When people talk about Atlyss and say "Hear me out..." They're unironically talking about the gameplay. Atlyss is like someone saw Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, Majora's Mask and Banjo Kazooie, thew in some pear shaped furry shortstacks and their own version of Toriel from Undertale. Yes it looks like "The developer's barely disguised fetish" and probably a H-Game. But it's a little lewd at worse and actually a really fun dungeon crawler/platformer. Combat is fast paced, involving dodging and a Super Smash Bros style shield as your defensive maneuvers. The latter can be timed to parry (that's extremely generous with its timing) enemy attacks that'll leave them temporarily stunned so you can counter attack. You're going to be using these defensive tools a lot because mobs hit like a freight train. If you're not careful, just a few hits are going to send you on an express trip to the respawn point. The classes are your standard holy trinity, built around fighter, rogue and mystic archetypes. Each class plays vastly different and has their own set of weapons geared around their playstyle. Buuuut, you can also get ahold of attunement stones to alter the primary stats the weapon scales with to a completely different weapons, like changing a strength based sword to work with the dexterity centered rogue class. It gives you a lot of room for creativity in an already fun class system. There's a class advancement system on the way where you can further customize existing classes, but still a work in progress at my time of sharing this. Dungeons are pretty straightforward and based on region and different difficulties based on chosen level range. If you've played any Phantasy Star Online, you'll automatically feel at home since that seems to be the base inspiration for Atlyss. Easy, Normal and Hard mode with the last two usually having bosses, or much more difficult variations of a boss from the easy version of the dungeon. Most maps are samey and procedurally generated, but usually have some secret areas. So keep your eyes peeled. Bosses are challenging while still fun with highly damaging but highly telegraphed attacks that can easily be parried. Just enough pattern recognition and strategy needed to not just be a giant wall of HP or frustratingly unfair like a Souls-Like encounter. Loot is plentiful, the main draw of Atlyss, and the center of the gameplay loop. Play long enough and enemies and bosses stop looking like monsters and golems, and more like living piñatas that explode into piles of equipment when you hit them enough. There's weapons and armor galore mixed with potions, currency, ability scrolls and even cosmetic items because there's of course a cosmetic system to make your little fursona looks their best. Seriously, stop reading and get this game, you can be having this fun for only ~$10. ($5 when on sale) Speaking of fursonas, you have a total of 5 different playable races that share visual traits from a handful of animals and mythical creatures to make your own little cross species homunculus. Each one "does" have their own racial ability, but that's not important since each racial ability is a fairly uncommon drop or can be purchased from a vendor. You can also alter you appearance at a magical mirror in exchange for some illusion stones, the game's transmog currency. The only thing you're really locked into is what specific race you choose: -Poon: basically a Jackalope race with rabbit, fox, cat and deer like features to choose from. Probably the most popular class. You'll have have at least one of them in your party when playing multiplayer. If not, you're the one playing them. -Chang: Your rodent like race with mouse, rat, raccoon, hedgehog and opossum features. Has a cute idle animation where they look around like an actual rodent, hops when they run and runs on all four when they sprint. Also 1 of 2 races that has an alternate /sit2 emote -Imps: Demon/devil race that also share qualities from goblins, Madina from Twilight Princess, amphibians and abyssal demons from Runescape. The second of two races that have an alternate /sit2 emote. -Kubolds: A dragon race that have features of kobolds from DnD, lizards, salamander and crocodiles. -Byrdles: Avian race with various bird like beaks ranging from parrot, duck and finch. Probably the least popular from what I've seen. But well beloved by people that use them. The CASTs of Atlyss for you Phantasy Star Online fans out there. (Don't worry, I'm one of you) If you made it this far, just killing time while the game is downloading, or just overall on the fence. I can't put into words how fun Atlyss is. If you're familiar with at least one of the games I name dropped, not only did you have a good childhood, but you're going to have fun with this. If you're kind of scrunching your face up at the early access tag, Atlyss just had its second major update (at the time of my review) and there's quite a lot to do. Exploring, dungeon crawling, crafting, drop-in and drop-out Diablo style gameplay, notorius monster hunting, cosmetic collecting, (totally free drops in game, none of that micro transaction crap) platforming challenges, fishing, and now even mining. The community is helpful and quirky (a little pervy at times) but always down to help you take care of that one boss you're having trouble with or trade you that one piece of gear you need for your build. The best part is you can have all this fun for just $10 dollars USD. That's like a burger, fries and drink combo at any fast food restaurant, but the chef is adding more to the menu in real time. For me Atlyss is an 8/10. Only thing holding it back from a 10/10 is it's still got a couple bug in places (nothing really game breaking) and it's still in early access with features like controller and Steam Deck compatibility still a work in progress. Updates kind of infrequently since the dev is a one man team.