Sawdawg, thanks bro.

On paper I like absolutely everything here. I still haven't beaten is because its...pretty boring :s

Like, I'm not being mean, but its clearly an acquired taste because basic achievements tied to progression have *really* low completion rates, which implies a lot of people own this game but haven't played much of it.

I think its worth checking out and deciding for yourself.

A great visual experience with the art direction and cyberpunk setting carrying the experience in a rather shallow game. I expected better soundtracks, but got many repeats. It’s a good take on an action platformer with some interesting worldbuilding and a great duo of main characters. Ann and Ayane carry the story well, and their interactions balance serious and light-hearted moments well. The main cast has great voice acting, which helps in exposition sections. The story is trying to do too much but offers more information through side quests and reading information you find -a lot of Evangelion references. There is often a mismatch between voice lines and subtitles, with some spelling and grammar errors in the final chapters. Combat plays well and smoothly with different weapon options, skill trees, items, and platforming skills that can be learned as you progress. The maps are really well crafted and feel alive, especially the hub areas with NPCs wandering around. The exploration sections are a bit slow and drawn out in some larger maps. The combat is fluid and simple with some i-frames to abuse, and you can mix in combos to damage enemies' armour to stun them for damage windows. Later enemies do get too spongy and even survive with no visible HP after some hits. Spawning them on your head in late sections is annoying.

Pros
Great art style, word building, and aesthetic. Good cast of characters and voice acting. Great main characters and supporting characters. Fun minigames with references to VA-11 Hall-A.

Cons
Unpolished quest systems, translation, slow load times, and UI. The story is on the weaker side, but it has potential. Combat gets boring as enemy variety is lacking, and your own attacks amount to a hit-and-run style, which you rinse and repeat against increasingly spongier enemies that share similar attack patterns. You take damage while the special skill animations are playing, and you can’t move until they play. The combat transformation is not very useful and takes too long to recharge when you bother to use it. Combat does not have weight behind it, even when using heavy attacks or parrying. Exploration out of combat is incredibly slow and tedious on larger, emptier maps, making backtracking terrible. Having your combat movement abilities active during these sections would fix this issue.

Overall, a fun and short game to complete with great potential for a more polished sequel that builds on the amazing art style. Unfortunately, it gets boring towards the end and tedious with how enemy and puzzle rooms work, and the level design forces backtracking with slow exploration movement mechanics. It needs to decide if it’s an action side scroller or a metroidvania; it sits in between, and this does not help the game's systems. Get it on sale for a short adventure that is quite fun; it's worth a try for how visually good it is.