The Pale Piper

Functional, but generally unpleasant to play. Featuring the worst map of all time. There's no need to reinvent the wheel, we know what works and this ain't it. You could pin it on the developers artist vision or whatever but it's next to worthless in it's current state.

Pretty nice and challenging game with tight precision platforming. I only wish that trials were less annoying, I'm not a fan at all of repeating large segments over and over again...

Can’t find a fault for how this is done. Extremely forgiving in the way that Celeste is with an incredible art style and soundtrack. Always a marvel to see a single person create some so wholly unique and excellent. I’m not good at precision platformers but the quick reloads and bite size puzzles made this totally doable and never frustrating for me. Worth it for the art alone, but the gameplay is always fantastic and never feels overly complicated.

Very nicely put-together and atmospheric lo-fi platformer. The game demands precision to progress, but mistakes just set you back to the start of the screen you're on (with the exception of some challenge sections that are entirely optional), so you spend your time perfecting your plan of attack and improving its execution rather than repeating sections you've already done. I like the pace at which new challenges are introduced: whether through enemies or environmental hazards or screen layouts that need a bit of puzzle-solving, the game manages to keep things fresh but not overwhelming. You also gain some fun movement capabilities along the way which are very satisfying once mastered. I did have a few frustrating moments: there were a couple of screens where I was dying suddenly and couldn't quite figure out why for some time, and the limited colour palette can make it hard to pick out some hazards. Overall, a fairly tough but enjoyable fix of platforming.

tight controls, secrets in every room. great metroidvania.

Two parts precision platformer, one part metroidvania. The exploration side of the game suffers a bit from this, but the platforming makes up for it. I recommend it.