I'll start off with the criticism I felt at the beginning of the game, then get into what I thought by the end.
I really hate that they market this game as "like Zelda" and an "adventure RPG hybrid". It doesn't have puzzles like Zelda, action like Zelda, heck enemies like Zelda. And it has 3 skills (Endurance, Speed (walking), and Stealth). Upgrading a skill doesn't give new abilities it just makes Lili able to hang on longer, walk faster, and...uh....I never did Stealth. I would not call that an RPG or even a hybrid RPG, I would instead say it has "a small amount of RPG elements". The game has items, but it's not like they're multipurpose, they are designed to help you do the one thing in the game that you do. And lastly, I would not say that having a few (like, 3-4) sidequests makes it an RPG.

So I felt mad because I was entering into it because my expectations were for a game that was like Zelda, with RPG elements. When I realized the game was mostly walking around, I felt lied to. Now, after cooling down, I feel that the fault is partly on me and partly on the developer. It's on me for assuming it to be a very specific something and it's on the dev for claiming "RPG" or (really) mentioning Zelda simply because they're both Adventure games. I personally feel that to be slightly deceptive.

With all that said, now I'm going to talk about what Child of Geos is really like.

First off, it feels like a Zelda game. It doesn't play like a Zelda game by any means, but it feels like it. It creates this awesome world with weird looking creatures, you wander around trying to help them. Even the music distinctly (purposefully, I'd wager) sounds like music from Zelda games. So I can't really be completely mad at them for the comparison, because they did a really friggin' good job on the parts that make that comparison true.

Beyond that, it's a collectathon. And that's not slander, as the Yooka Laylee kickstarter proves. You spend the game running around, collecting a small number of things and talking with the locals. I enjoyed this game when I started taking it slower, doing exploring of my own and talking to the NPCs. This game has some pretty good humor as well as video game references out the wazoo. Some are subtle others are just a nod, but almost all of them were enjoyable. Yes, it's extremely simple; you basically do one thing in the game. Yes, it's quite short; I 100%'ed it in 4.6 hours. And yes, the "bad guys" feel like they were written for whatever ESRB grade is below "E". But it's fun.

It's a very original adventure game with video game references, amazing atmosphere, and great writing. And it's got hats. How can you go wrong with hats?

Buy this game if you love collecting things. If you don't you still might give it ago if you want to speed through it in an hour or two.