Rubinite

If you're looking for a really hard game that doesn't feel artificially difficult, buy this one. I'm not even one to play top-down hack and slashers, but this one got me. It had me tensing up quite a bit, but nothing ever felt like I couldn't just try harder next time and eventually get it. The only issues I experienced was lag on one of the bosses, but that may just be my horrible PC. Also, I love a game where a "100% optimal build" doesn't exist. The game had me changing up talismans and other things depending on the boss to get more value out of it. Gameplay is amazing, story is great, and the feeling a satisfaction when watching the credits roll was something unlike any other. I'm Rubiniting it

No sé si e bueno que éste sea el primer juego de este tipo al que juegues, de esos de boss-rush o como se diga. Porque después de este, los demás te van a saber a poco, me parece. 10/10 por el arte, la historia, las animaciones la musica. Perfecto.

Very good game, the combat is very fluid and though it feels a little confusing at first once it clicks it's some of the most satisfying gameplay I've enjoyed this year. All the pixel art is incredible as well and even the soundtrack took me off guard sometimes which I didn't expect. The story is cute and shockingly engaging with characters I got attached to despite their presence being rather limited. Definitely check this one out. Baddass little red riding hood fights eldritch monstrocities and a few hot women, what's not to like?

Absolute gem of a game, the bosses are well designed, the soundtracks are lovely and ruby is adorable.

Very cool little boss rush game. Really beautiful and stylish art and animations, with surprisingly awesome and lushly arranged music for a game of this size, and the story goes pretty dark for a game about a cute little girl with a sword. Basically distills the experience of taking down a tough-but-(mostly) fair Souls boss to its most essential elements. Try, get stomped, come back a little wiser, try again, rinse and repeat. No runbacks or punishment on death, and bosses drop upgrade currency for getting far enough in the fight, meaning you're never forced to fight the same boss 900 times with the same build and stats. Very fun on Steam Deck if you just need a shot of sweaty combat in between work tasks. Only real complaint so far is that some hitboxes are little wonky, so you'll occasionally get caught in an attack animation you're certain you should've evaded, but that's a small complaint. If you dig Hyper Light Drifter or Nine Souls, this is a bullseye.

The second half is good

The game initially had me thinking that the only thing I had to be doing was dodging while holding right click. But as you progress towards the early bosses of the game, we learn that we have different inputs to dodge, parry grab attacks, and nullify airborne attacks which added a lot of color to what would've been a monochrome experience. I feel like the game doesn't feel abrupt when introducing these mechanics and it doesn't feel unfair with the different gimmicks each boss had. Sure there were quite tricky ones like the worm; especially during the second true ending run. But the feeling of satisfaction after beating each boss was great and never got tiring every time. The story was great, nothing too crazy or mind-blowing, but enough to get you engaged with the plot. The characters have cute sprites, and they're also funny when you needed them to be. The pixel art is REALLY charming for me. Overall, a really great gem to play if you are into boss rush with charming sprites and refreshing mechanics. I myself felt so glad I found this game's trailer by pure chance on YouTube. Do give the game a try.