Rain World

Looking back, marketing for this game is abysmal. I get that you want to get in touch with your community, but as far as I am concerned, this game deserved far better marketing than what we got so it could have touched people outside of its demographic circle and I'm gonna try to do that for my friends that still have not played it.
Rain World is a 2D survival platformer where you're playing as the lowest of the food chain trying to survive a wildlife that has outlasted its cycle of life while making sense of a long lost world in ruin and your life in it.
It will not be easy.
You won't fully understand what you're doing at first.
You will get lost and die a lot by the most spine-chilling and cortisol-inducing creatures you have ever seen.
You WILL find it unfair.
And that's because it is, your odds at succeeding are really small. It's not a conventional game by any means, a lot of its story themes and game mechanics might seem cryptic at first, the control scheme is weird (but you get used to it after some time) and ennemies are moving in a kind of erratic and unpredictable way. I really like all of this to be honest, might be one of the only games out there that literally says "♥♥♥♥ it we ball" by design.
And yet, all of that is contrasted by the most beautifully crafted and heartbreakingly rich fictionnal universe in sync with the fantastic gems and colossal amounts of soundtracks, absolutely massive interconnected map, insane procedural animations, deep movement mechanics and item interaction systems, and pixel art visuals a game could ever have.
Rain World is simply put, my favorite game of all time.
At its core, it is disguised as a live action roleplaying nature documentary with lots of advanced tech for experienced players... But you will get better and get through it and when you start to peel its layers, you will realise that deep down, it is in fact about surviving loss, enduring hardships and friendships, what you can (or cannot) make of it and the beauty of it all.
I have basically done everything and anything this game, its DLCs (and its modding community) could ever offer and I still come back to it from time to time to immerse myself in its mysterious and beautiful world.
One thing I also get from other people is that: it is not a game for everyone, the journey from start to finish is exhiliratingly painful and even if you're the most tolerant gamer to ever exist, this game will make you ragequit more than once. But if you decide to stick with it just a bit longer, as you play, you might start to uncover its well hidden secrets waiting behind this thin veil for you to open. And once this happens, you will realise that it is an absolute one-of-a-kind gem of a masterpiece that everyone should at least experience once.

This game is amazing. But it's not for everyone.
This is not a review, this is a warning.

If you are looking for a fun game that is easy to pick up, don't play this game.
This game is meant for people who have patience and are willing to put up with esoteric controls and vague goals.

But if you put up with it and wade through all the obtuse controls and vagueness, you will find that this game is a gem not usually talked about. The story is incredible and the environments look amazing.
The ecology is incredible as well and the world feels alive.

And after some more time, the controls will feel buttery smooth and everything will be clear in hindsight. You'll be able to understand how the game works through careful observation and experimentation.

If you need help, there's wonderful people over in the Rain World discord that are willing to help and guide you through the game.

Where the hell am I?
Where the hell should I go?
Oooh, a new place!
I am so lost.
I died to the SAME LIZARD AGAIN?
Buddhism.
Purchase the game if these are the thoughts that you want to have while playing a video game.

This game is a damn masterpiece. Don't you think that usually in video games, when an enemy is chasing you, the dev decides to make it so that the enemy is constantly stopping/slowing down mid chase to avoid frustrating the player? Well, Rain world says "♥♥♥♥ that, and ♥♥♥♥ you" to the players.
Every enemy has its own extremely complex AI. They all have their unique behavior and personalities. All of them have the exact same goal as you: find food and survive. While your food is mostly bats and fruits, their food is you. So your job is to find food for yourself while avoiding becoming food to larger enemies. Sound simple enough, but you quickly realize how intelligent the AIs are.
Smarter enemies can adapt to your action and find different ways to try eat you. Enemies can fight each other to fight for food, and they can attempt to eat another smaller creatures that isn't you. There is no scripted encounters in this game. Everything is purely the cause of the AIs interacting with each other. This has its downside of course, as it can create unfair scenarios and trap the players in insane situation, but that is the beauty of this game.
The world is alive, and you are not the main character. You're just another creature in the world with an established food chain trying to survive. Other creatures can kill and be killed by you, their environment or other creatures. Big predators can be eaten by an even bigger predators, and you're just a tiny slugcat trying to survive in the midst of everything.
This game is truly the most "alive" game I've ever played. Absolutely recommend.

