izigame.me

Upon writing this review, I have played through the game once, getting the "Truth" ending and started a second run to get the other ending along rest of the achievements.
I just finished the ocean world, and realized that you do need to collect the "truths" to get the worlds "all secret's" achievements... Due to the poor wording at the re-entry of a level, I restarted the whole game instead of continuing on the already finished timeline to get couple achievements I missed, and now realize I have to play through the levels a third time to go after the truth's again. (Upon first play/read through, I had gotten the image that everything would disappear from my file and reset the whole area, not that it simply hides the things I had already collected.)
SO HERE'S A USEFUL HINT: ON YOUR FIRST PLAY-THROUGH DON'T OPEN THE PYRAMID TO LEARN THE TRUTH. Which triggers said ending since you'll need to replay everything to get the achievements! And for the love of God don't restart the whole game unless you want to re-hear the whole story.
To the review:
Tutorial is easy enough, but funneling the player felt jarring immediately as you meet your scarf.
I really wish your "carrying speed" (when ever you're holding an item) would be your actual walking speed permanently or that you wouldn't even have a need to press anything and just automatically run. The character's weight is SO HEAVY it doesn't feel right with their design.
The hub-area feels small, but it divides the game nicely. The "spark"-hints in front of the door though can be misleading, as usually the requirements to getting into levels, and not what you'd actually find in there. (Also the fact that the spark that opens up the first portal is not counted in any way throws off the math in general of the whole hub area.)
Ocean was a wondrous first experience with how the levels actually could function with it's puzzles. The collectibles though, were a nightmare and truthfully spoken; unfair. (Dev's know what they did.)
The desert was fun but felt drawn out due to it's vast size. The collectibles felt too much out of the way for someone to actually realize they could go in certain places. Yes, I understand that they're rewards for exploration, but when things look like you're gonna hit an invisible wall immediately after bonking into one just earlier that looked similar to the other place, you really don't find them with ease as you should.
For me, the Forest was the best area to find the collectibles. They felt well earned, and were in area's that weren't too much off the beaten path and HAD path's to follow in the first place if you paid any attention. It almost felt like the forest was the most thought out of area's compared to everything else, but, again, it felt drawn out in certain places, were it not for the lore implications. Except at the "5 puzzle pieces" location, there was some major rendering issues and tanking going on due to the area being too large and too many components having moving parts near the upper are'as waterfall. Oh- and "Hide and Seek" had me confused the longest since, despite the indicator, said indicator wasn't as clearly seen due to the lighting of the area for you to realize what it was you actually needed to do. (Also if the main dev was actually one commenting spitefully on the Steam conversations due to this problem: SHAME ON YOU. THAT WAS BAD DESIGN, OWN UP TO IT, and if possible, fix it in a patch! There was NO indication on what you were actually supposed to do when it was your turn to hide nor that the rules of the game had CHANGED.)
I didn't have trouble finding the truths in every level, getting all of them immediately upon first play-through.
The environmental storytelling is amazing. The mural's are beautiful and slowly reveal the story to to you as you go on along how the area's have been "decorated". The storytelling through truths felt horrible though. I would've preferred you'd get the whole cutscene per level when you'd found all 3 truths, rather than get a piece of a cutscene that ends suddenly mid sentence. Seriously, that was annoying as I'd need to re-watch the earlier cutscenes again to get a fresher on what was being said before the sentence cut off mid way.
In all and all, the game can be janky with it's movements, story gets predictable if you pay attention to the environment (which is actually good storytelling in my opinion, as long as it's not plastered onto your face immediately or in rapid success), and music can be charming! So despite my gripes, I'd still recommend the game to be experienced by others! (Just buy it on sale!)