I've seen some people asking about Sumioni. I bought the game, finished ending 1, 2 and am currently going through stages that lead to ending 3. The game has been a blast personally, but it's not a game for everyone. You have to know what you're getting yourself into.
The first time you clear the game, it can easily take around 30 minutes, but there are many more stages that you need to unlock (ending 1 has around 6 stages, there are 29 stages in total). It is true that the stages have been repetitive with re-used assets, to the point of feeling as if the stages are random generated. But that isn't really the game's focus. It's the fighting, the situations you're put into and the scores that you receive near the end of each stage.
The gameplay is addictive and interesting while not being too deep. The fights can easily be repetitive if you don't use arts, summons and ink options. I feel like it's an interesting dynamic of anticipating attacks, deciding when to go in attack mode and give it all you got. It's especially the use of ink and the powers that you have. It didn't get boring for me. The controls are also very responsive and fast. The scoring system depends on how fast it takes you to finish a stage and how much damage you have received. You can get up to 3 stars at most.
The branching system actually doesn't work as bad as I was led to believe. It's pretty straightforward in how you achieve alternative paths that lead you to an ending. You need to get 3 stars on the stage that has alternative paths, you don't need to have 3 stars with other levels. The save system is also not bad. You save your progress every time you finish a stage but you don't have to. So if you perform bad, you can simply retry until you get it right. You can also save in different files but it's better to have one save file.The last ending is obviously going to take the longest time to beat, but it's better to go after easier endings first in order to build up your health and ink gauge. These stats are brought over every time you finish the game.
The endings have a continuation to them. The story has been pretty enjoyable with some nice wit about it, but it's not really the focus either. Don't expect any fancy cutscenes. It's only text with artwork. I find the music to be very good and fitting with the game. The game looks nice with its style that is similar to Okami. You also have gallery mode where you can listen to the songs and watch artwork (the latter I haven't unlocked). There is ranking but it doesn't seem to have any stats in there, weird.
Overall, I think the game is fun. I'm definitely planning on playing more of it to try and get other endings. The price is JUST right. I can understand how it was too expensive for North Americans (around 20-30 dollards?), this is enough of a reason to be negative about the game. It is a smaller game with high replay value, I'm glad exseed handled it better for EU.
It should be pretty clear wether the game is for you after reading this. It definitely is specific and different but it's not bad, it was unfairly panned. I also enjoyed Shinobido 2 which had a similar fate.
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Sorry for the stress.
