The Treehouse Man (2019)

The Treehouse Man is an interesting blend of flavours, some platforming, bullet hell, rogue-lite elements, rpg/upgrade stuff. It's a unique experience. You're this little dude travelling through the swamp on your boat, and you have random enemy encounters. Fighting the enemies is a mix of platforming/bullet hell and turn-based strategy. Comparisons could be drawn to Rabi-Ribi, Undertale or the dev's previous game Gloom, but really this has its own feel. You die quite often but use your collected currency/xp to upgrade your boat and your skills for the next run; it's a really satisfying and addictive gameplay loop.

Music and art is on point, the game feels really polished and smooth. I've been listening to the soundtrack often outside of the game, it's really nice and subtle and mysterious.

Having completed the game in about 10 hours, I will say that it was a really unique, challenging and thrilling experience, well worth the full price. As you venture deeper into the swamp, the encounters and bosses become harder, but you're always able to grind up a few more levels and items or to try different combinations of weapons/companions/skills to experiment; there's a lot of room for creating your own style of play. The story is fascinating and the world/environments are strange and immersive. I think fans of Undertale will quite like this, although it has a more solemn, eerie tone.

This is a really good game, I would give it a high recommendation. This one seems to have slipped under the radar for most people, but you should check it out. It's also inexpensive, and (at time of writing) it's on sale on Steam until April 30th.