Sundered: Eldritch Edition

After Jotun (which I could only beat because of the tremendous amount of hours I spent in Hades I + II), it seems like the developers at Thunder Lotus Games made freedom and ease of movement a top priority in their next title. And it really paid off.
The abilities, the combat, the exploration, and the discoveries, everything in this game is so much fun. The sense of progression with the central skilltree is really nice, and I very much enjoyed piecing the story together. It's not a large game, but it's very polished and well-calibrated (I played on Easy, Normal, and Difficult), which made me want to have more game than was there. So instead, I 100% my three saves.
The artwork is gorgeous and very creative, and a lot of effort must've went into the animated sequences (which reminded me of Jotun). And the voice actor for The Shining Trapezohedron (still not sure if the stone is talking or if it's a conduit for that Nyarlathotep guy) is super awesome. Whenever he would talk I would just stand there and listen. Oh, music and sound design, too. Both greatly enhance the atmosphere.
Also, I also wanted to say thank you to Thunder Lotus Games for featuring female protagonists in all 3 titles I've played so far. As a female player, it just feels different, somehow.
TL;DR: I liked this game so much I put other metroidvania games on my wishlist. I played through it three times, unlocking all endings and 100% the game's achievements. I could not recommend this game more.
NOTE: If you're having trouble with the game's unusual keybinds (I'm used to moving with WASD and attacking with my mouse), consider changing them in the options.

They mean it when they describe this game as chaotic. On early game, that can feel frustrating. After you get some upgrades and corrupt some abilities though? You feel like a god killing all those enemies like it's nothing. I think whether you'll like the game or not heavily depends on how patient you are to get through the frustrating start.
To me, Sundered is a good game that features some genuinely insane design choices. The unlimited enemy horde rooms are definitely one of those. These choices are not bad, and definitely make for a very unique experience with the game... But a lot of it can get overstimulating and "too much" at times. When I wasn't extremely confused about what is on my screen though? I was having the time of my life with this game. The combat, and the corrupted abilities especially, feel really smooth and satisfying to use, and going through endgame felt great as hell. The game is not balanced, but damn if it doesn't own up to it and feel great to play the endgame as an extremely OP powerhouse of a character. It's definitely a good payback after the weak early game. Also, the bosses feel so satisfying to beat. The overall game feel is good as ♥♥♥♥. Also the sound design, music and the language? Cool af, I rarely want to listen to these "companion"/"temptator" kinds of voices but this was an exception, this guy cool as ♥♥♥♥ and actually those abilities were worth it.
That being said, this same amount of chaos and freedom of the game and the unbalanced aspect of it all do have their downsides. The hordes can feel overwhelming very often, and usually when I was in such sections, at least before late game, I closed the game pretty fast, whether I succeeded or died, just because of the sheer overstimulation of it all. Eventually I learnt to ignore the hordes if they proved to be overwhelming and just do my own thing while they followed. I recommend you do the same, especially on early game. I also think the skill tree is too much of a headache, and requires too much grinding.I think there should have been less upgrades that do more and, potentially, cost more.
Other than that, not a good or bad thing but the game means it when it says it's equal parts roguelike and metroidvania. To me that was a fun balance, but i'm sure not everyone will appreciate that.
Overall I think if you don't mind the tidious early game or the skill tree being kind of a mess this is a pretty fun game to try out. It sure has its flaws but ultimately makes for a really fun time with some extremely cool bosses and the best ability set I've experienced in a metroidvania.

Sundered is a smooth, but short, metroidvania wrapped in a Lovecraftian sci-fi shell. The combat feels incredible, the skill tree offers another layer of character progression, and the world is well designed with sequence breaks and secrets to discover.

I enjoyed it enough to do two playthroughs, one for each ending. The two endings require you to pursue different unlocks for your character, drastically altering the way you play the game. The “Embrace” path of corrupting your abilities gives you access to a much improved movement kit. The “Resist” path offers an upgraded skill tree and additional combat prowess. I vastly preferred the Resist path based on combat feel alone. My Embrace character felt underpowered in comparison, but navigating the world felt incredible with the improved navigational abilities.

There’s a wide array of difficulty options, from choosing a difficulty at the main menu to equipping perks that offer greater risk for greater reward to grinding for shards to increase your player power. I thoroughly enjoyed mastering the game on hard, grinding to max out my character, and then facing the empowered bosses.

Highly recommended to fans of Metroidvanias. It hits all the right spots and is the perfect length.

The art and the soundtrack are incomprehensibly good and work together to produce a magnificent atmosphere of the eldritch beating down on existence, the horde mechanic as much hate as it gets from others, seems quite fitting for the mood that the game is trying to set. You are not supposed to have chill time, the randomized levels not letting you get comfortable with layouts also tracks. I just wish there was more.

