This is "Metroidbrainia" game, not a metroidvania. The difference here is that the game focuses mostly around solving puzzles, learning interactions, and using the knowledge to dig deep into the secrets of the game.

At the time of writing this, I have not come close to seeing the depths of the secrets of the game, but I have cleared the final boss and seen a bad ending in at around the 10 hour mark for a total of 2/20 achievements. This is a wealth of secrets beyond this point, and many people may not be up for that, so know what you are getting into before you buy the game. The game is hilariously only 4 MB in size.

If you like games like Animal Well and La Mulana, this is probably something you will enjoy, That being said, the lack of traditional ability upgrades seen in metroidvanias makes navigating the map painful as there is no apparent fast travel system. You will spend a ton of time going through the same rooms over and over again. The map is an 8 x 8 grid for a total of 64 rooms, so it's not massively large, but it's very dense. There are a lot of secrets paths that snake in weird ways through the rooms so it can be frustrating at times when you are trying to get to a specific part of a specific room. But overall this game is tailor made for a certain audience, and if you are in that group you will undoubted love this game.

There's not enough games like this nowadays and by that I mean this game won't hold your hand like you're a f'ing toddler :D
Gorgeous game design, lovely pixel art and epic OST.
And the story ofc. Dem feels man.

2 hours in, a great crossover platformer/puzzle/creature collector.
Here's what I love:
-No "kill or be killed" loops or anxiety of being attacked.
-No areas locked by XP; no stressful corpse runs.
-Focus on exploration.
-Smooth UI and core gameplay mechanics (Steamdeck).
-Accessibility settings and a nostalgic CRT monitor mode.

Suggestions:
-A main menu encyclopedia would be amazing.
-More collectable/special items like the red santa hat from the demo
-Achievements for scanning all of a type of creature/biome.

Clearly a labor of love, excited to play more!