Rain world is a game that is for about 1% of gamers up until the halfway point of the first campaign. The journey is difficult, gruelling, and demoralising. You WILL quit the game at some point during your playthrough. This game has the tendency to do that to even the most tolerant of players. Many will shrug this game off and say "What's the point? Everything is so hard, and it's all for nothing."
This all changes the moment you get to the halfway point of the first campaign. You suddenly realise that this ecosystem isn't all about you. In fact, you are the smallest speck in the continuously grinding machine of rain world. At this point and further, you learn to appreciate the game for more than its difficulty and elaborate world building. Now, you are enlightened, you have something definitive to do. Your journey is clear. Every move you make, the skills that you made habit after hours and hours of mastery now aid your journey, are purposeful until you eventually reach the light at the end of a tunnel.
The downpour DLC is also nothing short of a masterpiece. After the first campaign, you'll be left with a lingering question. In the downpour DLC, you'll take the role of a character who has a predetermined purpose - not someone who just stumbled into the world of random gods waiting for you to meet. You understand all that has happened, all that will come to pass, and the cycle... All the answers are lying behind the veil.
The expedition mode adds replayability effectively by adding straight objectives while opening up the potential to use other characters' abilities.
It's hard to get new people into this game, but mark my words when I say this, it's the most enjoyable thing watching a new person going into this game without any spoilers or prior knowledge. If only people could tolerate the painful initial journey, they would witness peak. This remains one of my favourite games of all time. If I could wipe my memory so I could play this game again, I would like to say that I would do exactly that, but I'm not sure if I would be able to tolerate it the next time around.
Good luck to those who buy this game. The journey is long. Will the rain weather you, or will you find your place amongst a seemingly incomprehensible universe?
P.S. Please don't look up a guide on the game. As I may have mentioned earlier, learning the game yourself is half the fun and make the good moments feel very deserving. As a wise man said, don't make is so that you'll one day "reflect on all the regrets you've set yourself up to have." (those who know)

trying to write something serious and actually meaningful without sounding corny is much harder than i thought but here we go

I got rain world on the same day that i truely gave up on life, the timing of this was like a prophecy come true, I couldn’t have asked for a better coincidence. I never realised it, but the game was an exact representation of what i was going though. Trying and trying again, against all odds. Even though there were complaints, the struggle was the entire point. Recovering from such a deep part of your life portrayed as an innocent creature in a world full of hazard and endless worry. But the extreme journey is well above worth it. Even though I had to take a complete reroute of the entire game because I didn't understand how to get to the end, the ending sequence is something I’ll never forget. How rewarding it feels, it wants to make me cry. I’m not saying that Rain World saved my life, but it sure made it feel like a story. And the last theme: “Deep Light” means so much to me. I can’t listen to it without feeling sorry for myself on how i felt in those depressing months, and thanking that I’ve recovered. I never knew a video game could mean so much to me!! I’m so thankful that I got to experience this game in such a sad yet perfect time in my life. Thank you ever so much Rain World :)

Rain World is like a physically abusive goth girlfriend.

Let me explain.
At first, it appears hauntingly beautiful, an irresistible yet dangerous thing, and you can't help but wonder why so many avoid it. However, as soon as you're in far enough that you think everyone else was overexaggerating, it beats you down over and over and over again, ruthlessly, as if it's enjoying watching you pathetically try and keep loving it. It does not care if you feel betrayed, it does not care if you feel helpless, it will keep kicking you while you're down until you're sobbing on the floor. And if for some godforsaken reason you choose to stay, then, and only then, will it lift you up, hold you close, and let you enjoy a moment of the most satisfying, soulful respite you have ever felt; that's when it will all have been worth it.

Eventually, you'll get to know it. You'll learn how to navigate the hostile world without incuring its wrath, you'll become familiar with all that there is to love about it, and maybe, when it inevitably beats you to the brink of tears again, you'll find that you've started to enjoy that part too.

So, either give it a shot and be ready for all the most brutal abuse and all the most beautiful love, or move over and leave it to the sick freaks who can handle it.