Elephantasy

An utterly exquisite Metroidvania/puzzle platformer with an interesting way of progression. In a typical Metroidvania, you normally acquire your upgrades in a linear order, but Elephantasy does away with that and instead co-opts this unique "borrowing" system that I've actually never seen in a game like this before.
It's a mechanic that's kind of a hassle to work with at first since you're only allowed to carry one item at a time (though, you're allowed to borrow more once you've crossed certain gem thresholds,) leading to situations where you're going to HAVE to backtrack to the starting area for the item(s) you need. That aside, there's actually a huge benefit to this system, however, and it all boils down to one word: FREEDOM. Instead of following a linear path, you can carve out your own by essentially picking and choosing your upgrades. It's quite liberating to be able to tackle these puzzles in any order I'd like.
In regards to the aforementioned puzzles, they're actually quite fair. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that they're easy or anything, Elephantasy's got its fair share of head scratchers, but they're pretty reasonable. You're probably not going to be pulling up a guide for most of these, but believe me, this is NOT a bad thing. There are so many puzzle games that are currently flooding the market that don't actually have "puzzles" but rather poorly written riddles that are just there to pad out the length of the game. In contrast, Elephantasy's quite the breath of fresh air.

Great and very cute Metroidvania! The Gem "power-up lock" mechanic is incredibly fun, reminiscent of the borrowing mechanic from Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. As the game opens up due to you collecting more Gems, it just gets more fascinating.
Don't be afraid to use the Game Speed option in the settings! Backtracking becomes much, much easier when you walk or swim way faster.
Fair warning: The pot pair puzzle does NOT work during October, when all the Pots are retextured to look like pumpkins. Make sure to change your system settings to get it to work!
There is also a small addition to the ending for 100%, so don't forget to grab the ending again after getting everything!

Overall a fun game, but a few minor points of annoyance.
The art, music, and atmosphere of Elephantasy are immaculate. The consistent, cute aesthetic lends itself well to the lighthearted vibe of the game and encourages you to explore further. The exploration feels great. There are a lot of little mysteries you'll pick up on and know you don't yet have the knowledge or tools to explore further; revisiting past areas with a new eye quickly helps the world to feel familiar.
My gripes:
Tiles should not be subdivided. This is maybe a necessary element for some puzzles, allowing you to stack things in a staircase, or grow flowers with an offset, but more often it provides friction to otherwise smooth movement. You accidentally grow a flower on a half tile? Sorry, I guess you'll just fall off it. You're trying to move from a ladder to a 1x tile opening? Nope, half a tile too high. Now too low. I think this mechanic should've been reviewed; either be generous and allow for half tile forgiveness, or remove it entirely.
Game speed is too fiddly a mechanic, controlling precision of movement, difficulty, and tedium. Tiles being subdivided is more of an issue at higher game speeds; at lower game speeds, backtracking feels tedious. Do you turn it lower for new areas, then higher for old ones? This section requires more precise movement than the last. Adjust it again? Getting back to the boss requires some platforming, but the fight itself feels like it's not built for the reaction time you'd need at high speeds. More adjustment? It's a lot of menuing. I think the game should've been designed around a specific game speed and leave it at that. No fiddling in the menus, and make the movement feel good at that game speed.
Fast travel comes too suddenly, too late. Collecting the few remaining gems means traveling all across the map. Same for the puzzle with the strange pot. The second to last thing I did was to collect all the moles. Your reward? Fast travel across the map. By that point I hardly needed it, though it would've been such a boon to have early; it would've saved lots of backtracking. I didn't find out about the teleport to the shop until about halfway through the game. I think fast travel should have been drip-fed as opposed to given all at once, and should've arrived earlier. Maybe Snorri gives you the shop teleport at rank 2 or something. Maybe after every boss you unlock a warp from the shop to their area or something. I don't know. But players will have vastly different experiences based on how quickly they find and complete the mole puzzle; I wish I'd have solved it early.

A neat little Metroidvania with a twist - you have access to the items giving all four traversal abilities from the start, but how many of the items you can hold at a time depends on collectible gems, and, unless I'm missing something, you need to collect enough gems to be able to hold all four times in order to finish the game.
Not much in the QOL features - the automap is pretty rudamantary, not showing much beyond rooms and their exits, there is no fast travel, and every time you quit and come back to the game you start at the ... start (though with all progress beyond your position being saved).
Oh, and Kudos on the dev for adding Steam keys to the itch.io version of the game, and even including the game, with the Steam keys, in the No ICE bundle (and replenishing them when they ran out).
There's a pretty annoying, potentially game breaking bug - if the game crashes (and probably any other method of exiting the game without going through the menu), you lose character progress since the last save, but the world progress remains, potentially making the game unwinnable if you didn't have all four traversal items picked up before your last save and had some gems picked up since your last save - the gems disappear from your inventory but do not reappear in the world to be picked up again. Same thing if you picked up a bunch of keys since your last save but didn't use them to open any doors... Thankfully I hadn't experience any crashes until after my game save already had all the gems needed for all 4 items. The crash happened during the battle (not much of a battle, really, as this game doesn't have actual combat) with the Ice Palace boss. So if you reach that boss, my advice is to exit the game normally to save your progress, and then go fight him afterwards.
I'm still recommending the game because it's fun.

Fun game, I liked all the different regions and how they connect together

Really love this game! It's a smart little puzzle adventure with a cute 8-bit art style.

While the game might present itself in a rather innocent fashion, don't be fooled! This game might be minimalistic in style, its content is of great quality and rich depth.
As a cute elephant, you wander around in a retro-inspired, pixelated world, searching for a way to progress. Progression is very similar to The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, where you buy equipment to open up new areas becoming stronger. In this game, however, you set out to gather gems, which will allow you to carry more of the several items you can borrow at the start. At first, you can only pick one item at a time, but as you gain more gems, you'll be able to carry several new combinations, opening up new places on the map.
In addition, there are several secrets scattered around the world - which is interconnected in a metroidvania-like way - some of which are hinted at by NPCs or signs, while others leave you completely to your own wits to figure out. While I didn't have the patience to find every single secret, the ones I did find were very satisfying.
Unlike most modern metroidvanias and zeldalikes, Elephantasy does not feature any combat. Don't expect a very action-packed adventure here; the game really is mostly about figuring out how to progress, how to get to that key or gem that's just out of reach, etc.
The music, while great and fun, does get a little repetitive over time. The instrumentation isn't incredibly varied and thus can begin to sound very samey after extended playtime. The loops are also relatively short, or at least that's how they felt to me. Staying too long in one area can become slightly annoying for that very reason.
All in all, this is a great, minimalistic game, with surprising depth, both in the story and gameplay. It plays like a mix of metroidvania (interconnected map, secrets), Zelda games (borrowing equipment) and platformers such as VVVVVV (platforming as a puzzle). I recommend it strongly, but do keep in mind that its presentation is rather sober. Don't expect any crazy graphics or emotional cutscenes. With that said, enjoy!