But allow to me say I'm also in complete agreement with why others may not enjoy it. A lot of the puzzle "rules" are unintuitive and take a lot of trial and error to figure out without any sort of guide, not to mention the amount of critical thinking needed for puzzles that either utilize multiple rules at once or have gimmicks so obtuse that you need a lot of patience to understand can cause a lot of headaches.
But that said? Yeah, I still enjoyed my experience, to the point that I went out of my way to 101% the entire game. Once I got past the "headache" phase of the game I felt more free to explore in any way I wanted than most current open-world games today. Plus the variety of how the grid puzzles are presented makes it feel a lot fresher than one might realize. Not only that, but in order to get the main ending you're really only required to activate at least seven beacons, so if you're not feeling one area you can very easily visit another location to try and activate that beacon instead. And once you beat the game for the first time? You can try and revisit other areas that you either didn't complete, or just didn't find, adding a very commendable amount of replayability for such an obtuse and cryptic game.
This game, again, is not gonna be for everyone, but if you want something you can play at your own leisure that both tickles your brain and offers a lush, beautiful island to explore, then I think you can get some mileage out of this.
Well... I Enjoyed it At Least
But allow to me say I'm also in complete agreement with why others may not enjoy it. A lot of the puzzle "rules" are unintuitive and take a lot of trial and error to figure out without any sort of guide, not to mention the amount of critical thinking needed for puzzles that either utilize multiple rules at once or have gimmicks so obtuse that you need a lot of patience to understand can cause a lot of headaches.
But that said? Yeah, I still enjoyed my experience, to the point that I went out of my way to 101% the entire game. Once I got past the "headache" phase of the game I felt more free to explore in any way I wanted than most current open-world games today. Plus the variety of how the grid puzzles are presented makes it feel a lot fresher than one might realize. Not only that, but in order to get the main ending you're really only required to activate at least seven beacons, so if you're not feeling one area you can very easily visit another location to try and activate that beacon instead. And once you beat the game for the first time? You can try and revisit other areas that you either didn't complete, or just didn't find, adding a very commendable amount of replayability for such an obtuse and cryptic game.
This game, again, is not gonna be for everyone, but if you want something you can play at your own leisure that both tickles your brain and offers a lush, beautiful island to explore, then I think you can get some mileage out of this.