Kotama and Academy Citadel

Overall a very solid metroidvania. It doesn't necessarily bring anything new or unique to the genre, but it does everything well. I appreciated that it was more lighthearted and silly, as opposed to the usual dark, depressing themes of the genre. Though I have no clue what the story was really about. The character art is good, and I actually would have preferred almost any of the NPCs as the main character design. The progression is steady with plenty of things to unlock, secret rooms to find, and new paths regularly opening up. Enemy design is unique across areas and will generally keep you paying attention. I played on the Challenge (hard) difficulty, and thought it felt just right. Most bosses took a few tries, but nothing overly frustrating. The only spot that really annoyed me was the third boss, which has a fairly difficult second stage with the first stage being easy but taking minutes to get through. In general, I didn't enjoy most of the boss fights, but I usually don't like boss fights in any game, so that's probably more of a me thing. Exploration was fun, the platforming was good, the combat is solid, and it's just an overall fun game. And the best part, no run b…

once you learn the controls, this is really fun.

Pretty good overall. Solid metroidvania and plays pretty dang well. I do have to warn you about the Areospace School boss though since I think the diffuculty spike became a wall as the boss is just "parry my attacks" and you'll take a lot of damage if you don't you need to deplete the enitre health bar to move to phase two and phase two is a bunch of the same attacks but multiple at once. No checkpoints and phase one can take a bit to do. Really poorly designed but the bosses before it were fun. EDI and the student who's name I forgot gotta be nerfed or something I swear lol Anyways, the game's pretty good and if you're into looking at anime butts the post-boss fight CGs have got your back. I don't really care much personally but everyone's got a taste. I respect it. Good metrooidvania, one ♥♥♥♥♥♥ boss, and butts. That's the gist of it.

good gameplay and characters

Very pretty game with cool looking animations and entertaining boss battles, but I can't recommend a metroidvania where I couldn't be bothered to even explore the full map. It is a list of small things that keep annoying me as I try to explore where in the end I am rewarded with nothing but time being wasted. Lot of pits with spikes at the bottom, where you can't see the spikes until you drop down and get hit by them. There is an attack where I hook into an enemy, pulling myself towards them to damage them, except I myself also get damaged by the enemy's hitbox at the same time randomly. I found a checkpoint where if I load the game there, an enemy hits me before I even gain control of my character. But the final nail in the coffin is the time travel exploration puzzles. Time progresses every time you visit a new room since the previous time you saved at a train save point. Lot of doors and quests require you to arrive to a specific point with enough time left. So if you explore all rooms you encounter, you can't explore what is past these doors or progress these quests, requiring to do a lot of backtracking through the same areas multiple times and I just got sick it. Whe…

A very solid game. It's parry focused, similar to Nine Sols. The art direction may not appeal to everyone, but the game behind it is quite fun and challenging. Exploration is VERY satisfying. The 3 weapons are distinct and interesting. The only issue I have is unusually long loading screens some times.