I liked the bullet hell aspect of it, it's not the type of game I tend to play so I can't compare it but the difficulty was challenging enough that I needed a few tries for every boss but not so much to make rage-quit. The protagonist, the Creature, was an interesting character to follow and some of the side characters got me invested in their past. The main issue would be the pacing and tone of this interactions. I had to turn off sfx early on because of the sfxs that play when the characters talk, even in a more serious conversation you would hear Noah's [i] kaching [/i] sfx as well as others which would very quickly break the immersion. The first floor is definitely the worst offender, though. The intro ends, you start a new game and open in a dark corridor, it hints at a somber tone but then you cross the corridor and suddenly get given a quest by these three randos who did not acknowlegde your existance until the end of the conversation, then turns out that they are with you and the tone does a complete 180; the enemies are goofy-looking instead of scary, the relaxed attitude of the characters erases any tension and the player is just left very confused until you get to floor 2-3. Speaking of floors, every floor has a different theme and colour palette, making them interesting and unique from the last, however, the theme usually doesn't correlate to the memory that you get at the end, for example [spoiler] floor 5, with it's galactic-submarine theme as well as the paintings everywhere, it's got nothing to do with the memory of the Creature in the old man's cabin. With Hannah at the most [/spoiler].
The best parts have to be the art and music. Simple but interesting and lively backgrounds; gorgeous character portraits, with lovely, animated chibis; enviroments in sync with the distinctive bosses; bullets are easy to see (mostly, hate the particles that cause damage) but stay in-theme with the floor; a spectacular intro every time you open the game with Mili's "My Creator" playing, the OST's and their perfect loops... it's all so beautiful!
In conclusion, the game is fun. The side quests are mostly fetch quests that are easy to complete but sometimes reward you quite generously while the main ones you get to complete as you move forward, keeping you moving. The story takes a while to pick up the pace but by the end you still get a [spoiler] -n almost [/spoiler] complete and cohesive story with interesting characters that, while maybe not that helpful in unveiling the mystery surrounding Victor, will still make you fall in love with them and surprisingly sympathetic bosses. The visual and musical aspects are excellent, despite the volume and tone of the sound effects not being the best and one or two instances of going over objects I shouldn't be able to go over. Not the best game ever, but a great experience that does not drag too long at around 10-15 hs of gameplay.
