Recent reviews by BionicTaffy

Bias: I am a mega-fan of the original Binding of Isaac and its "Rebirth". I have 100% completed all of them, including this game.

This is a recommend, but it's a really tough call to recommend without understanding some caveats.

The overall puzzle gameplay is really fun and does actually have some shared "gamble"/risk-reward elements with the Binding of Isaac. It being turn-based, it's a bit more cerebral-focused as a result; it makes it so you don't have to take dumb damage, only smartly-expected damage. There is also a wide variety of strategies and styles to play that you learn from the multiple playable characters and their respective abilities; one strategy for example is using charged items to skip rooms over and over (if you can get the charge going), even to the point where you can use it to skip the final boss. That's a fun bit of freedom!

On the other hand, there are times where you can be in a no-win situation from the start if the puzzle board is in a pattern that simply can't be matched from your starting movement. I've died far too early because of certain enemy layouts with certain characters.
But worse of all, even when there's been a patch beforehand, this game is still rather buggy. There are times where you can cause bosses to be stuck in a permanent 0 Health state and yet never die (fixed by rebooting the game), get stuck in the reward room when checking your own spell/items for trade-offs, achievements not unlocking (fixed by a fan-patch) ,and more. Sadly, support for the game has dropped off and it doesn't look like Edmund is coming back to it to fix; it is a bit of a shame, since he was really into the game upon its release, but now has sort of abandoned it.

If you accept its warts and also accept it probably won't be as much replay value as the original Binding of Isaac was, you'll still have a decent time. But if you don't like bugs that won't be fixed by the dev, you're forewarned on that.

Things To Praise:
Unique RPG combat system that does allow combo potential.
Pretty solid soundtrack, there's definitely some vocal songs that didn't get tiresome to hear and I even added a couple of them to a playlist.
LOTS of sidequests based on the entirety of the students in the school.
Two different paths you can go down for different endings, the Go Home Club and the Musicians.

Things to Mark Off:
Even though the soundtrack is great at first listen, there can be LONG stretches in dungeons where the music will become less of an earworm and more of an irritating ringing in your ears.
Even though the combat system is set-up for complex recipes of tactical planning, it never feels like it's actually working for you beyond the "Limit Break" abilities that have their own cutscenes (which you will see a lot).
Those sidequests get really repetitive really quickly.
The story is a cool idea, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired; characters often feel like offensive stereotypes that pretend to have more depth than they actually do.

Overall:
If you do want it, get it cheap. It's an alright RPG filled with content, but it can often feel very copy-paste and formulaic.

Achievement Completion 28/28
Enjoyment 8/10

It really helps the enjoyment factor if you:
1. Enjoy the cheese in FMV games
2. Like puzzles that are a bit more than your average Sudoku/Crossword game
3. Are comfortable exploring and backtracking to find the next thing to do.

The game doesn't hand-hold you, but does give sufficient hints at times in puzzles for what you need to do.
The additions from the overall mobile port are a welcome quality of life improvement.

If you do want to play this game, you'd be better off just getting 60 Seconds Re-Atomized; it's the remastered version with more content overall and is only $1 more than what this is currently selling for. Dev should really just stop selling this older version and keep it bundled with the newest version as a freebie (game version preservation).

Achievement Completion 20/20
Enjoyment 9/10

Read this years ago back in college; it's actually a pretty decent suspense "spy" novel, though quiet aside from the rare moments of voice dialogue. I actually wish it was fully narrated or read-aloud like an audiobook, but I think the environmental sounds and effects more than make up for setting the mood. It's a quick breeze-through that is perfect for finishing in a day, compared to most visual novels that seek days of reading and re-plays. There is no replay value here, just a solid one-and-done experience.

Achievement Completion: 90/90
Enjoyment: 8/10

For $3, the price isn't half bad for the content within; the platforming doesn't feel like it's ever the game's fault, the jump physics make sense. For a precision platformer, it's not the hardest ever, but it does require quite a bit of trial and error. It's also relatively generous with checkpoints to the point where it doesn't feel impossible to overcome for completionists to get their acheevos.
It takes me back to the time when Xbox Live Indie Games were a thing on the Xbox 360, a nice little slice of nostalgia.

I don't think anyone is playing this game anymore after 22cans' and Peter Molyneux's shutdown of production. It had potential, pulling layers was amusing. Unfortunately, mobile game progression styling remains present via the cycle of waiting for things to do. It's not fun to wait and repeat.

Don't buy this, even though you were probably not going to.

Where the insanity and wasted hours truly began. If you're going to leap into the Isaac franchise, you are better off with Isaac Rebirth; however, if you want to experience everything, this is still playable and fun to play. Just don't switch at any point or you will never come back to the original prototype game.

Eternal mode is also unnecessarily difficult; it is beatable with luck.

Tries way too hard to be funny; far too much dialogue that only makes one more annoyed as the game goes on. Can't finish.