I'm about 80% of the way through it and it's been not just a welcome distraction from a stressful couple of weeks, but one of my favourite things I've played in a long time.
Pretty chill, but still with some challenge on higher difficulties. Wonderful art style and satisfying fold-in on themselves level design. The writing is good and succinct with what could be just another cozy game unfolding into something more varied in tone and having genuine things to say about regional identity, tourism, and commerce at the expense of locals.
What really (pleasantly) surprised me was what a love letter it was to all sorts of great past video games. Sometimes via a specific mechanic, sometimes a themed level or ability. Persona, Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Ico, SSX Tricky, Fez, classic RPGs, you name it.
Anyway, I think it's pretty neat.
Thank you for the answer! That makes it a lot more clear what's going on; the impression I got from the marketing material was kind of all over the place and made it seem a "do everything" mess.
Probably not the game for me? Sounds like I might like 2/5s of the core gameplay, but also probably will mildly to strongly dislike another 2/5s. I like puzzles and platforming, but I find hack and slash combat extremely boring. I do like that there's no 'timed social links' like in Personal; one of like 3 major reasons why I don't like those games.
No problems. It's the sort of game I'd say to people they might as well try because it's chill and pretty and very approachable if they were gonna pirate something or had Games Pass etc. But you were going to spend money then yeah, it sounds like the balance of what you like and don't might not be quite right for you.