izigame.me

Amazing story, terribly aged gameplay
I bought this game to get familiar with the world before diving into the sequel, which looks nothing short of amazing. But I feel VERY conflicted, because while I absolutely fell in love with the premise, cast of characters, humor, and visuals. I just can't say the same about the gameplay, and music. Weird I know.
I wouldn't say the music is bad, but the tracks are super short, around 40 to 60 seconds long — and they loop CONSTANTLY. So if you’re stuck on a section of the level, be ready to hear the same tune repeating like two hundred and forty six times.
Then there are the controls. They feel painfully outdated, even for the time. Movement is INCREDIBLY imprecise, unresponsive, and slippery. The camera is always clipping through walls and level geometry. Which is crazy because a huge chunk of this game revolves around platforming. The gameplay loop feels brutally unforgiving, where a small mistake can send you tumbling down, forcing you to redo massive sections of a level.
And oh man, some of the missions... don’t even get me started on that stupid Dowsing Rod mechanic. “Collect 800 items with an annoying beeping stick” that takes over 30 minutes to complete, all while wild animals can kill you in one hit and reset your progress. Who thought that was a good idea? It’s not fun, and you never have to use the Dowsing Rod again, so what’s the point??? If it’s supposed to be a tutorial for teaching me I can treasure hunt for money, that's fine, but maybe don't make the price of the item that I am REQUIRED to progress eight-freaking-hundred currency. If missions like this were merely just optional side-content, I wouldn't care, but nope—you’re forced to do EVERY. SINGLE. ONE OF THEM to progress. It’s ABSURD how grindy and boring some of these tasks are.
The same can be said about the bosses. They’re repetitive and underwhelming, with very little variation. It’s either “hit the weak point” or “drag the boss to a specific spot to deal damage.” For a game this creative, I expected more. You get all these cool powers, but most bosses are immune to them, so…again... what’s even the point? And once you unlock the invisibility power, you can just avoid dodging attacks entirely. The bosses stand idle until you reappear, which is just terrible design.
I really wanted to love this game, but it ended up being one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I’ve had in a long time. The story and characters are AMAZING, but they’re buried under layers of poorly designed, grindy missions that feel like glorified fetch quests.
This game desperately needs a remaster or remake to fix these issues—and hopefully REMOVE these repetitive missions entirely. I'm not saying you won't have a good time with this game, I'm just saying you shouldn't be surprised if you don't, because it will be a pain in the ass in A LOT of places.