While this Metroidvania sequel definitely fixed a few issues with the first game… I still walked away pretty underwhelmed.

Lone Fungus 1 had a number of issues for me - overcomplicated spell system (with little tutorials), bland story and art, unforgiving pixel-perfect platforming. Here, the art is much better with its lower resolution pixel art that just looks more refined. The game is simplified in its rpg aspects. And the platforming is much more doable besides the completely optional astral gates that thankfully weren’t tied to completion percentage.

But still, there is a number of remnants of the same issues. The game constantly rewards you with the most useless prizes. A ton of whips, relics, equipment, etc. - each one less exciting than the last. Pretty early on I found what I liked, and had to wade through worthless item after worthless item until finally getting something I marginally appreciated. It is just classic bloat that many Castlevania type games have, and I wish developers would take note from Super Metroid - simplify it, make tiny marginal improvements to very simple stats, and it makes for a much more rewarding progression.

That said, the actual abilities in this game were great. Tons of incremental movement abilities that were always exciting to get. The exploration is decent; though there are a lot of repetitive design decisions here (like walking in to a room, seeing a one sided gate, doing a long platforming challenge to get to the other side, and being rewarded with a worthless relic). The map is fantastic with tons of quality of life features - auto pins and custom pins, tracking where you have and haven’t explored, snapshots like The Lost Crown; and a completion percentage tracker.

So a bit of a mixed bag. I was having a good time up until halfway when I started noticing the repetive level design and the slog of relics and equipment. But it was still mostly an enjoyable experience and ultimately an improvement on the first game.