Recs.
Updated
Specs
Pros
Pro Combat is fair
As mentioned in my con, the combat can be a serious challenge. You will have to develop different strategies with the array of tools in your arsenal to succeed. That said, it is also incredibly fair. While you will frequently feel overwhelmed (especially early on) if you invest some time into learning the combat and purchase more upgrades, you will soon find yourself overcoming hordes of enemies that were previously unstoppable. Furthermore, there's no area that ever becomes too easy. Even the first area will require that you stay alert when you return.
Pro The approach to levels is original for the genre.
While this game has some rogue-lite elements in that you restart at a central hub when you die and the level design shuffles, it is a Metroidvania at heart as you gain new powerups which unlock new areas and combat techniques. What makes this game feel fresh is that the room layouts change which each death. They are not truly random in that there is a limited range of layouts, so you will start to memorize the potential layouts from rooms you die in a lot. However, this also means you do not have to get sick of fighting through (and dying in) the exact same generic hallway for the umpteenth time.
Cons
Con There's very little in terms of story
There's a frame of a story there, but it mostly progresses around boss battles, meaning that they significant chunks of time that you spend exploring, killing enemies, and grinding for powerups in between the handful of bosses feels very disconnected from any real narrative.