Underhero

The bad:
-Gameplay can be janky, it will take being hit a few times to figure out an enemy's attack pattern to be able to effectively dodge and attack.
-You do extra damage if you get groovy when attacking, which the game says happen when you press the attack button in time with the music, but it's not really explained well and in practice I find it very random. Or maybe it's because I'm tone deaf idk I've always been bad at rythm games.
-Some enemies are really annoying, like those ghosts in zone 2. At one point you have to cross a whole tower full of them and if you touch them you get teleported to the beginning and has to do the whole thing again.
The good:
-The soundtrack is awesome. Sometimes I let the MC idle to listen to the really lovely soundtrack. Reminds me of some classic JRPG music.
-Despite the janks it's a fun game to play. Each world have its own mechanic and enemies that keep gameplay (which is mainly platformer with some combat) from being tedious.
-The story is very interesting with lots of sweet emotional moments, and the characters are very likable. It went to places I did not expect even though I could tell it was going to have meta elements, and the ending got me teary. I did no expect to get so attached to these characters.
In conclusion, a really good game that you should play if you like RPG.

I must admit I was pleasantly surprized by this game, it proved itself to be quite an enjoyable adventure and worth the money I spent on it (though I got it 50% off). I have good and bad things to mention, but I'll get the bad out of the way first:

Negatives:

- The game is a tad jank, moving platforms in particular seem to be rather unstable as they sometimes just slide you right off them.
- Sometimes combat is just... quite slow. Sometimes you will just have to stand still for around 7 seconds until your opponent does something you can punish.
- Maps, or better the lack there of a portable one. Maps are scattered around in signs and you cannot open them on the fly, which is quite annoying, though not THAT bad.
- A couple late-game puzzles are quite unclear, you can definitely do them by yourself, but thankfully, if you are not up for that, there are a couple of guides here on steam.
- A couple of sections can feel a lil' lackluster from a level design standpoint.
- You might run into quite a few physics bugs, especially regarding obstacles.
- There is "rhythm" mechanic to combat, but its fairly irrelevant, it only really actively harms one optional combat mechanic because its really not easy to tell what the beat is in some of the songs. in the end it works more like a lucky bonus than anything.

Positives:

- The main premise of the combat is actually very well executed, opening up to quite a few clever interactions that can make you go "A-HA!" when you figure out.
- Pretty much everything in the game has tells, you are likely to get smacked around a bit before you start understanding them, but completly dodging every move and hitting perfect counters and parries feels great.
- There is a "Talk to Elizabeth" button that can really help you when you are unsure of what to do, and even when it doesn't you at least get some fun dialogue.
- The artstyle is honestly lovely and the designs for characters are both creative and charming.
- The plot, while seeming a tad simple at first, actually gets fairly interesting in the end, nothing that will flabbergast you, but enough to make you want to learn more.
- The characters are honestly great, even those I though I would hate at first proved to be more than what they seemed.

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Overall, I will say it was quite a cool experience and despite some hiccups, it was very much worth to play. If you are hesitating on getting the game at its full price, I'd 100% reccomend you get it when its on a discount, you won't regret it!

I love this game. The encounters, level platforming, and overarching story are great fun. I revisit it to replay. If they made a sequel I'd buy it immediately. Go into this blind, if you can!

I really love this game, even if it isn't perfect. First of all, the sprite work is top notch. It looks great and has so much charm. The enemies and characters are so expressive and they all make funny little sounds and have creative attacks. While there isn't much, a lot of the games music is pretty great especially since its dynamic. I love this games combat, even if it is a little simple. Its super fun and engaging and I really love the twist on the turned base genre which I have a fondness for, but I personally wish it had more depth. The level design wasn't really that great to be honest. The forest world was definetly a good introduction to the game but then after came the snowy world which I didn't really like at all. Every area outside the mansion felt like just a straight line filled with stupid tree parkour. The mansion was also a pain to explore filled with dark mazes that had time limits. After that the jungle and factory worlds are better even if they both have their pains. The worlds in this game like to use a lot of backtracking and mazes in the design to extend their playtime which im not really a fan of. a lot of rooms also sort of look the same contributing to getting lost. The bossfights all except for the grey kid all felt sort of underwhelming feeling like mario bosses being pretty simple and not really using the mechanics in creative ways. I was especially disappointed by the battle with lord stich because of how hyped up it was and how cool the music was, but it was easy and ended early. I really enjoyed this games story and the twist was very well done. The only disappointing thing is that it takes forever to get to the good stuff, and before that, its pretty uninteresting which I was fine with, but other people might give up on the game early. I really hope this game gets a sequel because it has so many interesting concepts and I hope they deepen the combat, fix the level design so it doesn't feel so flat. I really don't blame the developers for the issues with this game because to my knowledge it was their first (which is pretty impressive btw) but I do want to say them because I really enjoyed this game.

Not a particularly great game but it does a few cool things gameplay and story wise.

This game is extremely fun. Plotwise I think it's pushing the subversion a little too hard.

Like, were you trying to get an award for most plot twists in a single cutscene in the lab?

Overall a very lovely game. One of the best indie games I've ever had the pleasure of playing. It scratches the paper mario itch 10x better than bug fables, and is criminally under-rated. (Haven't played escape from ever after yet)
The music is lovely. Admittedly, the chill and the ambient tracks are much better than the bright and peppy ones. The grassland area theme is a bit overbearing and dull, and the jungle theme isn't my favorite. But overall the music is absolutely wonderful.
Characters are great. Stitches is an amazing and funny villain. Sword companion I understand people finding annoying at first, but its necessary for them to have character growth. Don't let negative reviews deceive you, if you have any modicum of patience you definitely come around to them by the end of the game. Also the funny butterfly is good.
Story is also wonderful. It doesn't have to be complicated to be good. It has more complexity than the first two paper mario games, maybe less than super paper mario, but that's fine.
The artstyle is wonderful. My only complaint is el salsarissimo looks extremely generic. Other than that everything is lovely.
The gameplay is wonderful. The combat is some of the best of any RPG I played. Its engaging but isn't extraordinarily difficult either. It strikes a great balance. The platforming is very fun.
Negatives: The ice skating minigame is kinda bad, but it isn't a huge deal. Apparently it isn't programmed correctly to account for different controllers. It definitely messed me up and I thought it was just a steam issue the first time I played. But no its just agnostic to your controller apparently (I could be wrong, the minigame isn't that good regardless). There's two small bugs. Sometimes the camera randomly pans up when talking to enemies. Its weird. Also there's a softlock area you can fall into and lose progress. The one I know of is in the dark maze. I really wish those bugs would be patched but it seems unlikely. There's other things like being in a falling state when jumping on the edge of a moving platformer, or the collision being weird with the portal floor panels, but they don't cause actual issues and are more funny than anything.