another meh indie 2d platformer

Genuinely one of the best games I've played in the last decade. From the art, the color schemes, the character design, the sound track, the melancholic feel of the world, to the cryptic story, all of it completely engrossed me into the world from the moment I dropped in. The movement is one of the biggest strengths of this game. Unlike other metroidvanias like blasphemous, this game gives you so many movement options that keeps the game feeling fast. Both movement and combat feel incredibly sharp and crisp (although there are issues like hitboxes and ddark being crazy busted broken). You can almost feel the weight of each hit of your nail as you attack. Boss and area/map designs are unique. Each area has its own theme and personality and the bosses and characters add a lot of lore to the world/area. The difficulty is rewarding and adds to experience. As you beat bosses and clear areas, you not only begin to master the character, but you learn to see that entire world differently. Areas you previously thought were inaccessible you now realize you had access to since the very beginning (say through pogoing spikes and saws). The DLCs all add a ton of value to the game as well. Grimm is one of my favorite bosses in the entire game and the pantheons add so so much content and is far and away the most difficult challenge in the game. P5 is incredibly fun and rewarding (although it is grindy in a boring way since the first 20 something bosses are kind of trivial). I've beaten the first 2 with all bindings. Idk if I'll ever attempt to clear p5 all bindings but that may be a fun challenge for the future. I can go on for hours and hours about how much of a masterpiece in design this game is, and I'm sure I'll come back to play it again at some point. Rip Maya. P5 Markoth can go eat shit and die