Initial impressions consisted of: "This is a long cut-scene", "Little confused", "Cute graphics". The lack of words made it much harder to understand what was going on, and losing felt a lot more punishing.
But dang, once you get the hang of it after a while, everything feels so fluid! Trying to keep yourself calm while the eels are about to explode, shooting 'Hail Mary' harpoons into the abyss and hoping it hits something, scouting out for those with special eyes, chaining hit after hit after hit, the explosion of your previous kill shaking everything and making the recovery much more difficult, and the calm of just cruising along with the giant beasts.
It's definitely a difficult game, but I see now that it only helps the immersion and world-building of the story here. Every choice seem to be on sought on purpose -- the claustrophobic window, excess effects, great sound design -- to show what its like to live in the world, not to mention that the lack of text really makes the understanding feel more intimate in a way. 10/10