I’m also on the Queens Domain train. The gameplay gets noticeably faster once you unlock more dash crystal (I don’t remember what they’re called in game), but the combat IMO never does. I’m pretty much at the final stretch with the game and towards the end the combat ends up being either a boring slog because the weapon you use doesn’t do enough damage, or you trivialize the entire encounter by using a weapon that does too much damage and whatever you’re fighting dies before “combat” even begins.

But the exploration is some of the best I’ve played. It’s definitely not for everyone because I imagine players with poor sense of direction are going to get so lost in this game. But there’s so much to discover. I don’t even remember how many times I’ve somehow climbed up to a place and thought “surely the developer didn’t expect me to get here” only to find a treasure there. There’s a certain NPC (if you can call it that) and when you’ve given then enough of something you get to buy upgrades that let you see the locations of treasures and other stuff if you’re close enough to them. There are areas I’ve combed over multiple times trying to figure out where to go and then with the locator I still find secret in those areas. And some of the things are hidden in a way where I see them with the locator and even though I know the thing is supposed to be there I still don’t know how to get there.

And of course searching for secrets wouldn’t be interesting if not for the fact that each environment feels like it’s deliberately thought through. I assume it must be intentional level design but there’s a cook in the game who rides a big bird and eventually you get to their kitchen and I remember thinking “but how do they get out of the kitchen?” because it’s a big bird and they’re technically underground and it’s not like they’re going to take the route I took from the top to the bottom. So as I explore the kitchen I notice a treasure on a ledge and as I look up I discover there’s a big hole where the ceiling should be and from that hole you can see the sky. That perfectly explains how they get in and out of the kitchen. There was no reason for the game to have that hole there but there it was. The attention to detail is pretty impressive.

The lore also seems pretty interesting. I wasn’t expecting the lore to play such a significant role in the story so I wasn’t paying attention at first but I feel like unless the ending explains everything I might have to play again to get the full picture.