Finished this earlier; 95%+ completion rate with no particular drive to mop up the rest. I thought it was fine, but I had trouble emotionally connecting with much of it. Partly that's due to the plain and proud wearing of the work's inspirations on its sleeve, in addition to the governing "we really played Bloodborne a lot" thematics; there are probably too many "video games, am I right" bits the game does to even list them out in full, but they range from innocuous asides to critical narrative climaxes and setpieces in how they're presented, and so always feel relentlessly deployed. I just saw little restraint in it, and the overindulgement hurt the chances for the work to stands on its crafting its own identity when reminders of other material were so constant.
A similar issues arises for me in the textual writing voice, where it's somewhat baffling to me that such care and effort has been taken to populate the world with so many distinct characters... and all of it stands in service of jokes and punchlines, whether in dialogue or as sight-gags or slapstick. Oscillating between serious dramatics and black comedy sounds fine on paper (as the work's primary inspiration often manages), but being asked to care about a world where nearly every inhabitant exists to nudge you in the ribs with their zingers stands in awkward relation to whatever emotional center is grasped at for the brief moments the game flirts with genuine sincerity. As before, the predominant feeling I'm left with it is that the creators' primary delight is in fitting Video Game Concepts together and improvising quickly through the rest.
The things that carried the game for me were the world exploration approach in its overall direction. In lieu of "use item X on problem Y" mode of design, the game's "puzzles" are always some kind of bespoke environmental interaction to be solved with player dexterity, or primarily in ferreting out its secrets, the ability to read and observe the environment for its myriad clues to hidden paths and such. I surely do love unsignaled secrets in video games too, to be discovered through dogged player persistence more than anything, but I recognize Mina's design language is not compatible with such aims: it always strives for that connective tissue to be perceptible, if you just look close enough and are willing to experiment a little. Such "fairness" could turn out rote and boring, but the density of the game world and the player verbs possible with not that many inputs always keep things very diverse from moment to moment in ways that are the game's most admirable facet.
I did not use anything but the Blaststrike Maul for the entirety of my playthrough. At a glance it carries a generous borrowing of Bloodborne's Boom Hammer in concept and looks, but as I halfway intuited and a more learned friend pointed out, it really embodies the combat rhythms of a big Monster Hunter slammer, where your play goal is to never use the piddly standard swing except in small miscellaneous context; it's all about hyperfocusing on the overhead charge. I don't know how the other weapons are, but I never felt left to hang with the capabilities of the maul, where its disgusting damage combined with half-a-second charge times, i-frame roll positioning, enemy knockback and AoE explosions provided for every combat situation from beginning to end. It's likely it even highlighted the game's design elements I've seen others struggle with, in taking your time and turn before retreating, paying attention to spacing, and having a generous hitbox to work with.
Area order I landed on, for those interested: Septemburg, Queensbury Crypt, Coltrane Peak, Nox's Bayou, Bone Beach, Astral Orrery. It's nice to be able to pick your own order, but it's sure not a Mega Man premise of ostensible parity: the "intended" order is fairly plain to see (and prompted by the game too, if you look) with the strength of the opposition and the complexity of the level design reflecting that internal sequence.
