I'm here to shill one of the best games I've played in years. It's a Taiwanese 2d indie Sekiro-like that many people refer to as a metroidvania even though it can barely be considered one due to the lack of backtracking and the fact that it's mostly linear. Every aspect of this game is amazing IMO, it has an amazing story with memorable characters that was way more feels inducing than I possibly expected. The music is incredible and there are a few songs I still listen to often. The hand-drawn graphics are unique and beautiful. The combat is difficult with a very well done ramping of difficulty all the way until the end, it's parry-based and no you can't ignore parrying and find other ways to beat it, parrying is at the combats very core (and it is extremely satisfying). It has some of the most memorable boss fights I've seen in ages, and the true ending version of the final boss is one of the greatest boss fights of all time IMO.
It's quite story/dialogue heavy which can make the beginning of the game drag but it is very worth it since the story is so good even if it just seems like a cliche revenge story in the beginning, it's much more than that. Once you get your movement upgrades and as you get comfortable with parrying, the game just feels better and better as it goes on.
I love this game so much that if the combat was 5/10 dogshit I would still consider it a great game because of the art/music/story. And similarly, if the art/music/story was 5/10 dogshit I would still consider it a great game just because of the combat/bosses. Guess what though, *******? That's not the case, everything in this game is ******* kino. I'm not an achievementfag and never go for 100%'s but this game made me do it, took me about ~35 hours to do so.
If you do play it, make sure to get the true ending. None of the requirements for it are missable, it's not too intensive, and it's stuff you can finish up at the end at the point of no return. Also when you beat the game and load your save again it'll spit you out at the point of no return again so you can get the other ending.
I consider this game my 2024 GOTY despite enjoying quite a few games from last year, it is honestly a masterpiece and I'm excited as **** for whatever these based Taiwan ****** make next
