Grime II

The thing about this game is that I effing love this game. There are moments where I'm like "this is just Grime 1 again, what new is it offering?" But dude, it's just so fun and satisfying to conquer. Of the 3 Vania sequels to Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, and Grime, this is my chosen horse. Admittedly the theme and creature design appeal to me the most. Grime 1 was mostly Rock Monsters...and those are here too (and I love them). But now they've added all manner of ART Monsters. There's this whole mad background of living paint and living canvas and living [i]disembodied hands[/i] that make the art. The designers just [i]went off.[/i] Further, after Hexen, this is the most maze-ass maze game I've played. It's a Maze Simulator for real. Without the map and all the icons you can place the game would be impossible. So it's kinda like playing a meta level Pac-man the way you always have to look at the map as you would in a Ubisoft game, collecting all the icons. Except your former self was who put down those icons! Great secrets telegraphed well (a problem i have in the other Vanias). Tho sometimes I think "that's it?" The OCD map clearing is enough reward for me tho. I do miss Yon. Or a char like him as an interesting guy whose story you can follow. The funny thing is that I'm 30 hours in and don't really think I've gotten to the meat of the story yet. Ur-Gog is cool enough, other NPCs are boring aside from "oh that guy's head is a neat shape" sometimes. It also might be impossible to play another Vania or RPG while also playing this (I put off Mina tho this may just be my excuse to not have to play it), but if you lock in, you'll really gel with it.

one of the best metroidvanias out there

To my fellow gamers who don't want spoilers. This game is great, the story is good, the gameplay is very fun, you get some nice build options and a LOT of retries. There's some cool puzzles and tricks the game has along with really fun parkour. If ya liked grime, buy it. K cool okay now to the devs who will definitely never see this kekw First off, great game lads, no glaring issues inside it in my personal opinion. Very fun, a bit easier than I wish but hopefully the NG+ update will forcefeed me those words. Second off, enemy and boss design wise? Very fun, endgame bosses especially like god DAYM that's some good stuff. Wish they were more challenging than skaling (says the dumbass who invested 10 points in health and not a point more) but they all do their gimmicks very nicely. There is a ton of good in the game but I have a couple little pet peeves, thoughts and "bug" reports you could say. - The map (as in the menu one) is occasionally just, entirely cutting out some locations and it looks a bit badly cut at times. - Some of the boss hitboxes are/feel a little...uhhh...you know when the second knight can hit me with his spear while thrusting in the OPPOSITE WAY I think something is a smidge wrong. Still that's like, the worst of it so it fine - Wish there were more weapons with various skaling. I don't have them all sure but from what I can tell there is probably less than 2 parry scaling weapons, which TOUCHE CAUSE IT'S A VERY STRONG STAT but you could add SOMETHING - falling through floors and sliding through ceilings. Didn't happen MUCH but it hard to ignore like 4 seperate times phasing through reality. Although I'm glad you (hopefully purposefully) have me get sent back to the right spot immediately. This happens when you slide up or stand between an enemy and a wall. - Some enemies just miss entirely sometimes, yeah sure it could be me getting comically lucky but a few bosses (ESPECIALLY the first knight) just have their attack phase through me entirely. Happened rarely but it didn't seem like a truly "absolutely random bug with no explaination" - This is the only actual COMPLAINT (everything else was just kinda notes, opinions and reports) PLEASE give some NPC's more animations. I love the Sibs and besides their beggining dialogues they almost entirely stop moving which near the end of the game is a lil sad while they're casting a spell. Okay that's all. I am confident nobody will see this but saying it anywayyyy. Peak game, gib more