The Lore
You return home to find the dam in ruins and deserted, and your beloved wife Beaverly nearly dead. She warns you that something is affecting the other animals... and implores you not to worry about her—but to find, and save, the scattered members of your beaver clan.
As you battle your way through this corrupted world, you forge an alliance with the River Spirit, who grants you the ability to live again and again, and to channel River Rage...
Defeating enemies and bosses allows you to rescue your lost and scattered family members, who teach you new abilities. Make good on your pact with the river spirit, and solve the mystery of what has driven the animals mad.
The Combat
Wield your deadly tail in three directional strikes: forward, upward, and downward (while airborne). Striking downward allows you to pogo off enemies and obstacles like spikes. Every hit has a dice roll chance of doing critical damage.
The Mana System
In this game, mana is called River Rage. The River Spirit teaches you how to channel it very early in the game progression. You can use it to heal, or to destroy. Attacking enemies builds it up, and parrying builds it even faster.
The Special Attacks
Channel River Rage to perform powerful special attacks like a groundslam called "Dam Slam," a piercing water projectile called "A River Runs Through You," and AOE attack where you sharpened logs sprout out of the earth called "Rising Stakes" and many, many, more. As you beat bosses, you can choose between two different special moves as your reward, influencing your combat style as you move through the game.
The Charm System
Did you know otters have favorite stones? You meet one named Otter Joe who finds you charming stones that grant buffs and special abilities. He sets up shop (Otter Joes) in your rest area and you can purchase different Charming Stones from him at different rest areas as your progress through the game.
Un-soulslike-like
This game is soulslike...like. But more forgiving, and never takes itself too seriously. It's a difficult game, but if it's too challenging for you, equip one or two stackable "Training Wheel" charms that give you a bunch of buffs that make the game easier (without a story penalty, you just are sacrificing charm slots, and can equip/unequip them whenever you choose). You can also swap charms whenever you want via the in-game menu, not only at rest areas. You can also swap out special moves mid fight with the gamepad, no need to commit to one between rest areas.
Same for our un-soulslike take on the money drop / "corpse run" — it's in there, but you can charm it away and have the trade off of not dropping your loot when you die, but just keeping the amount you had at your last save.
Even the in-game money is not critical for progression and not used for leveling up the main character, only necessary for purchasing charms and vanity items.
