Flinthook

This is a very solid game for what it is but unfortunately suffers from a lack of variety or content.
Having said that, as you can probably tell, I still recommend this game.
The artstyle and characters are charming and unique, and the worldbuilding is fun and engaging. The items that do exist are good and help to shake the game up a little bit. The progression feels nice, and the pacing is good. Everything about this game is solid.
If you're hoping to have a game you can keep playing over and over for hours and never get bored, though, this unfortunately is not it. It lacks the it factor that a game like Binding of Isaac has. The variety is just a little to constrained, the enemies just a little to predictable. If I could completely change weapons, there were more kinds of hooks, anything like this would have gone a long way towards replayability. And enemies only have one kind of elite, kind of like the Jammed in Enter The Gungeon. If there were more kinds of enemies to give you some variety and break up the monotony that also would have helped.
Overall, it's a very good game, but I would treat it more like a story game than a true roguelike. Which is unfortunate, because i followed this game since early development.

The art, music, and worldbuilding/lore are fantastic.
The game gets very grindy, and is sometimes brutally unfair. I've never rage-quitted, but I have sighed and switched over to something else for a while.
Still, Flinthook is unique enough that I think most platform gamers should give it a try.

FLINTHOOK is a rock-solid, 2d rogue-like grapple-shooter ... thing.
It has very clever game design, art direction-- practically the whole nine yards.
Fun to hop in for 30 min to an hour and blast away.

*controversial point* - some people probably think that because the enemies have
very distinct patterns, they're pushovers. Others will call out the presence of 'too many
gimmicks' among enemies and obstacles. I land somewhere in the middle. There are going
to be some cheap deaths, and pushover moments - that 's the nature of the randomized
beast. These points don't cause me to dislike the game.

THIS IS WHAT RAISES MY IRE:
It takes often an entire half hour JUST TO GET TO A BOSS. They're the typical, room-sized variety,
And there's no way to grind for strategies. You just have to get good and watch vids if
you're struggling. That doesn't have to be!

I would suggest implementing a wager mode for boss encounters. Say you knock out a weekly challenge.
GREAT. you've got 500 coin. Head on over to Boss challenge section, and challenge a boss you've already encountered, for more cash, or to grind for strats. That way, you have a better shot of making the gauntlet and beating the boss for real. Everything else about the game can be reasoned away. It just needs a boss mode.

8. 4 out of 1O stars

This review is written in Euskara. We have asked Steam to add our language to the review system many times but they haven't done it yet. I am sorry if we the Basque people "invade" the English review pool but we don't have many other options right now. It is much more difficult for us to find reviews in our language because we can't filter them by language. We hope this situation finds a solution soon. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Here you can find a deeper review I wrote about the game (it is written in euskara) / Jokoari buruz egindako analisi sakonagoa hemen:
- Roguelite nahiko berezia.
- Estetika koloretsu eta alaia.
- Kontrol ereduak erronka suposatzen du baina interesgarria da.
- Bideojoko zaila izan daiteke hainbeste jokalarirentzat.

Wait for it to go on sale, and you won't regret picking it up.

hook hook, blam blam, awesome game!

The haters just suck.