Ok, beat the first temple. This is pretty great. They give you a shitload of abilities by the end of the first dungeon so it's not like a slow ramp up. By the end of the dungeon there are some balls hard platforming sections already and this is just the first dungeon. I already have a death count a lot higher than I would've expected in this game. The first dungeon felt like the kind of challenge I'd expect from the 2nd to last dungeon based on the original game, so this could be a pretty challenging title to 100%
I also don't remember if the first game had instant kill bullets, but by the first dungeon you already have dodgeable projectiles, purple non-dodgeable ones that knock back, red ones that instant death, + the usual color-coded enemies, plane changing between land of dead/alive, and a few other neat things. So there's plenty there to make the platforming sections interesting challenges already and I expect it'll just get more and more complex and challenging.
The grappling hook, which is new I believe is a little dicey. It works ok but instead of being able to hold and position you can only trigger it off grapple points and it's based on distance/angle you trigger from for where you'll go. It works but it's a little trickery.
One reason I really liked the original Guacamelee and played through it twice and 100%'d it was that it combines the combat of close to a character action game (reminds me of DmC with the color-coding), the platforming of a legit challenge platformer like SMB-lite, bosses like Megaman/Castlevania and metroidvania progression with a great setting/art/music. It's just a combo of everything I like about videogames all in one game so I love it and am digging this as well.
