This game was an absolute pleasure to play, the graphics were fun and pleasant to look at, the level design was extremely well put together and it felt like each room served a purpose (I don't feel like there were many "filler" rooms). It controls like an absolute dream and just moving around as Madeline feels good.
I like the way that tech builds on things you already have, you never have to learn anything other than jump, dash, climb which are all in the tutorial. All the other tricks build off of those, so you just have to figure out the timing, and the game is pretty good at giving you feedback to help correct your timing as well.
The difficulty is intense but the game is 100% fair, so I wouldn't consider this to be a rage game so much as a fun challenge. I definitely got stuck on some levels for far longer than I would have liked, but I never felt like it was because of a fault in the game, it was my fault as the player. Also, it's a huge testimate to how well made this game was that even getting stuck on some screens for hours, I continued to have fun and enjoy playing the game. I didn't get bored or frustrated grinding the same challenge for hours on end and that's very impressive to me.
The music in this game was bumpin' I listened to several of the tracks in this game for hours on end without getting sick of them, which is an incredible feat of sound design. None of the songs were annoying and the loops were long enough that it never got grating, not to mention the way the song changes subtly as you progress through the level is an amazing touch that really adds to to the gameplay experience.
The games story was good, I liked how they integrated it into the gameplay and I enjoyed following it, but I feel like some of the cut scenes kind of dragged on, especially at the end of Chapter 5 when we talk to Theo for a really long time, I kind of only did all the dialogue because I was streaming and didn't want to feel like I missed anything. I do think the story is an important element of the game, but I also feel like I would've been just as happy even without the story. This is more of a thing with me personally, I don't really need to know the reason things are happening to enjoy a game as long as the gameplay is cunkin'. I digress. This all being said, the game does allow you to skip the story entirely should you so choose, so really even if you hated the story the game still holds up.
I loved the mechanics the game introduced in each chapter (even chapter 3). Learning how to use a new component was fun and the fact that the timing based ones always started on the same cycle was the difference between a cool routing puzzle and a rage game. I really liked how some components had small learning curves to the ways you could use them, and it was also cool when they would be further elaborated on later (like dream blocks in 2B teaching you about the jump) These kept the gameplay fresh and interesting and I feel like all of these were really well thought out and designed to be as satisfying to use as possible once you know what you're doing.
That all said, I feel like chapter 4 was probably the most annoying, the wind could be fun to interact with, but it could also be kind of a pain. I still liked chapter 4, but wen I think about possibly going back for golden berries, that's the one I dread most. Doesn't help that Chapter 7 uses a lot of the same mechanics.
I liked finding the red berries and feel like they were well placed for the most part, it's fun to be rewarded for exploring. On the other hand, given how much content is locked behind finding crystal hearts, I feel like a lot of them were hidden in places that were far too obscure for someone to obtain without external help, even for a player that was being very diligent in searching.
Overall, I was having fun pretty much the whole time I played, clearing a level I was stuck on was always super rewarding because it never felt like luck, and my few grievances do not preclude this game from getting a 10 It's still one of my favorite games of all time and I would recommend this game to anyone who likes platformers and doesn't mind a challenge.