honestly.
Unless the Dev comes back and actually fixes, or rather, completes the game, I absolutely cannot recommend this game. It's in a horrendous state. It's a mix-and-match of gobbles thrown together that it barely sticks to the wall, and I hate to be so negative while reviewing games. It's sad, because it had potential, the artwork is nice, the pixel artstyle on the gameplay is okay, but... mechanically, it's really really bad.
It seems that the Dev is working on another game, but I don't know if it's a remake or a sequel. I was unable to check the dev's Twitter because welp, I can't visit Twitter on Brazil right now, so I don't know if there's anything there about that other game.
