A different take on what went on with this:
The game stills looks undercooked/underbudgeted to me, though
I mean, everything I have seen of the game just feels like it is fundamentally bad. The costume abilities are fairly limited in scope and application. It is kind of one of those annoying things where there are X obstacles in a level that require Y costume. The game doesn’t want you to experiment around with things. Like, it would be super fun if you could get around an obstacle with multiple types of costumes, but it is just not designed with that philosophy.
I mean, I give them credit for making a brand new IP from scratch, and the game certainly looks good, and I like the art-style, but there are some baffling design decisions throughout. The gameplay is, at its core, a solid concept, but it is just executed so poorly.
I think Dunkey pretty much nailed it with (paraphrased), “This is Mario Odyssey, if Mario Odyssey sucked.”
Yeah, the music likeness at the beginning is pretty crazy too.