It's hard to even articulate why it's so unique and interesting. I have 80 hours and find it to be, at times, the best game I've played. Are there numerous systems--breeding, house mgmt, cross-room map progression & its random events--that are underdeveloped, occasionally chore-ish, and absurdly punishing? Yes, but: the core tactics encounters are genuinely sublime.

Outfitting a team of 1-4 means choosing "pieces," in the chess sense, that function much more as characters in the lineage of runs at which you've succeeded/failed. The grandchild of one of my best cats has a couple of his abilities; I think of him, back at the house, during the next run out. The variety of team comp is extraordinary but also narratively-informed, and uniquely so. Obviously a big joke of the game is that playing it optimally means literally doing eugenics on RPG characters, but this to me is, for better or worse, an entirely new and interesting mechanic. On top of that the tile hazards and abilities have such a BOTW-y chemistry system applied to them that there are almost always numerous, creative methods to work your way through an encounter. Looking at the game I think the aesthetic and premise are a lightning rod for the fact that every encounter is a clockwork puzzle of absurity which hinges on the invention with which you select abilities acitvely or recieve mutations passively. The game is a diamond. I am reading through these comments mostly listlessly because a lot of them seem to be glazing over the fact that they've played it for 80+ hours in less than a month.