I have a bit of a mixed history with metroidvanias. I've found that either I get stuck five minutes in, or get much further and then get totally lost in a game that's a lot bigger than I thought. For better or for worse, I had the former experience with this one.
The graphics are really nice, with a 16-bit style. The menu is hard to read and I don't think the bitcrushed look works well for it, but none of the in-game graphics have that issue. The music fits well and the sounds are mostly well chosen. I do have to bring up the attack sound, though, it just sounds weird.
I wasn't expecting to see a story section that long or that polished, so I was pleasantly surprised by the opening. I don't know if there are more sections like that but I'd definitely appreciate seeing them. The gameplay seemed alright, but I'm just no good at metroidvanias or platforming in general. I could never master the double jump, fell out of the world a lot, and had no idea what to do about the monster with all the cutty tentacles.
Personally I'd prefer if there wasn't a lives system and it just respawned you where you were, but I think think three lives and then you get kicked back to the save point is a decent compromise between that and a strict lives system where losing all your lives is game over.
Overall, a neat game, but way too hard for me.