Just 100% the game, loved everything about it. Did wish the story telling could be a little bit more clear, but definitely one of my favorites.

A masterpiece. An amazing game. Came in with no expectation. Came out with an incredible experience.

Another game that could have been a masterpiece, but suffers from heavy flaws in various aspects of design.
Starting with how monotonous, dull, uninspired and empty the locations feel. But there's much more that could have been better.
Overall, I recommend it, but just barely, and because it's a bit different from most metroidvanias; because, damn, it's frustrating that this could have been such a good game and ends up being ultimately mediocre.
The lore is a shallow mess, the voice of the Trapezohedron that talks to you is very cool, but far from enough to make what is said barely interesting. Also, the devs went a bit too heavy on lovecraftian names (without really catching a lovecraftian atmosphere), stamping in the middle of the screen those unspeakable location names like Pfkyt'aan Mglub Grathakleemushopitech (not an actual name in game, but they're along those lines), and then you have lore character named Nelson, totally killing the vibe (same with enemies, on some locations you have lovecraftian horrors, on others you have dull-looking sniper robots).
Progression is pointlessly limited and badly designed. The first time you see the upgrade tree, it looks big enough, but then you realize it's overall quite small and doesn't make you progress to the cool point you'd expect. It limits your stats and abilities to keep you in check against enemies even when you're at the max.
Other than the permanent upgrades, you can equip up to three special perks (two, initially; four if you destroy Elder Shards) chosen among a total of 28, almost each of which comes with a passive negative effect. In certain cases, the effect is not as much a negative in itself, as it is more a "build-altering" effect, like the perk that applyes a percentage of health to your shield and reduces actual health to 1; but most of them actually have a flat negative effect. Personally, I'm not a fan of having negatives, but they'd be alright, if they weren't in a context that overall makes you feel very limited.
But all the perks and upgrades are just passive effects and numbers; active abilities are another messy matter. First of all, the only attacks abilities you get in the whole game other than your sword (and its "finishers" that aren't finishers but just a stronger attack that needs to be charged up) are a cannon and a special directional and chargeable attack. The cannon is strong if we talk about flat numbers, but in practice it's extremely meh, in good part due to its slowness (this is a very fast-paced game) and its huge recoil (in spaces that are often full of environmental dangers and possibility to fall down to your death in certain areas). The directional attacks are messy, because you have to hit direction button (or analog) and attack at the exact same time, which is difficult to do in a controlled and reasoned manner (in, again, a fast-paced game), but at the same time it happens when you're mashing attack and directing towards some enemy, resulting in unwanted attacks that make you move in ways you didn't want, like the cannon. And you'll practically never fully charge one of those attacks, because you're constantly barraged by enemy attacks, no time to stand there like an idiot, taking hits.
So, in the end, you're left trusting only in your sword combo from start to finish, which is very dull.
Exploration abilites are more varied, but they too end up being a tangled mess. First of all, a few of them are totally pointless... namely, the grappling hook and its very dull power-up; it's only used in one major location, where you can absolutely do without it (as you do until you find the room containing it, actually) and one or two minor locations.
Other abilities are redundant and even get in your way when trying to jump around fast (especially in zones with endless hordes of enemies, where there's no point in fighting them and you only need to move through the place fast). For example, the spider-climb: it's redundant because you already could latch to walls from the beginning (yes, you'd slowly fall, but you could just keep jumping to reach up) and it's annoying when you're trying to move fast and you find yourself spider-splattered on a wall, slowly moving along it when you just needed to fall down quickly.
Beyond all this, when enemies come in numbers, apart from the fact that it becomes a bullet hell, the main point is that you don't understand anymore where you are (enemies cover you, the camera zooms out, they hit you and push you around etc., and you lose track of where you are), you can't see the layout of the room, the environmental dangers, and you get overwhelmed in an utter chaos on screen.
The map is a mix of fixed and procedural: it has big zones that are always fixed in their layous; within each of those zones, there are smaller procedural zones that may form any path between the various exits of their bigger zone. They change upon death, as in a roguelite (but you don't lose anything upon death, you only get carried back to the main hub).
This seems like a lot of work for a pointless result. Having a fixed bigger layout where only smaller rooms change, where actually the smaller rooms aren't even that varied, doesn't add to the experience. It doesn't detract either, it's just... a lot of work for nothing.
I didn't want to waste time getting a bit in-depth, but I got carried away. Anyway, as I said at the beginning, could have been a masterpiece, but it's actually pretty dull. It's a pity. Try it to get a vision of what could have been, but don't expect too much.
EDIT:
Typos and wording.