Umbraclaw

Fun and interesting game with charming visual style and an interesting mechanic that I will define as "adaptive difficulty". The more you die, the stronger you become, and each enemy gives you a power up according to itself, so you can better deal with that kind of enemy specifically. However, if you die enough, the game gives you the option of switching the playstyle from the passive dodging and timing style of the cat form, to a more action oriented playstyle with the humanoid form. This also has consequences in the story (which in itself is nothing crazy, but it's good enough in giving a motivation for Kuon to overcome death basically). Both styles are fun enough and depending on the difficulty you choose (dying 9 times only, dying 9 times and resetting each level, or infinite lives) it can be fun to see which skills you end up getting depending on what kills you. That being sad the game isn't challenging enough in a baseline level imo, and with skills you get OP easily. Aside from combat, exploration is fun also. The levels change a bit depending if you are in cat form (you can crawl, have special platforms, and can dodge easier) or humanoid (you are encouraged to kill ever…

So this game is hard to describe, you can sort of play it like a stealth game in the sense of trying to not get hit, or try to play it as a megaman game, earning powerups when you die. However the best ending requires the first option. Might seem difficult at first, however you can gain upgrades that carry over to NG+. If you're going for the true ending, that will require 9/10 playthroughs, which you should have all, if not most the upgrades by then. This game is pretty unique in the sense that every level had to be designed to be beat while in cat form and while in human form. Instead of just making 1 generic level both could platform through. Most people seem to prefer the combat human form has to offer, I personally preferred playing as the cat and dodging everything. This is one of those games that I thought i would dislike, but ended up really enjoying it. However due to its unique style choices, you will either love it or hate it. It is meant to be played multiple times. I will admit, it is not extremely long, but long enough 9/10 playthroughs sounds a bit to much even for me. (tooks me about 2 hours while rushing through everything in human form)

The game's whole premise is that you start out as a regular cat with the baseline abilities of basic movement, a walljump, a dash that doubles as a dodge, and for bosses, a FATAL SKILL that you charge up by dodging through attacks and completely empties one of a boss' healthbars. Very basic kit, you don't even start out with any way to deal damage, and for a while a single (1) touch from any hostile force will kill you and take one of your nine (9) lives, which will in turn give you some offensive, defensive, or mobility skill to make your trek easier. Honestly a cool experiment on paper. Certain skills are also more likely to appear based on what enemy or hazard killed you. If you're really going through it and die enough times, you turn into the humanoid Kittyman-Zero, turning the game into a classic Inti Creates joint. People have said that this game is more fun the worse you are at it. I get it, you get to play with more of the game's systems, there are plenty of skills to play with, there's an upgrade system for some reason, but it really highlights the main issue: the game is balanced around the base cat form, assuming you have no special abilities available. The goal in yo…

After 100%ing this game: It's a really fun game but after the first playthrough in my honest opinion it takes a little bit of a nose dive. This game incentivizes you to replay it after you finish it the first time to get all the endings, and if you get all the NORMAL endings and some of the hidden dialogues, I think it's really cool. Getting every achievement is such a pain in the ass. I also dislike how easy it feels to cheese the game. Shadowdash feels way too generous for it's I-frames and there's some combos in Human forme that makes you feel almost invincible even without upgrades. If you're not a 100% completionist like me and want to sink like 2-5 hours into this, Amazing game, Very fun and the artstyle & story are really charming. If you want to 100% it however, it took me ~15 hours to 100% a savefile & get all achievements, and that's playing fast after my first playthrough. A lot of the requirements are weird & extremely frustrating for some of the harder achievements. [spoiler] The final secret ending is also kind of a letdown for how much work you have to put into it. But it makes sense given the title of Do you like being upset? [/spoiler] Even after al…

fun game its a little short but has several endings encouraging repeat playthroughs

This was fun, I really liked the ease it was to play it.