I really want to like this game, as it is a somewhat competently made game. However some game aspects I think either are cheap tricks, or fundamental issues with combat or progression.
The first issue is combat, it has some unfairness that is emphasized in Catacombs specifically.
While majority of enemies' attacks can target player in any direction, the player's attack locked to four directions, up down left right. Which is a fine restriction, if not for a couple hazards that punish the player trying to work around it, especially when they are coupled together. Those are invisible, invincible bombs and an enemy type that spawns in Catacombs and I will call Stalker.
Stalker is an enemy so absurd the game has to account for its behaviour, breaking its own rule to allow you to leave a combat area with it still lurking because its Surge attack is so inconsistent. And because it is so inconsistent, there will be many times when you supposedly cleared a room only to be stuck there because Stalker is too busy wasting player's time. And if it desides to attack, its Surge attack that it preforms after leaving invisibility is in some situations unavoidable. It is very fast. While you might be dealing with other enemies in the room, the character will be locked into recovery animation from attacks, the Stalker's Surge very often will catch you off-guard. And there is a limited amount of abilities that can either interrupt it, or save you in some way. This enemy alone forces you to play passive and defensive, instead of fighting enemies to run around the room trying to bait its Surge in the hopes that its janky AI will do it, and if the room allows it. If it is a double-room, its over. And more than that, present to you - invisible bombs!
Some rooms, sometimes, will have those. And they are not generous, if you trigger one trying to, say, evade some attacks, play around your combat limitations, if you are not anticipating it being there, they will hit you. The cheapest, most annoying "just take damage" type of inconsistent hazard that you cannot even disarm because they are invincible. Enemies don't trigger them either, so they are the player's excluse headache.
And there you have it, Catacombs, the "screw the player" area that you have to be either lucky to have only one of the aformentioned hazards, or try to game the system by luring enemies out of the combat rooms abusing their aggression distance, which is defeating the whole purpose of combat rooms that close you into encounters. When encounters are unfair, I feel it is the only solution, which sucks the fun out the game.
And while I am at it, for the most part the combat rooms are just an enemy group put in the middle, waiting for you to trigger their attention. There is no interesting placements that could generate interesting routing. Which is why a lot of the time combat encounters feel repetetive, because it is. Some skills and abilities make these encounters trivial.
The second issue is with progression is the meta-progression, buying upgrades for characters. I detest rewarding player's "progress" with permanent easement of gameplay. Which I feel is self-evident why that is a bad idea. In this case, as you progress through sections, game difficulty is ramping up really fast, which at least alleviates this easement. But then, the since the game can never be sure that you are at the certain power level (because the player may or may not buy upgrades, they are technically optional), it has to be beatable. I want to believe that is the case, hovewer with how much nonsence Catacombs introduces, it seems luck based at best. At which point upgrades become necessary. But then, if you don't have them, you are playing an incomplete character.
So this meta-progression either a fluff that is completelly unnecessary and only harms the "true" difficulty, or a necessity that you have to grind to even have a chance to beat this game.
I reached a shadow boss, died, and just have no more patience to suffer through this slog. When the game is too hard, and the antitode to the poison it gives you is grinding, I am no longer intersted.
